Global Relief Foundation

The Global Relief Foundation (GRF), also known as Fondation Secours Mondial or FSM, was an Islamic charity based in Bridgeview, IL until it was raided and shut down on December 14, 2001 and listed among the "Designated Charities and Potential Fundraising Front Organizations for Foreign Terrorist Organizations" by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2002.

The FBI and Treasury Dept. have asserted links between Global Relief Foundation founder Rabih Haddad and Makhtab al-Khidamat, the precursor organization to al Qaeda which was itself co-founded by Osama bin Laden. Haddad was arrested by the INS on immigration charges when the group's offices were raided. [Roxane Assaf (March 2002), "Global Relief Foundation assets seized as Chairman is arrested on visa violation", Washington Report on Middle East Affairs]

According to the Treasury Department, GRF helped fund a number of al Qaeda-sponsored activities, including bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and armed action against groups perceived to be un-Islamic. [http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/po3553.htm Treasury Department Statement Regarding the Designation of the Global Relief Foundation] , "US Treasury", October 18 2002]

Global Relief sued the Treasury Department for release of its assets in January 2002 [cite web | url=http://archives.cnn.com/2002/LAW/01/28/inv.charity.lawsuit/index.html | title=Islamic charity fights asset freeze | author=Allan Dodds Frank | publisher=CNN | year=Jan 28, 2002] . On December 31, 2002, the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals declined to reverse the Treasury seizure [U.S. Circuit Court 315 F.3d 748, "Global Relief Foundation, Inc, v. Paul H. O'Neill, Secretary of the Treasury, et al" [http://uniset.ca/other/cs5/315F3d748.htm] ]

Lawyers for Global Relief sued a number of news organizations for libel [cite web | url=http://www.nysun/article/5654 |title=Newspapers Cleared in Libel Case |author=Josh Gerstein | publisher=New York Sun | date=December 2, 2004] for publishing FBI and Justice Department charges. The suit was dismissed by the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals on December 1, 2004. The court's opinion stated that "All of the reports were either true or substantially true recitations of the government's suspicions about and actions against GRF."

References

* [http://www.amazon.de/dp/3865506569 Hawala. An Informal Payment System and Its Use to Finance Terrorism by Sebastian R. Müller (Dec. 2006), ISBN: ISBN-10: 3865506569, ISBN-13: 978-3865506566]
*Gill Donovan (Feb 15, 2002), "Muslim Charity challenges Bush on Frozen assets", National Catholic Reporter

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* [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0611260341nov26,1,868028.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true "Supreme Court urged not to intervene in Times case - telephone records of Judith Miller and Philip Shenon"]