Muhammad Jamal Khalifa, a brother-in-law and onetime best friend of Osama bin Laden who has been accused of funneling money to a web of Islamic militants, including the Philippine group Abu Sayyaf and several of the 1993 World Trade Center plotters, was shot and killed at his house in Madagascar in what his brother described an armed robbery.Mr. Khalifa, a Saudi national, traded precious stones in Madagascar, the brother said from Saudi Arabia.
As recently as Saturday, Mr. Khalifa denied that he had had ever given money to Abu Sayyaf through a charity organization in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The United States listed him as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He was arrested in San Francisco the following year on a visa violation and was deported without standing trial.
Khalifa recruited Abu founder for Afghan war
Thursday, February, 1 2007 - Jamal Khalifa, Osama bin Laden’s brother-in-law, was instrumental in recruiting more than 1,000 young Filipino Muslims to the Afghanistan jihad against the former Soviet Union.Posted on 01 February 2007 @ 22:02 GMTAmong Khalifa’s recruits in the 1980s was the late Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, founder of the Al Harakat Al Islamiya or the Abu Sayyaf Group.
Janjalani earlier received guerrilla training in Libya and Syria. He was later appointed to the 48-man executive council of the International Islamic Brigade that fought to free Afghanistan from the Russians.
Returning to Zamboanga City in 1990, Janjalani was among the first scholars to direct the Muslim faithful from the traditional tribal perceptions of Islam to the global jihad thrust.
Khalifa helped propagate this pan-Islamic dream by directing millions of pesos to the establishment and development of madaris or Islamic schools.