Signs point to yes.
0. Islamist extremists recruited by the IHH (in Turkish Insani Yardim Vakfi) masquerading as "peace activists" attacked Israeli soldiers with knives, clubs, chains, stun grenades and firearms when the soldiers boarded the IHH owned and operated vessel Mavi Marmaris as it attempted to violate the Israeli blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza.
1. On 31 May, 2010, the Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC) released a brief report - summarizing a CIA report declassified after 9/11 - which documented the terrorist connections of the IHH. The text of the ITIC report is reproduced below.
2. Subsequent to the attack on the Israeli soldiers and the resulting death of the aforementioned "peace activists", the ITIC removed the report from their website. A more recent report by ITIC says "The ITIC has reliable information indicating that in the past IHH had links with global jihad and Islamic terrorist elements in the Middle East. As part of its connections with the global jihad it supported jihadist terrorist networks in Bosnia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya."
3. The only reasonable explanation for the disappearance of the report is that the CIA itself is seeking to shield IHH, and in turn the Erdogan government of Turkey, from further embarrassment. The wisdom of such a decision is questionable given that the report itself has been declassified (and if I recall correctly it has been entered as evidence in US court proceedings) - I'm sure someone will eventually cough up a copy. Whether the CIA is acting on its own initiative or at the behest of the Obama administration is the only real question here. I'm inclined to suspect the former.
4. The Sticky Fingers Department here at Internet Haganah has acquired a copy of a report by the IDF, substantially similar to the ITIC's more recent report, only the IDF report still cites the CIA as the source of the intelligence linking the IHH with global jihad elements. A copy of that report will also be found below.
5. Evan Kohlmann, writing under the auspices of the Danish Institute for International Studies, authored a paper in 2006 further documenting the terrorist and extremist connections of the IHH in a report titled "The Role of Islamic Charities in International Terrorist Recruitment and Financing". Pages 10-14 dealing with the IHH will be found below, as I consider it likely that the Danes will fall into line in defense of NATO ally Turkey on this issue.
6. The reader will also want to explore the following posts at globalmbreport.org documenting the extensive involvement of the Ikhwan in this affair:
• Dutch Foundation Tied To Gaza Flotilla Organizer Was Working With Turkish Charity Involved
• Gaza Flotilla Organizer Part Of Dutch Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood Network In The Netherlands
• Global Muslim Brotherhood Announces It Will Send Another Flotilla To Gaza Within Six Weeks
• Al Jazeera Reporter Covering Turkish Ship Former UK Muslim Brotherhood Student Activist
• BREAKING NEWS: Global Muslim Brotherhood Heavily Represented In Gaza Flotilla
This should not be surprising given that Hamas is the Gaza branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. More interesting is the possibility that the armed "peace activists" were actually part of the Ikhwan's Secret Apparatus, which for some time has been rumored to have been reactivated (assuming you believe it was ever disbanded in the first place).
Addenda:
1. Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, May 31, 2010
Portrait of IHH, Additional Information[1]
By Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Fighel[2]
1. Prominent among the coalition organizations participating in the aid flotilla scheduled to arrive in the Gaza Strip is the Turkish IHH (Insani Yardim Vakfi, IHH, “humanitarian relief fund”). It is a radical Islamic organization, established in 1992 by a member of the Turkish Refah Party and formally registered in Istanbul in 1995.
2. As far back as 1996, it was identified by the CIA as a radical Islamic humanitarian organization named International Humanitaire Hilfsorganization (IHH) a.k.a International Humanitarian Relief Organization, with its main offices in Zagreb and Sarajevo and headquarters in Germany. The CIA report noted that the organization had connections with extremist groups in Iran and Algeria.
3. The January 1996 CIA report entitled International Islamic NGOs and Links to Terrorism was declassified by the American administration after the September 2001 attacks for use in the government trials of captured Al Qaeda members. The report mentions a large number of Islamic organizations affiliated with radical Islamic groups.
4. The report deals with the charities and their involvement in terrorism during the conflict in Bosnia, where aiding Muslims in distress was an Islamic religious duty. Islamic activists dominate the leadership of the largest charities, and prominent members of some smaller organizations have been identified as extremists. The main objectives of the organizations include proselytizing, helping the needy and defending Muslim communities. Where Muslims are engaged in armed conflict, some Islamic organizations provide military aid as part of a "humanitarian" package.
5. All the major and most of the minor Islamic charities were significant players in the former Yugoslavia, particularly in aiding Bosnian Muslims. Their contributions represented a significant proportion of the humanitarian aid received. According to the US embassy in Riyadh, Saudi nationals alone gave $150 million through Islamic NGOs in 1994. Most of the offices of NGOs active in Bosnia are located in Zagreb, Sarajevo, Zenica, and Tuzla. Their field of operations appears to be confined to the Muslim areas in the northeastern and central parts of the country.
6. The CIA report identified International Humanitaire Hilfsorganization (IHH) as part of 15 organizations employing members or otherwise facilitating the activities of terrorist groups operating in Bosnia. Some Islamic NGOs not included in the list have terrorist connections outside of the Balkans.
7. Some the charities mentioned in the report were designated by the United States as terrorist organizations after the 1998 embassy bombings in Africa, while the majority were designated only after 9/11.
8. IHH is not designated by the USA and was designated by Israel only in 2008 because of its connections with Hamas and its fronts within the Union of Good umbrella organization, which, along with its 36 affiliated associations, was outlawed by Israel.
Notes:
[1] Follow-up to the May 26, 2010 bulletin “IHH, which plays a central role in organizing the flotilla to the Gaza Strip, is a Turkish humanitarian relief fund with a radical Islamic anti-Western orientation. Besides its legitimate philanthropic activities, it supports radical Islamic networks, including Hamas, and at least in the past, even global jihad elements”
[2] Col.(Ret.) Jonathan Fighel is a Senior Researcher in the International Institute for Counter Terrorism (ICT), IDC.
2. THE ROLE OF ISLAMIC CHARITIES IN INTERNATIONAL TERRORIST RECRUITMENT AND FINANCING
By Evan F. Kohlmann
DIIS Working Paper no 2006/7
Pages 10-14 regarding IHH
--
...Yet, the phenomenon of charitable front groups that provide support to Al-Qaida is by no means exclusively limited to the Arabian Peninsula. Indeed, elsewhere in the Muslim world, other such entities have been established with near equal success – as in Turkey, with the so-called Foundation for Human Rights, Liberties, and Humanitarian Relief (IHH). Turkish authorities began their own domestic criminal investigation of IHH as early as December 1997, when sources revealed that leaders of IHH were purchasing automatic weapons from other regional Islamic militant groups.[43] IHH’s bureau in Istanbul was thoroughly searched, and its local officers were arrested. Security forces uncovered an array of disturbing items, including firearms, explosives, bomb-making instructions, and a “jihad flag.” After analyzing seized IHH documents, Turkish authorities concluded that “detained members of IHH were going to fight in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Chechnya.”[44]
According to a French intelligence report, the terrorist infiltration of IHH extended to its most senior ranks. The report, written by famed counterterrorism magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere, revealed that IHH President Bulent Yildrim had directly conspired in the mid-1990s to “recruit veteran soldiers in anticipation of the coming holy war [jihad]. In particular, some men were sent into war zones in Muslim countries in order to acquire combat experience.”[45] Furthermore, in the hopes of “obtaining political support from these countries, financial aid was transferred [on behalf of IHH], as well as caches of firearms, knives, and pre-fabricated explosives.”[46] An examination of IHH’s phone records in Istanbul showed repeated telephone calls in 1996 to an Al-Qaida guesthouse in Milan and various Algerian terrorist operatives active elsewhere in Europe – including the notorious Abu el-Ma`ali, who has been subsequently termed by U.S. officials as a “junior Osama Bin Laden.”[47]
During the later Seattle trial of would-be Al-Qaida Millenium bomber Ahmed Ressam, federal prosecutors called French magistrate Bruguiere to the stand as an expert witness. Bruguiere testified that IHH had played “[a]n important role” in the Al-Qaida Millenium bomb plot targeting LAX. Under repeated questioning, Bruguiere insisted that “[t]here’s a rather close relation”:
The IHH is an NGO, but it was kind of a type of cover-up… in order to obtain forged documents and also to obtain different forms of infiltration for Mujahideen in combat. And also to go and gather[recruit] these Mujahideens. And finally, one of the last responsibilities that they had was also to be implicated or involved in weapons trafficking.[48]
Years later, Bulent Yildrim and the IHH also played a key role in galvanizing anti-Western sentiment among Turkish Muslims in the lead-up to the 2003 war in Iraq. By late 2002, the IHH was instrumental in convening large and raucous protest rallies opposed to the thenimminent effort to depose Saddam Hussein, capped off by the burning of U.S. and Israeli flags.[49] Even after the initial U.S. invasion of Iraq, IHH has continued to bitterly oppose the presence of Western troops in Mesopotamia. Leading another anti-U.S. rally in Istanbul in December 2004, Bulent Yildrim told the Anatolia News Agency, “Intelligence cooperation between the United States, Britain and Turkey must be stopped. Otherwise we will organize actions at every consulate, and if necessary will assembly 50,000 or 100,000 people at the US consulate.”[50] Protestors at the December rally reportedly shouted various slogans, including “Murderer US, get out of the Middle East” and “Long live our resistance.”[51]
Yet, despite all this, the IHH is now active – and outspoken – in providing “charitable donations” to rebel-dominated areas of restive Sunni central Iraq. As he watched IHH truck convoys leaving Turkey for Iraq, Bulent Yildrim characterized U.S. military operations in the Iraqi city of Fallujah as equally “a strike on Istanbul, Ankara.”[52] In mid-2004, IHH issued an English- language news update from its representatives on the ground in Fallujah: “the women and children shot by [U.S.] snipers now rest in a football field turned into a graveyard for the brave freedom fighters who resisted the invasion… The American troops [turned back] the injured being transported to hospitals by shooting at the ambulances. The freedom fighters crashed one airplane and 18 helicopters… Iraqi authorities stated that the resistance of [Fallujah] created a high spirit among their people while causing chaos and confusion among the Americans… As for the search for a new flag by the transition government, the Iraqis are sending a clear and firm message by raising their old flag in every possible place such as the roofs and walls of their houses, cars and gas stations… All the Iraqis share one hope which is the departure of the invading Americans. The big bubble of anger that covers all parts of the country can explode any time.”[53] IHH has continued in its “efforts” in Iraq, at least as recently as the spring of 2005, when Bulent Yildrim announced the departure of two more truckloads “of humanitarian aid to Fallujah city of Iraq. In the coming days, we will send more aid.”[54] Yildrim failed to specify who exactly in the city of Fallujah would be the recipients of IHH’s contributions.
IHH has also helped fill the void created by the departure of other, more brazen charitable front groups, such as the now-banned Benevolence International Foundation (BIF). Only one month before BIF was designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist entity, Halil Demir – a former BIF public relations officer who had traveled in the Caucasus on official business for the charity – established a new non-profit group (also based in Worth, Illinois) known as The Zakat Foundation of America (TZFA).[55] According to its official newsletter, by mid-2003, Demir’s Zakat Foundation had sponsored at least two truck convoys traveling from Turkey to Mosul, Kirkuk, and Baghdad carrying at least $120,000 in materiel “done in coordination with IHH, a humanitarian organization based in Turkey… Portions of the supplies from [the] second relief convoy were donated locally by individuals and businesses in Turkey.”[56] A photo comparison of images posted on the TZFA’s website demonstrate a consistent pattern of material support to IHH – both in Iraq and Afghanistan.[57] In one case, supposed relief workers wearing smocks marked with IHH’s logo struggle to hold up a TZFA banner for a photo while goods are distributed to Afghan refugees.[58] In another instance of clear deception, photos published in TZFA’s newsletter of truck convoys carrying relief supplies from Turkey to Sunni central Iraq were digitally tampered to remove the original IHH banner hung from the vehicles, substituting it instead with a crude replacement reading “The Zakat Foundation.”[59] Organizations such as IHH are quick to respond to natural disasters and other human catastrophes. Unfortunately, these groups often seek to use these situations to gain leverage with destitute Muslim refugees. In August 1999, when a devastating earthquake struck Turkey, IHH reached the affected zones, in some cases, even before the Turkish government. Friction quickly grew between authorities tasked with relief and independent Islamist “humanitarian” groups. Ultimately, Turkey was forced to ban the IHH from participating in earthquake aid efforts because it was counted among several “fundamentalist organizations” operating “secret bank accounts” that were refusing to allow local authorities to oversee the distribution of their aid resources.[60]
Notes:
[43] Jean-Louis Bruguiere and Jean-Francois Ricard. “Requisitoire Definitifaux aux Fins de Non-Lieu. De Non-Lieu partiel. De Requalification. De Renvoi devant le Tribunal Correctionnel, de mantien sous Controle Judiciaiare et de maintien en Detention.” Cour D’Appel de Paris; Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris. No. Parquet: P96 253 3901.2. Page 112.
[44] Jean-Louis Bruguiere and Jean-Francois Ricard. “Requisitoire Definitifaux aux Fins de Non-Lieu. De Non-Lieu partiel. De Requalification. De Renvoi devant le Tribunal Correctionnel, de mantien sous Controle Judiciaiare et de maintien en Detention.” Cour D’Appel de Paris; Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris. No. Parquet: P96 253 3901.2. Page 112.
[45] Jean-Louis Bruguiere and Jean-Francois Ricard. “Requisitoire Definitifaux aux Fins de Non-Lieu. De Non-Lieu partiel. De Requalification. De Renvoi devant le Tribunal Correctionnel, de mantien sous Controle Judiciaiare et de maintien en Detention.” Cour D’Appel de Paris; Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris. No. Parquet: P96 253 3901.2. Page 112.
[46] Jean-Louis Bruguiere and Jean-Francois Ricard. “Requisitoire Definitifaux aux Fins de Non-Lieu. De Non-Lieu partiel. De Requalification. De Renvoi devant le Tribunal Correctionnel, de mantien sous Controle Judiciaiare et de maintien en Detention.” Cour D’Appel de Paris; Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris. No. Parquet: P96 253 3901.2. Page 112.
[47] Jean-Louis Bruguiere and Jean-Francois Ricard. “Requisitoire Definitifaux aux Fins de Non-Lieu. De Non-Lieu partiel. De Requalification. De Renvoi devant le Tribunal Correctionnel, de mantien sous Controle Judiciaiare et de maintien en Detention.” Cour D’Appel de Paris; Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris. No. Parquet: P96 253 3901.2. Pages 112-113. See also: Pyes, Craig with Josh Meyers and William Rempel. “Bosnia Seen as Hospitable Base and Sanctuary for Terrorists.” Los Angeles Times. October 7, 2001.
[48] “Reporter’s Transcript of Proceedings.” United States of America v. Ahmed Ressam, aka Benni Noris. United States District Court for the Western District of Washington. Case #: CR 99-666-JCC. Dated April 2, 2001. Pages 11-12.
[49] “First Islamist Protest Against AK Party.” Turkish Daily News. March 1, 2003.
[50] “Protests in Turkey against UK troops.” Dawn (Pakistan). December 4, 2004. http://www.dawn.com/2004/12/04/int3.htm.
[51] “Istanbul group protests US operations in Iraq.” Turkish Daily News. December 4, 2004.
[52] “Turkish Islamist group sends food to besieged Fallujah.” Agence France Presse (AFP). November 10, 2004.
[53] “IHH: Humanitarian Aid from Turkey to Fallujah.”
http://www.ihh.org/english/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=102. January 2005.
[54] “IHH sends humanitarian aid to Fallujah.” Anadolu News Agency (Turkey). December 21, 2004.
[55] Biemer, John. “For Muslims, charity can carry risks.” Chicago Tribune. July 13, 2005.
[56] Zakat Foundation of America Summer 2003 Newsletter.
http://www.zakatfoundation.com/images/_dbpics/_uploads/Summer03.pdf.
[57] http://www.thezakat.org/images/_dbpics/_PhotoGallery/08.jpg. November 2005.
[58] http://www.tzfa.org/qafg/afg13b.jpg. See also: http://www.tzfa.org/p_qafgh01.html. November 2005.
[59] Zakat Foundation of America Summer 2003 Newsletter. http://www.zakatfoundation.com/images/_dbpics/_uploads/Summer03.pdf. See also: http://www.ihh.org.tr/images/photo/17/orig/180.jpg. November 2005.
[60] Montgomery, Lori. “Muslims say Turkey impeding aid effort.” The Orange County Register. August 29, 1999.
3. Background on the IHH Organization, May 30, 2010, The Military Strategic Information Section, International Military Cooperation Department - Strategic Division, IDF
Posted on 02 June 2010 @ 14:50© 2003-2011 society for internet research