British Columbia's al Qaeda Connection

Canada and Switzerland have been co-operating on a terrorism financing investigation of a Saudi businessman accused of funding Osama bin Laden, the National Post has learned.

The two countries have been working together for more than a year on a probe of Yasin Al Kadi, who once had business holdings in Vancouver and whose assets are frozen in Canada under anti-terrorism legislation.

They began co-operating on the case last summer when Swiss authorities asked the Department of Justice for a copy of the RCMP's files on a second Saudi businessman who lives part-time in B.C.

The Mounties recently delivered their dossier to the Swiss judge in charge of the case. A Justice Department spokesman would not comment, but an RCMP counterterrorism officer confirmed he had been assisting Swiss authorities.

 

"We are working with the Swiss in relation to a variety of issues around that," said Inspector Lloyd Plante of the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team at RCMP E Division in B.C.

The investigation is one of several that, six years after the 9/11 attacks, are attempting to unravel the global web of charities and companies that bankrolled bin Laden as he built the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

Reached at her office in Switzerland, Judge Marie-Antonella Bino confirmed she was investigating Mr. Kadi and that she had requested help from Canadian authorities. "We are working on the case together with the Canadian police," she said.

"I'm in charge of a proceeding against Mr. Kadi and I'm trying to find any connection he could have had with some other people who [have] some terrorism suspicions hanging [over them].

"That's why I was wondering what the Canadian authorities were doing in their procedure and I've just received some days ago the Canadian file and I haven't had time to go through it yet but I will do it."

On June 23, 2006, Judge Bino formally asked Canada for the results of an RCMP investigation into Ibrahim Afandi, owner of the Gang Ranch in B.C.

Mr. Afandi is also a former director of the International Islamic Relief Organization, a Saudi charity whose assets have been frozen by Canada for their alleged links to terror financing.

Judge Bino's letter to the Justice Department said she needed the RCMP's file in order to assess "links and/or interesting similarities between some financial set-ups performed by Mr. Yasin Al Kadi and Mr. Ibrahim Afandi."

Mr. Kadi has been fighting allegations he is a financier of terrorism since the mid-1990s. His assets were frozen by the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada in October, 2001.

The U.S. Treasury said he had been a director of the Saudi-based Muwafaq Foundation, which it alleges was an al-Qaeda financial front.

But Mr. Kadi has consistently denied ever funding terrorism or bin Laden.

"I have never been associated to this guy in any way and never sent him any money," he said after his assets were frozen.

Judge Bino's inquiry may well settle the matter. In an interview, she told the Post her investigation is both "for" and "against" Mr. Kadi, meaning it could result in criminal charges but also exoneration.