Youssef Moustafa Nada (b. 1931, Egypt) is a noted businessman and Muslim Brotherhood financial strategist, having recently served as chairman of al Taqwa Bank, the multinational financial services outfit accused by the US Treasury Department of money laundering for and financing of al Qaeda.
Nada himself has vehemently denied funding Osama bin Laden or any other terrorist organization[1], and in 2006 he sued the Swiss government for restitution of financial losses incurred due to the freezing of his assets and the ensuing investigation by Swiss authorities (Nada was never arrested as previously claimed herewith)[2].
1 Early life
2 Meeting in Algeria
3 "The Project"
4 Swiss and Italian investigation, 2001-2005
5 Prosecution in Egypt
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
//
Early life
Youssef Nada was born on May, 17, 1931 in Alexandria, Egypt.[3] Several published accounts place him in the employ of German military intelligence during WW II working on a high profile plot to flee the Mufti of Jerusalem from Palestine,[4] however these appear to be based on assertions of French journalist - Richard Labeviere[5]. Nada denies this, as he was only 9 years old in 1940, a time in which he claims not have ever left the city of Alexandria.[6]
Meeting in Algeria
A 1986 article in London-based Asharq Al-Awsat reported that Nada, along with Ahmed Ben Bella, a former president of Algeria, held a secret meeting at his Switzerland home attended by "major figures in some of the world’s most violent groups." Other attendees the meeting included the "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdel-Rahman and Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, a leading Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim scholar. US government sources believe Ben Bella, who is allegedly linked to violent Sudanese and Libyan groups, called the meeting to discuss ways to spread Muslim fundamentalism into the West.[7]. In an interview on al-Jazeera, Nada himself vehemently denied any such thing to have occurred.[8]
"The Project"
Main article: The Project (document)
In a November 2001 raid on offices and residences associated with Youssef Nada, an untilted document, written in Arabic and dated December 1, 1982, ostensibly outlining a plan to infiltrate and defeat Western countries was found.[9][10] Later referred to as "The Project" by Swiss-French journalist Sylvain Besson,[11] the content and provenance of the document would become the subject of conflicting media accounts in subsequent years. Though the document contains no mention of the Muslim Brotherhood in its original form[12], it would be portrayed as a seminal Brotherhood text outlining their plan for Muslims to infiltrate and defeat Western countries. [13]
Nada stresses the author's contradictions in that on one side he mentions that the document, in its original form, contains no reference of the Muslim Brotherhood's implication with the content while on the other hand the author still defines it as the Muslims Brotherhood's Secret Project (Project, Video interview with Newsweek [14]). During the Newsweek video interview referred to herewith, Nada states explicitly that as a politically involved person he received articles, studies and books from sources that were known and unknown to him and which came from all spectrum of anti or pro Islamic circles. Its title, "The Project", does not find any source in the original Arabic text (which can be found in Besson's book) and is entirely the author's invention (as Nada also confirms in his interview below). Furthermore, as the author himself states and as can be seen in the arabic version of the text inside the book, the document does not have any mentioning of the Muslim Brotherhood; its connection with it hence remains a fully speculative imagination on the author's side (who also mentions as his collaborators The Frontpagemag??).
Nada accuses a circle of co-operating journalists and US government employees made of David Kane, Silvain Besson, Hosenball, Labaviere, Lorenzo Vidino and others of having a hidden agenda targeted at the Muslim Brotherhood and involved Muslim activists. [15]
Swiss and Italian investigation, 2001-2005
In the wake of the November, 2001 raids, Swiss official froze 24 bank accounts associated with Nada, and the Swiss federal prosecutor's office, led by Claude Nicati, began an aggressive inquiry in to the activities of Nada and Taqwa co-director Ali Ghaleb Himmat. Both men repeatedly denied any connection with Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network, and ultimately the Federal Court in Bellinzona accepted an appeal for an ultimatum from Nada demanding that charges be explained, or the case dropped. On June 1, 2005 the case was dropped, due to lack of evidence and a subesquent condemnation by the Court to the Prosecutor for opening the file without any specific reason.[16][17][18][19] Other than Switzerland, Italy also had a lengthy investigation of the case, with the file there being closed in 2007 and the Prosecutor stating that the reasons to open the case were more political and agenda driven rather than judicial or suspicions and evidence based. Italian premier newspaper Corriere Della Sera reported on such event "«Solo politica»: i pm bocciano le «black list» di Onu e Ue", Corriere della Sera 24 July 2007.
Prosecution in Egypt
In January and February 2007, Egypt announced that it had freezed the assets of dozens of top Muslim Brotherhood figures, and that 40 of them will stand trial in Egypt’s military court. Figures targeted include most of the top leaders of the Al Taqwa Bank in Switzerland, the Muslim Brotherhood bank banned by the US for its alleged ties to al-Qaeda. Of the people tried in absentia only Nada and Ghaleb Himmat were associated to the bank. The Associated Press notes this court is "known for its swift trials and no right of appeal."[20] Indeed, the trials came before the regional elections and were targeted at trying to confine the Muslim Brotherhood given their previous success in parliamentary elections. The Egyptian government fears the brotherhood as it is the only opposition group with real popular support among the Egyptian population. The military trials have not, as of August 22nd 2007, resulted in any indictment.
In an interview with Youssef Nada the Muslim Brotherhood comment "Although he was cleared of all alleged charges fabricated by intelligence agencies, Nada returned to the spotlight again after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak referred him along with 39 Muslim Brotherhood (MB) leaders to military tribunal on charges of funding the Moslem brotherhood which is banned by the Egyptian regime. The falsification of the charges contradicts with the facts that Youssef Nada left Egypt 1959 and he is under a UN travel ban in Campione d’Italia (an Italian enclave in Swiss territory ), which equates to a house arrest given the size of the town, and also all of his assets have been frozen all over the world since November 2001 by orders of the UN security council. He is known as the Muslim Brotherhood’s international political foreign emissary." [21] It is believed that such mission mobilised all the internatioinal intelligence agencies againest him.
See also
Jamal al Barzinji, business associate.
Ahmed Huber and Ghaleb Himmat, co-principals at al Taqwa
Soliman Biheiri, no evidence has emerged that that Biheiri had a direct involvement with al Taqwa, as is sometimes reported.
References
^ Lucy Komisar: Shareholders in the Bank of Terror?, Salon, March 15, 2002
^ www.swissinfo.org Terror suspect sues Swiss government June 1, 2006
^ Government of Canada: Regulations Amending the United Nations Suppression of Terrorism Regulations, Canada Gazette, vol 135, no 5, November 9, 2001
^ Mark Erikson (November 8, 2002). "Islamism, Fascism, and Terrorism, Part 2". Asia Times online.
^ Labeviere, Richard (1999). Les dollars de la terreur-les é-u et les islamiste. Grasset & Fasquelle, pg.148. ISBN 978-2246569114.
^ www.youssefnada.ch
^ Buffalo News, 7/6/1993
^ An instnance of al-Jazeera's regular talk program, "Century Witness", presented by Ahmed Mansour; several interviews from 4 August 2002 until 29 september 2002
^ Patrick Poole (May 11, 2006). "The Muslim Brotherhood "Project"". FrontPageMagazine.com.
^ An English translation of "The Project"
^ Besson, Sylvain (2005). La conquête de l'Occident: Le projet secret des Islamistes (in French). Paris: Le Seuil.
^ ranslation of "The Project" furnished by FrontPage magazine
^ Patrick Poole (May 11, 2006). "The Muslim Brotherhood "Project"". FrontPageMagazine.com.
^ Video interview with Newsweek journalists Hosenball and Isikoff, www.youssefnada.ch Video interview
^ Statement on on Nada's site www.youssefnada.ch: "Among those who participated in defusing the lies, whether for envy or hate, whether knowingly or not, whether intentionally or not, whether hired to corner the Islamist activists, or motivated politically or financially, or for their own professional agenda, or misled, are the following names: Richard Labeviere, Roland Jacquard, Leo Sisti, Kevin Coogan, Paolo Fusi, Daniel Pipes, Victor Comras, Sylvain Besson, and others whom will be named later."
^ "Police detain Swiss-based financiers". www.swissinfo.org (7 November 2001). Retrieved on 2007-09-21.
^ "Swiss firm shuts down after terrorism probe". www.swissinfo.org (9 January 2002). Retrieved on 2007-09-21.
^ "Prosecutors face ultimatum over terror case". www.swissinfo.org (1 June 2005). Retrieved on 2007-09-21.
^ "Prosecutors drop terror investigation". www.swissinfo.org (2 June 2005). Retrieved on 2007-09-21.
^ Agence France-Presse, 1/24/2007; Associated Press, 2/6/2007; Ikhwanweb, 2/8/2007
^ "Youssef Nada’s Interview With Ikhwanweb".
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario