A Danish research institute exposes the links the Turkish organization IHH had with Al-Qaeda and global jihad networks 1
1. In 2006 the Danish Institute for International Studies reported that during the 1990s the Turkish relief organization IHH had links with Al-Qaeda and global jihad networks.2 The well-documented report was prepared by Evan Kohlman,3 an American scholar specializing in Al-Qaeda. The study deals with the involvement of Islamic charitable societies in supporting terrorism. Pages 10-14 are devoted to IHH.
The title page of the Danish study
2. According to the study, the Turkish government began investigating IHH at least as far back as December 1997 following information that senior IHH activists had purchased automatic weapons from extremist Islamic organizations. As a result, the Istanbul offices of the organization were raided and activists were arrested. During the raid the Turkish security services found weapons, explosives, instructions for manufacturing IEDs and a flag bearing a jihadist message. An analysis of the documents taken from the offices indicated that IHH members were planning to participate in jihad activities in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya.
1 Follow up of the May 27, 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” at http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/hamas_e105.pdf.
2 The Danish Institute for International Studies is an independent research institution which deals with interdisciplinary issues with international implications, especially international conflicts. It is staffed by dozens of research workers, many of them with PhDs (http://www.diis.dk/sw241.asp )
3 Evan Kohlman is American researcher specializing in terrorism who worked for the FBI and other American government organizations. He has a law degree and a degree in international politics and Islamic studies. In the past he interned in Washington for The Investigative Project, an anti-terrorism think-tank, and is currently head of NEFA, the Nine/Eleven Finding Answers Foundation. He served as an expert witness in the trials of several jihadist operatives in the United States, the Hague and Denmark, and is a senior terrorism commentator for NBC. He wrote a book about the jihad movement in Europe which was published in 2002 by the Oxford University Press and has published numerous articles about radical Islamic movements (From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Kohlmann and.http://www.ie.edu/IE/site/php/en/school_communication_detail.php?id_new=111 )
