How two India-born brothers raised funds in the US for al Qaeda

Two India-born brothers and naturalised American citizens, have been charged by a Federal Court in the US for financing al Qaeda and supporting 'violent jihad against the United States, the US military in Iraq, Afghanistan, and throughout the world'. Of the two brothers Yahya Farooq Mohammad (37) and Ibrahim Zubair Mohammad (36), Ibrahim was arrested in Texas on Thursday.

The two brothers along with  Asif Ahmed Salim, 35, and his brother Sultane Room Salim, 40, have been indicted for raising thousands of dollars and sending wire transfers over seven years to slain al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki. The District court of Northern Ohio which announced the indictment on Thursday has also charged another pair of brothers Asif Ahmed Salim and Sultane Roome Salim for providing support to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

All four men have been indicted with conspiracy to provide and conceal material support and resources to terrorists, one count of providing material support and resources to terrorists and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice. The Mohammad brothers face additional charges of conspiring to commit bank frauds in order to provide funds to Awlaki, leader of AQAP. Awlaki, who holds dual citizenship (American and Yemenese) was killed by US forces in a drone attack in Yemen in 2011. The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Ibrahim in Texas where he lived on Thursday,  while Sultane was apprehended in Ohio.

Yahya is a IT Project Manager in UAE while Ibrahim is a senior structural engineer in Dallas, US. Both the brothers are India-born and engineering students who completed their Bachelors in Electronics (Yahya 1995-99) and Civil Engineering (Ibrahim 1997-2001) from Osmania University, Hyderabad. Following which Yahya came to the US in 1999 for higher studies in engineering at the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College and later to Ohio State University between 2002 and 2004.  He married a US citizen in 2008. His brother, Ibrahim also followed a similar path. Upon completing his engineering studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 2001 -2005, he moved to Ohio, and married a US citizen.  Both the brothers are lawful permanent resident of the US.

According to the FBI investigations, which has details of the email communication between the four men, they supported Jihad through the dissemination of propaganda material between 2005 and 2008. Their radicalisation can be traced through discussions, forwarding of speeches, texts and blog entries of Islamic scholars including Awlaki, views and opinions on Jihad and Islamic laws.

In one such email 'RE: Is Nationalism a disease in view of Islam?', sent by Yahya to Ibrahim on January 31, 2005, he said, "The Muslims there [in India] are our brothers. The non-Muslims our enemies. We do dawah [proselytize] to them in the best manner. But if they refuse, and when we have the capability, we offer them to live as dhimmis [non-Muslims under protection of Muslim law], or else face the sword. And we never have a subservient attitude towards them. There is a time for dawah and a time for [offensive] jihad, and ... this is clearly explained.’’ In the following email, where they discussed on taking up nationality of a kafir (non-Islamic) nation, Yahya states that, "As far as which [country] is more evil, I think what is more important to look at is which country is most actively at war with Islam and that without doubt is the US.’’ Despite such beliefs, the brothers became permanent residents of America.

The emails were circulated in a group including the Salim brothers and other unknown conspirators. In an email titled 'Dawah [proselytizing] progress and methods used', contained an  interview of the Taliban commander who praised Osama Bin Laden and those individuals who perpetrated attacks in Mumbai, in November 2008.

The communication also included light banter. In a paper called 'Engineers of Jihad' which states that "Graduates from subjects such as science, engineering, and medicine are strongly over-represented among Islamist movements in the Muslim world" Yahya commented, "The reason for educated people being over-represented is simply as Allah ... says ... : 'Those who truly fear Allah, among His Servants, are those who have knowledge.' As to why engineers particularly are the majority, I don't know. But I do like that fact :)."

The chit-chat on Jihad and Islam translated into providing funds to Awlaki around 2008, inspired by his blog entries like '44 Ways of Supporting Jihad' and 'Establishing Khalifah' in which he says that Jihad is an obligation of every Muslim and even if one does not believe in Jihad one must "Fight the disbelievers with your self, your wealth and your tongues". In the same year,  Yahya appears to confirm his decision to use his American credit cards for 'hostile intent'.

Yahya and Ibrahim applied to obtain new credit cards from American Express, Citibank,  First National Bank of Omaha and Discover banks. They withdrew money with no intention of repaying the amounts obtained from the financial institutions, federal prosecutors alleged. Yahya who was living and working in the UAE fraudulently applied for these cards by providing Ibrahim’s address in Ohio.

Through the email group, Mohammad and Salim brothers were in touch with other men who had met and had inside knowledge on Awlaki’s activities and raised funds for the Al Qaeda leader in Yemen. They raised funds from sympathisers within the US to support and fund Awlaki’s Jihad in Yemen. Several financial transactions were made within the group to transfer funds  provided by individual donors by using Paypal accounts and bank checks. In addition, the four men talked extensively and discussed plans of making a trip to Sanaa,Yemen to meet Awlaki personally. Their trip only materialised in July 2009, as Yahya along with two others from the email group travelled to Yemen. Although they couldn’t meet the leader himself a sum of $22,000 was handed to an associate of Awlaki.

The Mohammad and Salim brothers have not been convicted yet for these charges. Further proceedings will determine the sentencing. Indian security officials seemed unaware about  the Mohammad brothers or whether they were part of any criminal activities during their time in India.

The Mohammad brothers are not the first Indians to be indicted into financing global terrorism, particularly Al Qaeda. In the cache of documents found at bin Laden's residence in Abbotabad, Pakistan at the time of his killing and released in May revealed that the al-Qaeda leader received multiple payments from an individual he identified as “the Indian brother in Medinah", the person understood as Saudi national Mahmoud Muhammad Bahaziq (71 years old) born to an Indian mother in Hyderabad. He is charged as the main financier of Lashkar-e-Toiba operations—including the 26/11 Mumbai attacks—and is listed by the United Nations as a terror financier in 2008.

In October, 41-year-old Haroon Aswat a Gujrati Muslim of Indian-origin British national was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a US Federal court for trying to set up an al-Qaeda training camp in the US on the orders of Islamist extremist preacher Abu Hamza. Last year, the FBI caught 31-year-old Gufran Ahmed Kauser Mohammed—an Indian-origin man and naturalised US citizen who relocated to Saudi Arabia in 2011— for providing thousands of dollars and facilitating recruits for Al Qaeda (core group), Jabhat al-Nusrah front in Syria, and al-Shabaab in Somalia. He is sentenced to a 15-year imprisonment.