Mohammed Jamal Khalifa - Overview

Overview

The first glimpse U.S. authorities had of Khalifa came in 1992, when his alias Barra appeared on a bomb-making manual carried by Ahmed Ajaj who entered the United States on a false passport.

Khalifa started the Benevolence International Corporation in the Philippines in 1988, apparently to recruit people for the war against the Soviets Benevolence International Corporation claimed to have been an import-export company. In 1992, that group folded visible operations while another group known as the Islamic Benevolence Committee renamed itself to Benevolence International Foundation.

What was left of the Benevolence International Corporation allegedly gave logistical support to terrorists. The remains of the Benevolence International Corporation have been accused of assisting the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the Bojinka plot that was foiled in 1995. The US government claims that he came to the Philippines to support Abu Sayyaf. Khalifa had married a local woman, Alice "Jameelah" Yabo, and frequently exited and entered the country for "business" reasons. Yabo was the sister of Ahmad al-Hamwi, better known as Abu Omar. Philippines authorities say that Khalifa moved money to Abu Sayyaf to pay for supplies, and that Khalifa was frequently in contact with Riduan Isamuddin, aka Hambali.

Khalifa ran the International Relations and Information Center, where money was embezzled through the bank account of Omar Abu Omar, an employee at the center, to an account under the name of Adel Sabah, an alias of Ramzi Yousef. Khalifa started several other groups, including the Khalifa Trading Industries, which U.S. investigators stated were front organizations.

U.S. and Filipino investigators accused Khalifa of once being an important lieutenant of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda organization, which was based in Sudan at the time he allegedly was involved in terrorist plots.

Khalifa was arrested in Saudi Arabia shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, but was released without charges being filed. Later that year, he publicly condemned Osama Bin Laden and publicly distanced himself from Al Qaeda.

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