Democratic Senate Candidate El-Sayed’s Mother Worked for Hamas, Taliban-Linked Group

{snip}

El-Sayed was mostly raised by his Egyptian father, Mohamed El-Sayed, and his father’s second wife, Jacqueline. He does not mention his mother – Fatten Fathy Elkomy – often in his campaigns, as she remarried and returned to the Middle East when he was young.

However, the Midwesterner was the first to suggest that this omission might be intentional.

It revealed that for five years (1999-2004) Elkomy worked for the Islamic American/African Relief Agency (IARA). Headquartered in Khartoum, Sudan, with 40 offices throughout the world, IARA purported to work on health care, orphans, and disadvantaged people in areas of conflict.

However, according to a US Department of the Treasury announcement on October 13, 2004, IARA engaged in a joint program with an institute involved in providing assistance to Taliban fighters, and also was responsible for moving funds to the Palestinian territories for use in terrorist activities, notably serving as a conduit to Hamas in one Western European country.

IARA was designated, along with five officials, on the same date.

Subsequently, the Treasury revealed that IARA was tied to Maktab Al-Khidamat (MK), an organization co-founded and financed by Osama Bin Laden and which was the precursor organization of al Qaida.

It also revealed that international offices of IARA provided direct financial support for Osama Bin Laden, and that a former Bin Laden lieutenant served as the director of IARA’s operations in Afghanistan.

{snip}

Mohamed Elkomy, her brother (and el-Sayed’s uncle) is also mentioned dozens of times in the exhibits.

Neither Mohamed or Fatten Elkomy were charged or indicted as co-conspirators in the case. No IARA individuals were actually charged with terrorism, but the organization did plead guilty to conspiring to violate financial sanctions to send money to Iraq, and the organization dissolved in 2016.

{snip}