For other organizations named Help the Needy, or some variation thereof, see Help the Needy (disambiguation)

Help the Needy (disambiguation)

There are multiple organizations named Help the Needy, or some variation thereof:*Help the Needy Charitable Trust, a UK registered charity specifically working for the Iraqi people....

.

Help the Needy was a charity front set up by Rome

Rome, New York

Rome is a city in Oneida County, New York, United States. It is located in north-central or "upstate" New York. The population was 44,797 at the 2010 census. It is in New York's 24th congressional district. In 1758, British forces began construction of Fort Stanwix at this strategic location, but...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 oncologist, Rafil Dhafir. (Not to be confused with other organisations called Help the Needy such as Help the Needy UK or Help the Needy Foundation, see Help the Needy (disambiguation)

Help the Needy (disambiguation)

There are multiple organizations named Help the Needy, or some variation thereof:*Help the Needy Charitable Trust, a UK registered charity specifically working for the Iraqi people....

.

Help the Needy was unregistered and unaudited, but sent money to Iraq in violation of American and UN

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

 sanctions against the regime of Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...

. Dhafir had been born in Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

.

Although Dhafir was charged and convicted as a white collar criminal the government touts his case as a success in its "war on terror." A statement issued by Attorney General

Attorney General

In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...

 Alberto Gonzales

Alberto Gonzales

Alberto R. Gonzales was the 80th Attorney General of the United States. Gonzales was appointed to the post in February 2005 by President George W. Bush. Gonzales was the first Hispanic Attorney General in U.S. history and the highest-ranking Hispanic government official ever...

 alleged that Dhafir had ties to the blind Sheikh, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman

Omar Abdel-Rahman

Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman , commonly known in the United States as "The Blind Sheikh", is a blind Egyptian Muslim leader who is currently serving a life sentence at the Butner Medical Center which is part of the Butner Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, North Carolina, United...

, who was convicted for inspiring the 1993 World Trade Center bombing

1993 World Trade Center bombing

The 1993 World Trade Center bombing occurred on February 26, 1993, when a truck bomb was detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The 1,336 lb urea nitrate–hydrogen gas enhanced device was intended to knock the North Tower into the South Tower , bringing...

.

The organization, and a sister organization, the help the needy endowment, were founded in 1994.

Dhafir, and three other men, Ayman Jarwan, Osameh Al Wahaidy and Maher Zagha, were arrested during 6am raids, on February 23, 2003.
And 150 predominantly Muslim families who had donated to 'Help the Needy' were interrogated by government agents between the hours of 6 and 10 a.m. This had a chilling effect on the Muslim community in Central New York. Ayman Jarwan was released from prison on December 22, 2006 and is being held awaiting deportation. The Jordanian government arrested Maher Zagha interrogated him for 2 weeks at the direction of the U.S. and then released him without charge. In sending aid to Iraq Zagha followed all required regulations for Jordan, in one case when he could not comply he handed the medical supplies over to the Iraqi embassy in Jordan. (see: http://www.axisoflogic.com/cgi-bin/exec/view.pl?archive=141&num=20800&printer=1) Being so close to the man-made humanitarian catastrophe in Iraq that was killing 5,000 Iraqi children under the age of 5 every month throughout the 1990s (a total of half a million) Jordanian authorities were able to confirm that "Help the Needy" was indeed doing what it said it was doing in getting aid to desperately needy civilians. It is highly unlikely that Jarwan will be tortured when he returns to Jordan.

Jarwan pled guilty on April 25, 2003.
His lawyer accused the prosecutors of bad faith.
He said that Jarwan had been told that, in return for his guilty plea, and his help in implicating Dhafur, he had been assured he would not receive a sentence serious enough to result in his deportation back to his native Jordan

Jordan

Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...

, where he would face torture

Torture

Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...

.

In a December 6, 2006 video interview with Jim McGraw, Jarwan's lawyer, he stated that he advised Jarwan to take a plea bargain because he was facing substantial prison time for something he did not do and in the climate of the time McGraw did not believe that Jarwan could receive a fair trail. He also stated that he did not believe Dhafir received a fair trial because he was a Muslim and because of the climate of the country at that time.

A 2011 NPR

NPR

NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...

 report claimed some of the people associated with this group were imprisoned in a highly restrictive Communication Management Unit

Communication Management Unit

Communication Management Unit is a recent designation for a self-contained group within a facility in the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons that severely restricts, manages and monitors all outside communication of inmates in the unit.-Origins:As part of the Bush Administration's War on...

.