The Golden Chain
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The "Golden Chain" is a list of names that was seized in March 2002 in a raid by Bosnian police of the premises of the
Benevolence International Foundation The Benevolence International Foundation (Benevolence International Fund in Canada, Bosanska Idealna Futura in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia) (BIF) was a purported nonprofit charitable trust based in Saudi Arabia. It was determined to be a front ...
in
Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...
. The Golden Chain is a list of sponsors of
Al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...
. The list included twenty-five names, twenty of them very wealthy Saudis and Gulf States financial sponsors including bankers, businessmen, and former ministers. Part of the list includes a computer file titled "Tarekh Osama" or "Osama History", but the appellation "Golden Chain" itself is due to al Qaeda defector
Jamal al-Fadl Jamal Ahmed al-FadlJamal al-Fadl testimony, United States vs. Osama bin Laden et al., trial transcript, Day 2, Feb. 6, 2001. ( ar, جمال أحمد محمّد الفضل, ''Jamāl Aḥmad Muḥammad al-Faḍl'') (born 1963-) is a Sudanese milit ...
, who vouched for its authenticity. The computer file contained photographs of the birth and early days of al-Qaeda as well as letters and documents, some in bin Laden's handwriting. In the seized material, records were found of both the plans for al-Qaeda's activities and its organizational structure and operational foundations.  These are believed to have been prepared by bin Laden and his mentor Sheikh Abdallah Azzam. They also found a list of 20 Arab plutocrats, the “Golden Chain”, who were suspected of financing international terrorism, including al-Qaeda. The custody of the secret and confidential material was entrusted to bin Laden's confidant
Enaam Arnaout Enaam M. Arnaout (Kunya (Arabic), Kunya: ''Abu Mahmoud'';Fitzgerald, Patrick J. United States of America v. Enaam M. Arnaout,Governments Evidentiary Proffer Supporting the Admissibility of Co-Conspirator Statements, before Hon. Suzanne B. Conlon bo ...
, who was convinced that the documents were in the safest and most secure place in the Sarajevo office of the Benevolence International Foundation. During a search of the Benevolence International Foundation's offices in Sarajevo, the relevant law enforcement agencies found clear evidence of a connection between the head of the office, Enaam Arnaout, and
Osama bin Laden Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...
, and of “militant” subordination between the two, and charges were brought against Arnaout. Most accounts are vague on what year the Golden Chain document was written; some say 1988 but U.S.
counter-terrorism Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or el ...
advisor Richard A. Clarke says it dates from 1989. The "Golden Chain" was presented by the U.S. government in the criminal case '' United States v. Arnaout'' filed on January 29, 2003, and in other legal filings. The American government has never publicly released the full document, and so the full list of names is a matter of conjecture and speculation. In 2003, the ''Wall Street Journal'' reported that it included "billionaire bankers
Saleh Kamel Saleh Abdullah Kamel (1941 – 18 May 2020) ( ar, صالح عبد الله كامل ''Ṣaleḥ 'Abdullāh Kamel'') was a Saudi billionaire businessman. He had a net worth estimated at US$2.3 billion, as of March 2017. He was the chairman and fo ...
and
Khalid bin Mahfouz Khalid bin Mahfouz ( ar, خالد بن محفوظ; December 26, 1949 – August 16, 2009) was a Saudi Arabian billionaire, banker, businessman, investor and former chairman of the National Commercial Bank (NCB). Khalid is the son of Salem Bin Ma ...
, as well as the Al-Rajhi family, another banking family, and Mr. bin Laden's own brothers." Minutes of the Sarajevo meeting on 11 August 1988 confirmed that bin Laden had begun his jihadist movement at that time. Bin Laden decided to recruit members and raise funds from
Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
. To carry out his jihadist war, he had to enlist the wealthy plutocrats of the Gulf, the “Golden Chain”, to fund al-Qaeda. The “Golden Chain” was a copy of a handwritten 1988 draft listing the wealthy financiers of the mujahedin's operations in Afghanistan, known within al-Qaeda as the “Golden Chain”. At the top of the document, translated from Arabic by the US Department of Justice, was a quote from the Koran: 'And spend in the cause of God'.''"Government's Evidentiary Proffer Supporting the Admissibility of Coconspirator Statements" in the case of USA v. Arnaout, USDC, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division) filed on January 29, 2003.”''


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Excerpt: The Osama bin Laden I know





Context of '1988: ’Al-Qaeda’ Possibly the Name of a Computer Database
at Cooperative Research * ''Der Spiegel'',

{{DEFAULTSORT:Golden Chain Al-Qaeda