"Thousands of pounds raised by Britons for the BBC’s Children in Need charity could have been used to recruit and train the homegrown terrorists involved in the 7/7 terror attacks on London."Apparently
"Some of the cash could also have been used to fund the propaganda activities of the suicide bombers who killed 52 people in July 2005, according to an investigation by BBC 2’s Newsnight.
The programme reported that £20,000 from Children in Need was handed over to the Leeds Community School, in Beeston, Yorkshire between 1999 and 2002.
The school, which also received large sums from other public bodies, was run from premises behind the Iqra Islamic bookshop which the gang used as a meeting place and an opportunity to radicalise others.
One former worker described those that attended the bookshop as a kind of “brotherhood.”
Both Mohammed Sidique Khan, the leader of the bombers, and Shehzad Tanweer, the Aldgate bomber, were trustees of the bookshop and Sidique Khan also worked for a Saturday club at the associated Leeds Community School.
Sidique Khan ran outward bound adventure courses in north Wales which were used to recruit and radicalise young Muslim men.
Both the bookshop and the school were registered charities – the bookshop claimed, on Charity Commission submissions, that its aim was “the advancement of the Islamic faith”, while the school’s aim was said to be to “advance the education…of Pakistani and Bangladeshi” pupils.
They handed out DVDs and books about Bosnia and Chechnya and held Arabic classes in a back room, attended by Jermaine Lindsay, who went on to become the Kings Cross bomber.
They also produced a leaflet in the wake of September 11 blaming the attacks on a Jewish conspiracy.
A flavour for the books was revealed when police raided the home of Khalid Khaliq last year and found much of the remaining stock from the bookshop.
Titles included Zaad-e-Mujahid [essential provision for holy fighters] and The Absent Obligation, a book about jihad [holy war] as well as 250 copies of a booklet called the War on Terrorism, the Final Crusade.
Khaliq, 34, a close friend of Sidique Khan, is currently serving a 16-month sentence for possessing a document useful for terrorism."
Just the sort of people that I would donate money to. Children in Need’s chief Executive David Ramsden may not have been quite so careful though. He told Newsnight:
"I’m incredibly concerned that we did make an award to Leeds Community School over nine years ago.
"Any allegation that any funding we’ve given to any project has been misused and not used to change the lives of disadvantaged children and young people makes me concerned and very sad.
"We take the trust that the public puts in BBC Children In Need and the fact that they provide us with their finding extremely seriously and I’m incredibly concerned.
"I can reassure the British public that we are very careful in who we fund and this allegation is a very rare one for us but one that causes a great deal of concern."
Last night Mr Ramsden said: "The small grants made by BBC Children In Need to Leeds Community School were given in good faith in 1998 and 1999.
"Although this is a serious matter, we have not seen any evidence that the money they received was used for terrorist activity. If BBC Children In Need has been a victim of fraud in this case, it will be a matter for the police.
"BBC Children In Need distributes more than £30m in grants every year, benefiting children and young people in the UK. CIN exercise the utmost care in distributing the public’s money.""
The "utmost care", utmost meaning "of the greatest or highest degree"? I think that more care could and indeed should have been taken.
However as the BBC are happy to provide positive coverage of "militants" around the world; "militants" who kill and maim hundreds of people every week. Why should we be surprised when the BBC actually starts financing such "militants"?
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