User:Markshern7/sandbox
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Yasin Abdullah Ezzedine al-Qadi (also known as Shaykh Yassin Abdullah Kadi or Yasin A. Kahdi) (b. 23 Feb 1955) is a Saudi Arabian businessman listed by the United States government as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.[1] One of more than 39 people and entities suspected of giving financial support to the September 11 attacks,[2] he has been defended by friends and associates as a philanthropist.[3]
A multi-millionaire from Jeddah, Qadi trained as an architect in Chicago, IL.[4] He is the son-in-law of Sheikh Ahmed Salah Jamjoom (1923 - 2010), a former Saudi Arabian Finance Minister and Minister of Commerce with close ties to the Saudi royal family.[5][6][7]
The UN placed sanctions against Qadi in 1999 and 2000, when he was named by United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1267 and 1333 as a suspected associate of Osama bin Laden's terror network, al-Qaeda.[8]
On 12 October 2001, the U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which oversees Counter Terrorism Sanctions, ordered his assets in the United States to be frozen [9] on suspicion of links to the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings and the September 11 attacks.[10][11] The European Union has also applied sanctions to Qadi.,,[12][13][14]
In response, Qadi's lawyers brought two lawsuits now considered landmarks in international law: Kadi I (2008) and Kadi II (2010). The case for which he is best known, a 2008 decision by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), Kadi & Al Barakaat Int’l Found. v. Council of the E.U. & Comm’n of the E.C. (Kadi I), "challenges the core framework of UN terrorist sanctions and forces UN member states to tackle difficult legal questions or else face possible collapse of the UN’s terrorist sanctions regime."[15]
Although FBI Special Agent Robert Wright Jr. has called Qadi one of Osama bin Laden's "chief money launderers" based on evidence gathered in the 1990s,[16][17] Qadi's listing as a terrorist has been overturned by several European courts, with the result that he has been delisted (removed from terrorist blacklists) by Switzerland (2007),[18] the European Union (2008 and 2010),[19][20] and the United Kingdom (2008 and 2010).,[21][22]
The legal reversals may be attributed in part to a change of U.S. policy toward Saudi Arabia in early 2009. On 29 May 2009 The New York Times reported "The Obama administration is supporting efforts by the Saudi royal family to defeat a long-running lawsuit seeking to hold it liable for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Justice Department, in a brief filed Friday before the Supreme Court, said it did not believe the Saudis could be sued in American court over accusations brought by families of the Sept. 11 victims that the royal family had helped finance Al Qaeda. The department said it saw no need for the court to review lower court rulings that found in the Saudis’ favor in throwing out the lawsuit."[23]
The U.S. government’s change in policy came less than a week before President Obama was scheduled to meet in Saudi Arabia with King Abdullah as part of a trip to the Middle East and Europe intended to reach out to the Muslim world."[23]
On 12 September 2010, the Wall Street Journal announced that Saudi Arabia would fund "the largest U.S. arms deal ever" -- an order for advanced aircraft worth more than $60 billion. "The administration plans to tout the $60 billion package as a major job creator —- supporting at least 75,000 jobs.",.[24][25]
The next day, on 13 September 2010, Yasin al-Qadi "succeeded in having dismissed in their entirety the civil claims brought against him in the United States on behalf of the families of the 9/11 victims."[26] U.S. District Judge Daniels ruled that the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York had no jurisdiction over Qadi, who is a Saudi Arabian citizen.[26]
In addition to Qadi, several Saudi billionaires and members of the Saudi Royal family were also released from liability in the "$3 Billion suit." Khalid bin Mahfouz and his son Abdulrahman bin Mahfouz, Qadi's business partners at the National Commercial Bank, were dismissed from the 9/11 case "for lack of personal jurisdiction."[27]
On 19 March 2012, Judge John D. Bates in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia dismissed Qadi's 2009 lawsuit against officers of the U.S. Treasury, finding that OFAC had provided "sufficient reason to believe" that Qadi provided support to terrorists or people associated with them.[28]
On 5 October 2012, the UN Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against al-Qaeda granted Qadi's petition to be removed from its blacklist.[29][30]