Five men affiliated with the Colombia, Missouri branch of the Islamic African Relief Agency (IARA) were charged yesterday in a 33-count indictment. The charges include IIEPA violations, money laundering charges, misuse of USAID program funding and tax evasion. The main thrust of the allegations have to do with illegally funelling money to Iraq, but interestingly, the indictment also alleges that back in November 2001, an IARA representative falsely and knowingly claimed on a television interview that Ziyad Khalil, the man who by then had been publicly identified as having procured a $7500 satellite phone for Bin-Ladin, had not been affiliated with IARA. Khalil was in fact listed as representative of IARA-USA in Orlando Florida.

IARA had been designated by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control back in 2004.