Report: UN Employed Known al-Shabaab Financier in Somalia...
A Somali businessman linked to Islamist rebels who likely received a ransom paid for kidnapped French aid workers was a contractor for the World Food Program and UNICEF, a U.N. report said.
The confidential report by the U.N. Somalia Monitoring Group, seen by Reuters on Thursday, said the man, Adbdullah Ali Luway, and his links with Islamist al Shabaab militants was a case study in how U.N. agencies have unwittingly allowed aid for needy Somalis to enrich rebels and criminals.
Three French workers with humanitarian group Action Against Hunger were seized by gunmen in July 2009 and held for several months. In October, a ransom of $1.36 million was paid into an account belonging to Luway at a money transfer firm in Baidoa, Somalia, the report said.
He also receives $3,000 a month in rent from UNICEF, the United Nations children's fund, for use of a building that formerly housed the parliament of Somalia, a virtually lawless country that has lacked an effective government since 1991.
In addition to his work with the United Nations, Luway had been the "local financier" of the al Shabaab authority in Baidoa since the Islamist group took control of the area in January 2009. He is a "close associate" of Sheikh Muktar Robow Abuu Mansuur, a senior al Shabaab official, the report said.
The United States lists Robow as a terrorist.
I'm surprised Holder didn't try to recruit him to DoJ
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