Advice and Reform Committee
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The Advice and Reform Committee or Advice and Reformation Committee (ARC) (Arabic: هيئة النصيحة والاصلاح ) was the London office of what is now called al-Qaeda from 1994 until the arrest of Khalid al-Fawwaz in 1998. The indictment[1] of Osama bin Laden, al-Fawwaz, and 19 others reads in part
On or about July 11, 1994, the defendant USAMA BIN LADEN created the London office of al Qaeda, naming it the “Advice and Reformation Committee” and placing the defendant KHALID AL FAWWAZ in charge;
and in part
In or about 1994, the defendant USAMA BIN LADEN, working together with KHALID AL FAWWAZ, a/k/a “Khaled Abdul Rahman Hamad al Fawwaz,” a/k/a “Abu Omar," a/k/a “Hamad,” set up a media information office in London, England (hereafter the “London office”), which was designed both to publicize the statements of USAMA BIN LADEN and to provide a cover for activity in support of al Qaeda’s “military” activities, including the recruitment of military trainees, the disbursement of funds and the procurement of necessary equipment (including satellite telephones) and necessary services. In addition, the London office served as a conduit for messages, including reports on military and security matters from various al Qaeda cells, including the Kenyan cell, to al Qaeda’s headquarters.
Bin Laden wrote several documents which he signed on behalf of ARC: his 1994 diatribe against Saudi Grand Mufti Abdul-Aziz bin Baz, and a 1995 reaction to the arrest of some clerics in Saudi Arabia.
[edit] References
- ^ Copy of indictment USA v. Usama bin Laden et al., Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies
