16. Mission: MOA’s Overseas Operations
The U.S. government asked Abdelaziz to arrange the travel of MOA members to its overseas camps so they could identify who was traveling where. He claims that significant amounts of money were transferred to MOA through him for the purpose of setting up these camps so they could be monitored.
“I was the guy that traveled for MOA. I established jammaats (communes). I could set up jamaats overseas,” he told Mawyer.
Abdelaziz said he went to Venezuela, Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia to establish and assist MOA “jamaats” (meaning “communities”) but offered few details to Mawyer when he met with him.
In 2006, Ali Abdelaziz went to Port of Spain, Trinidad, to prepare for the arrival of convicted terrorist Barry Adams, who spearheaded MOA’s plot to perpetrate “Canada’s 9/11.” Canada was deported him and his other Trini accomplices back to their home country.
Using the name “Khalifah Abu Bakr,” Adams is known within the group as being the most influential official aside from Gilani’s sons. Adams’ son, Hussein Adams, is the Chief Executive of MOA. Abdelaziz described him as being “like a ghost…he really is.”
Few MOA members have even seen the face of “Khalifah Abu Bakr” or know anything about him. Many don’t even know that he is Barry Adams. He briefly surfaced when a video was posted online in 2008, causing a stir within the organization.
Adams and White Hawk Security International set up shop in Trinidad.
MOA has long operated in Trinidad and is suspected of having had links to the Jamaat al-Muslimeen group there, particularly when it launched a bloody coup in 1990. A Caribbean intelligence source aware of terrorist activities in Trinidad told Ryan Mauro that MOA was linked to Jamaat al-Muslimeen and operated under its auspices in Venezuela, as well.
The source also confirmed that Adams has repeatedly traveled between Trinidad and Venezuela.
Abdelaziz said that Venezuela has the most promising MOA community outside of North America. He refused to divulge any details about what went on there, except to say that a major MOA leader is there.
The Muslim community there is paranoid about any American presence and suspected every Westerner of being a spy, making it extremely difficult for the U.S. to develop sources there.
Abdelaziz said he saw that the Muslim community was extremely supportive of then-dictator Hugo Chavez and his regime, even though he is not a Muslim. He recalled attending a speech by Chavez where he began by reciting the Quran.
MOA had an opportunity to “establish a home” in Venezuela because there are many wealthy Arabs, particularly Lebanese and Syrians. He only vaguely referred to “the richest people in Venezuela…I got involved…I was supposed to do certain things.”
As pointed out on this website, the 2015 address for MOA’s office in Caracas matches that of a building owned by an insurance company run by by Pedro Torres Ciliberto, who has been a fugitive since 2009. He is wanted on charges of money laundering and bank fraud and is accused of assisting international criminals in hiding money in offshore accounts. He was close to the Chavez regime.
Abdelaziz declined to give any further details about who in MOA was in Venezuela, but he said major figures are moving back and forth to the country. Sheikh Gilani was even talking about moving there from Pakistan.
Abdelaziz described the governments of Morocco and Egypt as particularly hostile to the MOA communities in their countries. He also vaguely referred to the British government being concerned about a specific MOA figure who he did not name.
In 2008, Abdelaziz went to Egypt. MOA has had a presence in Egypt as far back as 1983, when its newspaper listed a “correspondent” named Hasan Abdul Aziz there. MOA had ties to the Egyptian Gama’a Islamiiyya terrorist group led by the “Blind Sheikh.”
Abdelaziz claimed that the U.S. government was pressured to put his life and the lives of his family members at risk in Egypt.
“I pulled a lot of strings in Egypt. And my name was very much on everything. I had to use the help of my brother. He’s full Egyptian. They put my family in a dangerous situation,” he said.
The Egyptian authorities detained him. It is unclear what happened.
He also said that the Department of Homeland Security caused a lot of problems for his family, particularly his brother, who “helped whenever.”
MOA-affiliated sources confirmed that members traveled to Egypt and stayed with Abdelaziz’s family members, who treated them with great hospitality.
He says he helped about 10 MOA members get visas to go to Egypt. A total of 15 MOA members were with him in Egypt.
Abdelaziz told Mawyer that the Egyptian government dislikes MOA and anyone associated with them, so he’d be at great risk if he was deported back to his home country.
