Founded in Canada in 1980 as a subsidiary of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mercy International (MI) originally went by the name Human Concern International (HCI). Its purpose at that time was to support the Afghan jihad against the Soviet Union, and to help Afghans who had fled the war in their homeland and taken up residence in Pakistan.
In 1989, HCI changed its name to Mercy International-USA (MI) and established its new headquarters in Michigan. The organization also maintained branch offices in such far-flung locations as Albania, Bosnia, Canada, Kenya, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Switzerland. Some of these regional chapters had names that differed slightly from one another; e.g., the Canadian branch was known as the Mercy International Relief Agency.
In MI's earliest days its Pakistan chapter was headed by Ahmed Khadr, a close associate of Osama bin Laden.
Khadr was succeeded in this post in 1988 by Zahid Shaikh Mohammed (ZSM), the brother of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.
ZSM retained his post with MI until about February 1995, when Ramzi Yousef was arrested in Pakistan. At that point, investigators learned that Yousef, who had ZSM's telephone number listed in his private directory, had been conducting phone correspondence with MI's Pakistan office. Pakistani investigators promptly raided MI's local headquarters but failed to apprehend ZSM, who had already fled.
Anthony Elgindy donated money to Mercy USA
Al-Qaeda operative L'Houssaine Khertchou later testified, during his 2001 trial, that his organization was interacting on a regular basis with MI's Kenya branch, which employed a number of al Qaeda operatives. Khertchou further revealed that MI—in collaboration with the International Islamic Relief Organization—had helped bankroll the 1998 embassy bombings.
As of 1999, Khaldoun Dia Eddine, manager of MI's Albania chapter, also served as head of the Gulf Office—an Al Taqwa Bank subsidiary that the Italian government had investigated five years earlier for its ties to an Algerian militant group affiliated with al Qaeda.
U.S. investigators uncovered a financial link between MI and Baitul Mal Inc. (BMI), a New Jersey-based investment firm with connections to many suspected terrorist financiers—including some affiliated with Hamas and al Qaeda.
On June 3, 2001, a British newspaper reveals that Hamid Aich, who is on the FBI’s international wanted list, is living in Dublin where he is applying for asylum. Irish intelligence has been monitoring Aich’s movements since 1997, when authorities tied him to the mass murder of 77 tourists in Luxor, Egypt. It is believed that between 1999 and 2001, Aich assisted 22 Islamic terrorist organizations, and even funded non-Islamic groups, for instance giving $200,000 to the ETA, a separatist group in the Basque region of Spain. Aich was also the director of Mercy International’s Ireland branch. On July 24, he leaves Ireland using a false passport. He has not been heard of since. After 9/11, Aich will be described as “one of the FBI’s chief targets” and “one of bin Laden’s most trusted men” who ranks seventh in al-Qaeda’s hierarchy.