Money from ISI,donated by Fai,to push America on Kashmir

According to the affidavit,the activities by Fai’s group,Kashmiri American Council,also called Kashmiri Center,are largely financed by the ISI,along with $100,000 a year in donations to political campaigns in the US. Foreign governments are prohibited from making donations to US political candidates.

Neil MacBride,US Attorney in Virginia,said,“His (Fai’s) handlers in Pakistan allegedly funneled millions through the Kashmir Center to contribute to US elected officials,fund high-profile conferences and pay for other efforts that promoted the Kashmiri cause to decision-makers in Washington.”

The Pakistani Embassy denied knowledge of the matter.

Law enforcement officials said Pakistan used a network of at least 10 unnamed straw contributors,which Ahmad helped organise,to make the campaign contributions and donate the bulk of the Kashmiri Center’s annual operating budget. The ISI would reimburse them — or their families in Pakistan,the officials said.

The goal of the group,according to internal documents cited by the FBI,was to persuade the US that it was in its interest to push India to allow a vote in Kashmir to decide its future.

The FBI said that there was no evidence that any of the lawmakers who received campaign funds from Pakistan were aware of its origins,and it did not name any of the recipients.

However,a search in Federal Elections Commission databases showed that Fai has made more than $20,000 in campaign contributions over the past two decades. The bulk went to two recipients: the National Republican Senatorial Committee and Representative Dan Burton,a Republican from Indiana.

Fai made numerous — though smaller — contributions to Democrats as well,including to representatives James P Moran of Virginia,Dennis J Kucinich of Ohio and Gregory W Meeks of New York,and $250 donations to the 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns of Al Gore and Barack Obama.

Ahmad also donated to Burton,records show. For at least 15 years,Burton has been a champion for Kashmiri causes in Congress,appealing to Presidents Bill Clinton and Obama to get more involved in attempting to mediate a settlement between India and Pakistan. He has also endorsed allowing the Kashmiri people to vote on their own fate.

Burton said he was “deeply shocked” by the arrest of Fai,because he had known him for 20 years and “in that time I had no inkling of his involvement with any foreign intelligence operation…” He said he would donate the funds provided to his campaign to the Boy Scouts of America.

Fai and Ahmad also donated to representative Joe Pitts,a Pennsylvania Republican who visited the region in 2001 and 2004,meeting Pakistani and Indian leaders. He introduced a resolution in 2004 calling for President George W Bush to appoint a special envoy to help negotiate peace. A spokesman for Pitts said he has donated $4,000 — equal to the donations his campaign received from the two defendants — to charities.

Among the evidence that Fai was working for Pakistan,the affidavit said,are annual budget requests he allegedly submitted to his handlers along with lists of accomplishments and strategic-planning documents. Other documents and intercepts showed that they sometimes quarreled over reimbursing him for travel costs or about contracts for which he had not got advance approval.

The board of the Kashmiri American Council comprises mostly physicians and lawyers from across the US,and election records show that several members have made significant donations to lawmakers who have championed peace in Kashmir.

Gulam Hassan Butt,a retired California physician and member of the council’s board whose name does not appear in the donor database,said in a phone interview that Fai did not inform board members about all the sources of the council’s revenue. “Where does he get the money?” Butt said. “I don’t know. Who gives him the money? I don’t know.” CHARLIE SAVAGE & ERIC SCHMITT