looks like you explained it as well as it could've been explained. nice job.

Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation is actually based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Ashland location was a branch of the larger organization dedicated to spreading extremist Wahhabi doctrine internationally.
The United Nations, The United States, Great Britain as well as several other countries have all designated Al-Haramain as a terrorist entity, frozen and seized its funds where possible and banned it from conducting business.
A PDF file of the government's indictment of the Oregon branch is here:

http://www.globalterroralert.com/pdf/0205/haramainindictment.pdf

It's a small thing, but you probably shouldn't use blockquotes for a made up quote. Warrentless wiretapping is lame though.

Now this is an interesting story.

Welcome to George Bush and Dick Cheney's form of "democracy". I think of it more as dictatorship, but what do I know. I'm probably a terrorist because I don't agree with them.

My parents lived in Riyadh in the early 1970s. The local grocery store was run by the Bin Laden family.

Is there something more than the fact that the foundation is based in Riyadh that leads us to believe it's a terrorist organization?

If so, the government won't tell us what it is. That's what scares me.

Something more?

The United Nations maintains a list of organizations that provide support for Al Qaeda, and the various international branches of Al-Haramain are featured prominently on the list:

http://www.un.org/sc/committees/1267/consolidatedlist.htm

Al-Haramain is now banned globally by the U.N.

In addition:

• CBS News reported in 2004 that the 1998 embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya (which killed 223 people and injured over 4,000) were financed with Al-Haramain funds; and that it was well-known to Western governments that funds donated to Al-Haramain sometimes found their way to Al Qaeda, and had been used to finance several terror plots.

• In January of 2004, the Washington Post also published an article describing declassified U.S. intelligence documents which showed that employees of Al-Haramain carried out the Tanzanian and Kenyan embassy bombings, that Al-Haramain funded Indonesian terrorists, and that terrorists associated with Al-Haramain plotted to assassinate Americans.

• According to the Australian newspaper The Age, Al-Haramain funded the Bali bombers in 2002 -- one of the most devastating post-9/11 terror attacks, in which 202 people were killed.

• The Albanian branch of Al-Haramain funded jihad and had a connection to Osama bin Laden himself.

In 2004 The Bank of England froze the funds of the Oregon branch of Al-Haramain as part of its crackdown on Al Qaeda.

You should take the time to read the indictment (that is where the government tells you "what it is").

Jay,

We should back up a little bit and determine first what a "foreign terrorist organization" is. From the State Department website:
"Three Criteria for Designation
1. The organization must be foreign.
2. The organization must engage in terrorist activity as defined in Section 212 (a)(3)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. (See attachment for text.)
3. The organization's activities must threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security (national defense, foreign relations, or the economic interests) of the United States."

Section 212(a)(3)(B), defining terrorist activity, is quite broad. It includes an unlawful assassination, threat of violence, or the use of any dangerous weapon with the intent to endanger the safety of one or more individuals or property.

Setting aside the issue that this Section of the Code is broad enough to include a whole lot of things not regularly thought of as "terrorist," the criteria is not evenly applied. The most obvious examples of the unequal application of these criteria are other Imperial powers reigning down on civilian populations. Because they are allies of the US in some sense or another, this gets overlooked.

Take China's violent activities in Tibet. Their represseion there involves involves a violent crackdown on large scores of civilians; People have died for protesting. Despite being a foreign organization committed to violent acts against large numbers of people, they have yet to be labeled as such. I'm not suggesting that China is a terrorist, but rather that the designation criteria is applied with a sinister motive.

Equally, Israel Defense Forces regularly committs acts of assassination, violence to large numbers of civilians, and frequent civilian property destruction. They have yet to be designated as such despite the organizations of their opposition are, and committ acts of less violence and less property damage. The criteria is again not applied with an even hand.

Take the secret rendition program for instance. It is well known now that foreign nationals were transported by the CIA to other countries to be tortured. These programs were carried out by foreign groups and invovled the use of many dangerous weapons on a large number of people (electrocution devices for example). These organizations have not been designated "terrorist" despite fitting the definition.

Take the merencary situation in Iraq, for instance. It is now well known that foreign fighters are recruited into Iraq to participate in acts of violence against large numbers of people. Again, no designation, as the funding comes straight from the United States taxpayer.

The list could continue ad nauseum. My point is not that all these people and groups are terrorists, but if such a designation exists, and its not applied with an even hand, what motives are behind those doing the designating? And what moral authority should it carry?

To quote the UN is equally absurd. The United States commits terrorism on such a larger scale than most of these groups combined, and, yet, fails to be designated as such by the UN (a list of these acts is the subject of many books, as it requires hundreds of pages to compile). Again, when a designation demonstrates such obvious unequal application, one must question the motives and purpose of such a designation. While we freeze the assets of a small organization, we speed up "emergency" shipments of armaments to Israel to carry out civilian bombing campaigns in Lebanon.

I guess I will leave you all with the point that it takes one to know one.