Tucked away in the newly released files from Osama bin Laden’s Abbottobad compound is evidence that the Al Qaeda leader may have been in contact with a high-level official at a British charity.

The files released this week, cheerily called “Bin Laden’s Bookshelf” by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, contain a footnote in one of bin Laden’s letters that gives rise to new speculation about the potential funding of terrorist networks through Islamic-based humanitarian relief organizations. The letter recounts communications bin Laden claimed to have had with “the person in charge of a relief organization calling itself ‘Islamic’ and headquartered in London.” The leader, bin Laden wrote, declined to divert funds to the Mujahideen because the organization was “watched by the intelligence and governments,” and “particularly subjected to a stricter monitoring owing to their name, which indicates their Islamic affiliation.”

So who was it?

The letter offers a few clues. Called “Implications of Climate Change,” it largely focuses on the need for devout Muslims to address the “effects associated with the enormous climate changes,” leading to “drought growth, particularly in Africa, and flooding in other regions, which in days left behind thousands dead and millions of victims forced to be displaced in Pakistan alone.” This reference, along with another mention of a widely-circulated photo of a Pakistani man holding his children above rising floodwaters, indicate the undated letter was written after Pakistan’s devastating floods of July 2010. The letter also mentions the organization’s earthquake relief work in Pakistan, apparently in response to the 2005 Kashmir earthquake that killed nearly 90,000 people.

Islamic charities that do vital work around the globe have struggled for more than a decade to get out from under racist and Islamophobic accusations about funding terrorism. Bin Laden’s letter, however, presents what looks like evidence that there is at least one such organization that actually has ties to Al Qaeda, however thin (bin Laden himself, after all, says the group declined to help his fighters). The U.K. Charity Commission told Phase Zero it did not have the means to compile a comprehensive list of all the charities that responded to specific disasters, such as the earthquake in Pakistan that the letter refers to. But there is a relatively short list of prominent British Muslim charities that a) were active around or after 2010, b) feature a recognizable Islamic reference in their name, and c) had enough funding to be involved in direct earthquake and flood aid to Pakistan. A few possible contenders:

Muslim Aid

Founded in part by Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, Muslim Aid has a long history of controversy. Formerly chaired by convicted war criminal Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin, who was sentenced to death in absentia by the International Crimes Tribunal for his collaboration with the Pakistani army to murder intellectuals during the war of independence in Bangladesh, it has been investigated by the U.K.’s Charity Commission. Earlier this year, it was ordered to cease operations for a camp of undocumented Rohingyas in the Teknaf region of Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi government asked the European Union to cease funding the operation because, a senior foreign ministry official told a local newspaper, “We are not happy with the way Muslim Aid operates. Sometimes, its activities appear to be dubious, therefore, we requested the EU to stop funding it.” It is unclear whether Mueen-Uddin remains a trustee of Muslim Aid. Its leadership in 2010 included chairman Sir Iqbal Sacranie and CEO Syed Sharfuddin.

Asked for comment by Phase Zero, a Muslim Aid spokesperson offered the following statement: “Muslim Aid confirms categorically that none of its ‘leaders’ (as you describe them), or anyone else at Muslim Aid or acting on its behalf, has ever had any contact with Osama bin Laden, whether in 2010 or at any time before or since.”

Islamic Relief Worldwide

In the wake of accusations by Israel that Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW) provided financial support to Hamas, as well as its inclusion on a list of 83 organizations designated by the United Arab Emirates as terrorist entities, IRW suspended its relief efforts last year and conducted an independent audit of its West Bank work. The U.K. Charity Commission and Department for International Development both reviewed the audit report and, according to a spokeswoman for the commission, were “satisfied that the charity was responding appropriately to the incident.” When contacted for comment, IRW spokesman Martin Cottingham said that the organization is actually based in Birmingham, although he said that it does have a London satellite office. Both Cottingham and Brendan Paddy, a spokesman for the Disasters Emergency Committee, an umbrella group of charities that includes IRW, strongly denied that anyone at IRW had any relationship with bin Laden. In 2010, the IRW’s chairman was Dr. Mohammed El-Alfy; it’s CEO was Saleh Saeed.

Muslim Hands

Based in Nottingham (but with a London office), Muslim Hands has been accused by the Telegraph of fronting Hamas groups, as well as by conservative (and frequently anti-Muslim) think tanks. Its chairman in 2010 was Dr. Musharraf Hussain; its founder is Syed Lakhte Hassanain, who also serves as secretary of the Muslim Charities Forum. Muslim Hands did not respond to a request for comment.

The spectre of personal communication between bin Laden and a high-ranking official in a London-based Islamic relief organization threatens to undermine the continued efforts of legitimate organizations to insulate themselves from such suspicion. Earlier this year, the Muslim Charity Forum, a broader entity of which all the above organizations are members, was stripped of £250,000 by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles after the Telegraph reported evidence of funding to a group that allegedly funded Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

The full version of the letter is available here.

[Screenshot from website of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Photo by REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro.]

Contact the author at sultana.khan@gawker.com.