McLintock, from Dundee, added to US treasury database accused of raising funds for groups such as al-Qaida and the Taliban

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A British man suspected of raising funds for al-Qaida and the Taliban has been added to a US treasury department list of global terrorists.

James Alexander McLintock has been accused by the US of collecting money for terrorist groups, along with three other men and two groups, Associated Press reported.

McLintock, aged about 52, from Dundee, said in an interview with the Scotsman in 2004 that he was a “committed Jihadi” who fought in Afghanistan and Bosnia. He told the newspaper he had converted to Islam in his 20s, changed his name to Yaqub McLintock and went to live with his family in Pakistan.

McLintock said he started a charity and a news agency in the 1990s to show what was “really happening” in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

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The US Department of the Treasury said his Pakistan-based al-Rahmah Welfare Organisation (RWO) is a front that provides money for al-Qaida, the Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba and other Afghan extremist groups under the guide of helping orphans.

Sanctions imposed on Thursday mean McLintock is on the department’s “specially designated global terrorist” list, freezes any property he has within US jurisdiction and bans Americans from doing business with him, according to AP.

Saudi Arabia also designated the same six. They are suspected of having ties across Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

The US treasury said in a statement: “As of early 2013, McLintock recruited Afghan insurgents to obtain photos of children, Afghan identity documents, and cellphone numbers to create falsified dossiers used to obtain donations for RWO, which were funnelled to support al-Qaida.

“As early as 2010, McLintock used RWO and the cover of providing stipends to Afghan orphans to finance the Taliban’s militant activities in Kunar province, Afghanistan.”

The department said McLintock also regularly met with Taliban and other militant commanders. He received about £125,000 ($180,000) from donors in Britain between April 2011 and April 2012 and also received money from charities in the Gulf and the UK, the US treasury said.