Charity 'unwittingly' pays for terror?

LONDON -- Britain's intelligence agency MI5 is investigating how the nation's major telethon to raise money for the Children In Need charity has "unwittingly provided money" that was used to recruit and train terrorists involved in attacks, including the London bombings that killed 52 people in July 2005 ....

The claims center on a surveillance operation by the Security Service.

Last week it was confirmed that about $40,000 was given by the charity -- which raises $60 million through the telethon every year to benefit children in the UK -- to the Leeds Community School in Beeston, Yorkshire, located behind the Iqra Islamic bookshop.

Both the bookshop and school were registered charities -- making them eligible to receive tax-free donations. In their application for charity status, both claimed: "Our aim is the advancement of the Islamic faith."

But it has emerged that Sidique Khan, the mastermind of the London bombers, and Shehzad Tanweer, who had been one of the bombers, were trustees of both the school and the bookshop. Both men have been identified as having been trained in Pakistan by al-Qaida. ....