HAMAS TERRORIST FINANCIER AMIN ABU RASHED AND FUGITIVE OKKE ORNSTEIN IN SYRIA

Rashed in Damascus (taken by Ornstein)

A reader has asked me why I have written a number of articles about the Dutch national Okke Ornstein, a/k/a Okke Van Ooijen, who has conducted one organized fraud after another in the Republic of Panama, but is otherwise a garden-variety career criminal. It is because of Ornstein's long association with terrorist organizations, including Amin Abu Rashed, a known Palestinian terrorist, with whom Ornstein shares radical political views.

Amin Abu Rashed, a/k/a/ Amin Abou Ibrahim a/k/a Amin Abu Rashid, is a Palestinian with a Dutch passport, who often poses as a human rights activist in the Netherlands. In truth and in fact, he is the principal representative of Hamas in Holland, having previously managed its Al-Aqsa Foundation in the Netherlands; he was also named as a participant in the Holy Land Foundation, in the Federal case in the United States. Both of these entities were sanctioned by OFAC for terrorist financing activities. Rashed's latest vehicle is the Foundation Palestinian Platform for Human Rights and Solidarity. This individual is engaged in terrorist financing, not human rights. Rashed was one of the chief organizers of the Gaza Flotilla in 2010, and was detained by Israeli authorities for participating in the ill-fated effort to enter Gaza illegally by sea. He has close ties to the Syrian Government.

Amin Abu Rashed

Ornstein and Rashed have been associates since at least 2000, which makes me wonder whether Okke assisted in any fraudulent activities in Panama to fund Hamas. More recently, the pair became involved, jointly, in raising funds, purportedly for Palestinian refugees who fled Syria for Jordan, but their "charitable" activities soon morphed into a bogus generic Syrian refugee assistance project. This is a scheme to raise money for Hamas, which has had major cash flow problems, after Egypt closed down the Gaza smuggling tunnels, from which Hamas reportedly derived millions in taxes, paid by the tunnel operators/smugglers.

Inasmuch as Ornstein does not appear to have ever engaged in any lawful occupation, one must assume that only a small portion of the contributions that Ornstein and Rashed collect ever make it into the hands of refugees, and that the bulk of the money ends up in Hamas bank accounts. Ornstein has often publicly stated that he has a relationship with radical terrorist groups; here is the proof that he does.

Inasmuch as he is a wanted fugitive in Panama, where he normally resides, and has been sentenced to 38 months in prison in that country, and reportedly faces ten years in a pending criminal case, Ornstein is presently living in the Netherlands. He is believed to have been to Syria at least three times recently, as a guest of the Assad regime, complete with government permits, and reportedly traveled there each time with Rashed; He even admits all this on his website.

Okke Ornstein, currently Okke Van Ooijen

I cannot understand how Dutch law enforcement can permit these two terrorist financiers to operate openly in the Netherlands. Ornstein reportedly has an open INTERPOL Red Notice, to detain him, from Panama. Rashed, as a Dutch national, is acting as an agent for a designated terrorist organization. I hope that they don't wait for a terrorist act to take place in Holland before they shut this cell down.