30 July 2007
CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
The Edinburgh Building
Shaftesbury Road
Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK
ww.cambridge.org
Telephone +44 (0)1223312393
Fax +44 (0)1223315052
Email information@cambridge.org
Sheikh Khalid Bin Mahfouz
c/o Kendall Freeman
One Fetter Lane
London
EC4A 1JB
Dear Sir,
Alms for Jihad: Burr and Collins, Cambridge University Press
We write in response to your solicitors' letter of 28 March 2007 drawing our
attention to allegations published in Alms for Jihad written by J. Millard Burr and
Robert O. Collins ('the Book') which Cambridge University Press published in April
last year.
Throughout the Book there are serious and defamatory allegations about yourself
and your family, alleging support for terrorism through your businesses, family and
charities, and directly.
As a result of what we now know, we accept and acknowledge that all of those
allegations about you and your family, businesses and charities are entirely and
manifestly false.
In researching the allegations the authors relied on a range of official and
governmental sources, including documents from court proceedings. They also
relied on the so-called Golden Chain document (as well as an article published on a
now defunct website, ww.investigateur.com). which has long been discredited as a
reliable source for supporting the allegation that those individuals listed in the
document financed terrorism. Your solicitors have explained that such reliance was
misplaced and have also drawn to our attention the apologies given to you by
Associated Newspapers as well as Jean-Charles Brisard and others.
Cambridge University Press is a responsible publisher and has no desire to
publish false or inaccurate material. The allegations were originally published in
good faith, but having received your solicitors' letter and read the information sent
with it we now recognise that the information on which they were based was
wrong. Having recognised this, Cambridge University Press has put a stop to any
further distribution of the Book.
Additionally, Cambridge University Press is prepared to pulp all existing copies of
the Book held by us or in our distributors' warehouses as well as all unsold copies
returned to us. Although we cannot guarantee unequivocally that no individual
copies will remain on sale because of the way the supply chain works, we have
taken the practicable steps we can to prevent further publication.
In addition and in keeping with our good faith approach, as soon as we received
your solicitors' letter we took immediate steps to prevent further publication by
others, and there will be no future editions.
Cambridge University Press accepts that the entire Bin Mahfouz family
categorically and unreservedly condemns terrorism in all its manifestations, and
that at no time has any member of the family contributed to any terrorist
organisation, nor has the family ever had reason to believe that funds it has given
over the years to a wide variety of charities, including the Muwafaq Foundation,
have been used other than for the charitable purposes intended.
We try to publish to the highest standards and not to use inaccurate and
misleading information. We regret that in this instance we fell short of that aim.
Please accept our sincere apologies for the distress and embarrassment this has
caused. We are pleased that we can resolve this matter without the need for
litigation and confirm that, subject to the reservations above, Cambridge University
Press undertakes not to publish these or any similar allegations about you in
future.
To emphasise our regret we have agreed to pay you substantial damages and to
make a contribution to your reasonable legal costs in dealing with this matter, both
of which you have agreed to donate to the charity UNICEF.
Yours faithfully,
Kevin Taylor
Press Intellectual Property Director