IHH, the Turkish group which organized the armada to Gaza which was intercepted by the Israeli navy Monday, had ties in the 1990s to the Al-Qaeda terror network and World Jihad, according to a 2006 study by the Danish Institute for International Studies. The Intelligence and Terror Information Center said senior American researcher Evan Kohlmann's study dealt in the involvement of Islamic charities with aid to terrorism.

Turkey started investigating IHH in 1997 and raided its offices following word it had bought automatic weapons from Islamic extremists. Analysis of documents found with weapons and a jihadist flag revealed that IHH members planned to take part in jihadist efforts in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya