Extract from approved judgment of The Hon. Mr. Justice Gray, 7 November 2003:

35. In my judgment the list falls well short of establishing the existence of sufficient grounds for an enquiry or investigation (note: as to whether the persons named on the Golden Chain list are associated, through funding, with Osama Bin Laden). In brief my reasons are these: the list is in manuscript; its author is unknown, as is the source of the author's information; there is nothing in the list to suggest that the individuals named have made donations, rather than that they are potential donors; the list has been dated by Mr.Brisard, the lead investigator in the Burnett case, to 1988 at which time Osama Bin Laden was engaged in resisting the Soviet incursions into Afghanistan with the approval of western governments; there is nothing to link the list to Al Qaeda; any money which was donated was apparently to be applied to fund fighters in Chechnya and Bosnia and not the atrocities which took place many years later in New York. It is true that the Golden Chain list was attached to an Evidentiary Proffer filed in US criminal proceedings against Mr. Arnaout in support of the admissibility of co-conspirator statements. But the Evidentiary Proffer was ruled inadmissible. In any event Mr. Arnaout was not convicted of any offence implicating him in terrorist activities on the part of Al Qaeda or Osama bin Laden in the US; he pleaded guilty to defrauding donors by using their donations without their knowledge to fund activities for which they were unaware.