Al-Qaida link eyed in Mass. raid of PTech firm

The company’s client list includes the FBI, NATO, the Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. Air Force, the Naval Air Serices Command, the Department of Energy, the IRS, the Postal Service and the House of Representatives.

Marvelous! (Said in best Dirty Harry voice.)

Someone at the FBI had the balls to pull the trigger.

Bout friggin time.

I agree - about time that enough sack was demonstrated to examine whatever cancers we might have hiding within our boarders. I'd like to think that this move was of the "don't ask a question you don't already know the answer to" variety...

Interesting that MSNBC's article starts off with a first paragraph which makes the FBI look somewhat like witch hunters. They don't mention the direct link to sensitive info until the third.

This bears some watching...

Tip O' The Iceberg

I'd like to think that this move was of the "don't ask a question you don't already know the answer to" variety...

You and me both.

Must've been some urgency to conduct the raid at the height of a fairly decent snowstorm and not wait a day or two.

Here, just 15 miles from Cambridge, Massachusetts? I'm shocked! SHOCKED!

Another thread on it.

Interesting times we live in my friend but considering the amount of money they have at their disposal something like this just makes plain sense .

I think the entire article is worth archiveing.

Al-Qaida link eyed in Mass. raid
Software firm has worked for dozens of U.S. agencies, big corporations... Ptech Inc.'s offices in Quincy, Mass., which were raided by FBI and U.S. Customs agents early Friday.
Dec. 6 — FBI and Customs agents on Friday raided a Quincy, Mass., software company that has done business with dozens of government agencies and Fortune 500 companies, attempting to determine whether the company is partly owned by a Saudi businessman who U.S. officials believe is a financier for the al-Qaida terrorism network, NBC News has learned.
SOURCES FAMILIAR with the raid, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told NBC News that investigators also are attempting to determine whether the company, Ptech Inc., used its software to gain access to sensitive government data.
The company, which describes itself on its Web site as “the leading authority in enterprise architecture,” has a client list that includes the FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. Air Force, the Naval Air Services Command, the Department of Energy, the IRS, the Postal Service and the House of Representatives. It also did work for NATO.
Among the high-profile companies Ptech has done work for are Southern California Edison, Allegheny Energy Supply, Applied Materials, IBM Global Services, Motorola and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
SUSPECTED LINKS TO SAUDI BUSINESSMAN
The sources told NBC News that authorities have reason to believe that the company, which was founded in 1994, is partly owned by Saudi businessman Kasin al-Kadi, who has been designated as a terrorist financier by U.S. Treasury officials.
The sources said the federal agents detained some company employees for questioning in the raid, which occurred in the early morning hours in a driving snowstorm.
Few other details on the raid were immediately available, but the sources said that investigators were attempting to determine whether the Ptech software might have included “back doors” that would have allowed company employees to remotely access and download data from government and company computers.
However, a law enforcement official quoted by The Associated Press said there was no evidence of any compromise of government computers or any coding embedded in the software sold to the government that would be of benefit to terrorists.
The official, who spoke with the AP on condition of anonymity, also said the investigation was focused on links between Ptech officials and certain charitable groups. He did not elaborate.
COMPANY A HIGH FLIER
The privately held Ptech, which had about 40 employees as of late last year, has been a high flier in recent years. It has twice been named as one of the “100 Companies that Matter” by KM World, ranking alongside Intel, IBM and Microsoft.
Ptech’s software provides organizations with a visual blueprint of how internal processes work, and is used to help executives turn strategy into practice.
No one answered the door or answered the phone Friday at the home of the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, Oussama Ziade. A woman who answered the phone at the home of vice president and chief scientist Hussein Ibrahim and declined to give her name said he was not available.
‘ABSOLUTELY NOTHING THERE’
However, James Cerrato, the company’s chief product officer, said as he walked into the office Friday morning: “There’s absolutely nothing there” in terms of a link to al-Qaida.
“I think as soon as the investigation concludes, that will put a light on things,” he added.
Little is known about al-Kadi, who U.S. officials describe as a multimillionaire with personal connections to the Saudi royal family. The Treasury Department has concluded that he has funneled “millions of dollars” to bin Laden’s al-Qaida network.
The Saudi government announced this week that it has frozen al-Kadi’s assets there, one of just three individuals it has taken such action against. In other cases, the Saudis have said that the United States has failed to provide evidence to back up assertions that individuals are financially supporting terrorists.
But the businessman continues to live comfortably in Saudi Arabia, apparently relying on funds he still has access to in countries that have not frozen his bank accounts.
In an interview last year with ABC News, al-Kadi denied he had provided financial support to bin Laden or al-Qaida. “To hear such an accusation had been put on myself, this is a complete mistake, a big one,” he told the network.
SAUDIS DEFEND ANTI-TERROR EFFORTS
The Saudi government this week launched a public relations campaign aimed at deflecting criticism of what some U.S. officials see as a reluctance to crack down on citizens of the oil-rich kingdom who are providing financial support for al-Qaida.
Adel al-Jubeir, a foreign policy adviser to the royal family, said at an unusual news conference at the Saudi Embassy in Washington that Riyadh has aggressively targeted the al-Qaida network and imposed financial controls to ensure that money from the kingdom’s citizens doesn’t flow to terrorists.
He also said that Saudi Arabia has been “unfairly maligned” and subjected to a campaign that “borders on hate.”
Criticism of Saudi Arabia as a possible source of terror money escalated after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington in which 15 of the 19 alleged terrorists were Saudis.
Since the attacks, questions have arisen over the estimated $3 billion a year Saudis give to charitable causes, including at least $300 million a year flows out out of the country and can’t easily be traced.
The questions have become more pointed in recent weeks since it was revealed that some money given by Saudi Princess Haifa al Faisal to the family of a Saudi man living in Southern California may have been used to aid two of the hijackers who participated in the Sept. 11 attacks. The princess is the wife of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the United States.
The princess said the money was a charitable contribution and she had no knowledge that some of it may have been diverted to third parties.

Two names certainly spring out at you:

1) chairman and chief executive officer, Oussama Ziade

2) vice president and chief scientist Hussein Ibrahim

I assume Oussama is a variant transliteration of Osama. I'm curious how many other Arabs work there in key slots.

I went up there (Quincy) from DC to represent it in the DC area in 93. Never did sell any, since it was way too theoretical and thus a very, very long sales cycle.

They went broke shortly thereafter, and the Saudi/whatever money brought it back to life.

It is/was a high class code generator, with some very powerful ideas and very little usability in an ordinary shop. I heard about them again about a year and half ago, and was surprized they were still around.

Since they were very much product oriented, as opposed to consulting, and would never get in the office of a real operational type (that does not include most of Mitre), I wouldn't think they could do much damage, if any.

But I'm not really current, so who knows. 40 people means 20 tekkies at most, and that's not enough to do much consulting while you're trying to maintain the product.

Oh well.

You guys gotta read this:

Know thy enemy