Early 2000-December 2001:
Al-Zarqawi Operates Independent Militant Training Camp in Afghanistan -
In early 2000, Islamist militant leader MUSAB ABU AL_ZARQAWI starts a new training camp in Afghanistan, near the town of Herat. Osama bin Laden reportedly does not like him, but AL-ZARQAWI gets some help from al-Qaeda leader SAIF AL-ADEL, who serves as a liaison between al-Zarqawi and al-Qaeda.
His [AL ZARQAWI] camp starts with only a dozen or so followers, but it rapidly grows and eventually numbers several thousand. His group consists mostly of JORDANIANS and SYRIANS, and is HELPED BY LINKS TO THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD.
According to the Atlantic Monthly, bin Laden repeatedly asks al-Zarqawi to come to him and take an oath of allegiance, but each time al-Zarqawi refuses. “Under no circumstances did [al-Zarqawi] want to become involved in the battle between the Northern Alliance and the Taliban. He also did not believe that either bin Laden or the Taliban was serious enough about jihad.”
But in October 2001, the US begins bombing Afghanistan, and al-Zarqawi’s camp is targeted. He is reportedly wounded in the chest when a ceiling falls on him. But in December 2001, he manages to escape to Iran with about 300 followers and is based there for several months while regrouping. [Atlantic Monthly, 6/8/2006]
April 2001:
Al-Qaeda Intelligence Intercepts Lead to Closure of Al Taqwa’s Bahamas Branch -
The charters of the Bahamas branch of the Al TAQWA BANK and the related AKIDA BANK are revoked. Al Taqwa’s headquarters in Switzerland will be shut down after 9/11 following accusations that it helped fund al-Qaeda and other Islamist militant groups (see November 7, 2001). [Randal, 2005, pp. 225]
The US Treasury Department will later state that the BAHAMAS branch of “Al Taqwa and Akida Bank are not functional banking institutions in the conventional sense. They are shell companies lacking a physical presence and sharing the same address in the Bahamas where they were licensed.” [US Department of the Treasury, 8/29/2002] Press reports at the time say the closure is the result of Jordanian, French, and US intelligence reports indicating al-Qaeda money coming from Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates had been channeled through Al Taqwa. [Forward, 10/17/2003]
Journalist Jonathan Randal will later note that US intelligence on Al Taqwa was solid enough before 9/11 to lead to this closure. “Egyptian, US, and other Western specialists had long suspected this well-known Muslim Brotherhood bank had ties to al-Qaeda as well as to radical Algerian, Egyptian, and Palestinian Islamist groups.
One persistent rumor suggested Osama had been bugged telephoning the bank in Nassau, [Bahamas,] in 1996 to discuss rearranging his finances at the time of his departure from Khartoum, [Sudan.]” [Randal, 2005, pp. 225]
So, why didn’t they shut-down the money flow? Again, there are some whose goals coincide with the Muslim Brotherhood.