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Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat - Thread Seven
The Washington Times ^
| 4-26-04
| Bill Gertz
Posted on 04/26/2004 3:35:38 PM PDT by JustPiper
Edited on 07/12/2004 4:14:45 PM PDT by Jim Robinson.
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To: WestCoastGal
Agreed. Near an oil rig, no less.
To: Velveeta
I haven't seen this mentioned but I believe this weekend is the birthday of the Prophet Mohamed.
Most of the calendars I have seen place it on Sunday May 2 this year. I've seen a few calendars that place it on Monday May 3.
At any rate, it is this weekend.
To: All
Were funds generated by the UN's Iraqi "Oil for Food" program diverted to al-Qaeda and used to fund terrorism around the world???
It is beginning to look that way.
Wall Street Journal
April 28, 2004
THE REAL WORLD
Oil-for-Terror
U.N. Iraq money may have ended up in accounts tied to al Qaeda and the Taliban.
BY CLAUDIA ROSETT
Wednesday, April 28, 2004 12:01 a.m. EDT
It's looking more and more as if one of the best reasons to get rid of
Saddam Hussein was that it was probably the only way to get rid of
Oil-for-Food. The problem wasn't simply that this huge United Nations
relief program for Iraq became a gala of graft, theft, fraud,
palace-building and global influence-peddling--though all that was quite
bad enough. The picture now emerging is that under U.N. management the
Oil-for-Food program, which ran from 1996-2003, served as a cover not
only for Saddam's regime to cheat the Iraqi people, but to set up a vast
and intricate global network of illicit finance.
And though much debate has focused on the list published this past
January in the Iraqi newspaper Al Mada--cataloguing some 270 individuals
and entities world-wide alleged to have received illicit oil vouchers
worth millions from Saddam--the Al Mada list may be the least of it
(apart from the last name of the executive director of the Oil-for-Food
program himself, Benon Sevan). Dwarfing the Al Mada list for size, scope
and menace was the U.N.-piloted mothership, the entire $111 billion U.N.
Oil-for-Food program. Supplied by Iraq's oil wells, the sums involved in
Oil-for-Food's transactions were so enormous that even the routine
rounding errors of a few hundred million here or there easily rivaled,
for example, the $300 million or so in family money believed to have
given Osama bin Laden his terrorist start.
In a world beset right now by terrorist threats--which depend on
terrorist financing--it's time to acknowledge that the U.N.'s
Oil-for-Food program was worse than simply a case of grand larceny.
Given Saddam's proclivities for deceit and violence, Oil-for-Food was
also a menace to security. By letting Saddam pick his own business
partners and draw up his own shopping lists, by keeping the details of
his contracts and accounts secret, and by then failing abjectly to
supervise the process, the U.N.--through a program meant to aid the
people of Iraq--enabled Saddam to line his pockets while bankrolling his
pals world-wide. In return, precisely, for what? That is a question
former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker might want to keep in mind
as he heads up the official investigation, finally agreed to by U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, into Oil-for-Food.
In tallying various leaked lists, disturbing leads and appalling exposés
to date, what becomes ever more clear is that Oil-for-Food quickly
became a global maze of middlemen, shell companies, fronts and shadowy
connections, all blessed by the U.N. From this labyrinth, via kickbacks
on underpriced oil and overpriced goods, Saddam extracted, by
conservative estimates of the General Accounting Office, at least $4.4
billion in graft, plus an additional $5.7 billion on oil smuggled out of
Iraq. Meanwhile, Mr. Annan's Secretariat shrugged and rang up its $1.4
billion in Iraqi oil commissions for supervising the program. Worse, the
GAO notes that anywhere from $10 billion to as much as $40 billion may
have been socked away in secret by Saddam's regime. The assumption so
far has been that most of the illicit money flowed back to Saddam in the
form of fancy goods and illicit arms.
But no one really knows right now just how much of those billions went
where--or what portion of that kickback cash Saddam might have forwarded
to whatever he deemed a worthy cause. A look at one of the secret U.N.
lists of clients authorized by the U.N. to buy from Saddam is not
reassuring. It includes more than 1,000 companies, scattered from
Liberia to South Africa to oil-rich Russia. And though the U.N. was
supposed to ensure that oil was sold to end-users at market price--thus
minimizing the graft potential for Saddam and maximizing the funds for
relief--there is an extraordinary confetti of clients in locations known
less for their oil consumption than for their shell companies and
financial secrecy.
Why on earth, for instance, did the U.N. authorize Saddam to sell oil to
at least 65 companies in the financial lockbox of Switzerland. What was
the logic behind approving as oil buyers at least 45 firms in Cyprus,
seven in Panama and four in Liechtenstein? At the other extreme, would
Mr. Annan care to explain why the U.N. authorized Saddam to sell oil to
at least 70 companies in the petroleum-soaked United Arab Emirates?
In Oil-for-Food, "Every contract tells a story," says John Fawcett, a
financial investigator with the New York law firm of Kreindler &
Kreindler LLP, which has sued the financial sponsors of Sept. 11 on
behalf of the victims and their families. In an interview, Mr. Fawcett
and his colleague, Christine Negroni, run down the lists of Oil-for-Food
authorized oil buyers and relief suppliers, pointing out likely
terrorist connections. One authorized oil buyer, they note, was a
remnant of the defunct global criminal bank, BCCI. Another was close to
the Taliban while Osama bin Laden was on the rise in Afghanistan; a
third was linked to a bank in the Bahamas involved in al Qaeda's
financial network; a fourth had a close connection to one of Saddam's
would-be nuclear-bomb makers.
U.N. secrecy--in deference to the privacy of Saddam and his former
clientele--makes it extremely difficult to confirm the many whiffs of
sleazy and sinister dealings in these lists. But for an example of how
dirty Oil-for-Food could get, take the case of one of Saddam's
U.N.-authorized relief suppliers, a company called Al Wasel & Babel
General Trading LLC, set up in Dubai, in 1999. This same Al Wasel &
Babel was designated by Treasury earlier this month as a front company
set up by senior officials of Saddam's regime to serve as a foreign
seller of goods to Saddam's regime, through Oil-for-Food (while trying
to procure for Iraq a surface-to-air-missile system).
And although full information is hard to come by, partial lists leaked
from the U.N. show that in 2000-2001 alone, Saddam's regime ordered up
from Al Wasel and Babel more than $190 million in construction
materials, trucks, cars and so on. Over Mr. Annan's and Mr. Sevan's
protests, the U.S. and U.K. blocked some $45 million worth of those
contracts; that still left the Saddam front company of Al Wasel & Babel
with about $145 million of Oil-for-Food business for that two year
period alone.
Basically, Oil-for-Food was Saddam--just slightly harder to spot,
swaddled as he was in that blue U.N. flag.
Ms. Rosett is a fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies
and the Hudson Institute. Her column appears here and in The Wall Street
Journal Europe on alternate Wednesdays. A version of this article
appears in the May issue of Commentary.
1,383
posted on
04/30/2004 6:24:43 PM PDT
by
tmp02
To: Velveeta
In TEXAS too.
1,384
posted on
04/30/2004 6:34:45 PM PDT
by
WestCoastGal
("Hire paranoids, they may have a high false alarm rate, but they discover all the plots" Rumsfeld)
To: tmp02
1,385
posted on
04/30/2004 6:34:50 PM PDT
by
tmp02
To: StillProud2BeFree
I pray we are both wrong on that.
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction on Zarqawi. I get so confused at times. We all post so much, there is so much to take in, so many odd threats, weird pictures etc. If I had the time I guess I would take notes. I may have a lot of time this summer if I don't find another job.
Hey maybe we should all go in together and write a book, everybody else is. We could call it "The Citizens Fight Against the Jihadis" AKA Threat Matrix 101. Everything we never wanted to know about Muslims fanatics and the Koran. Or Threat Matrix For Dummies ;-)
1,386
posted on
04/30/2004 6:41:09 PM PDT
by
WestCoastGal
("Hire paranoids, they may have a high false alarm rate, but they discover all the plots" Rumsfeld)
To: tmp02
...well, at least the site is a fun read...
1,387
posted on
04/30/2004 6:43:16 PM PDT
by
tmp02
To: All
Connecticut
City employee imposters
(New Haven) - A group of men posing as city employees on the shoreline may come knocking at your door.
They are flashing a stolen letter from the New Haven Controller as they try to get into apartments near Yale.
Twenty-two hundred letters were sent out to update the city's property tax data base. City officials are worried these letters are being used to commit crimes.
When six men entered a Howe Street apartment building yesterday, run by Beazley Property management, Susan Braford got a call from one of her employees.
She believes the men were trying to document personal property inside people's apartments. Bradford says the men, five white and one african-american, were all dressed in khaki pants and white shirts bearing some kind emblem. (snip)
http://www.wfsb.com/Global/story.asp?S=1831176
To: StillProud2BeFree
Has it been mentioned on the jihadi forums?
To: WestCoastGal
Yep.
To: WestCoastGal
I know what you mean! This morning I was watching a general taking about Iraq and FOX cut him off to show Michael Jacksons dad at the courthouse. I couldn't believe it.
1,391
posted on
04/30/2004 6:56:28 PM PDT
by
knak
To: WestCoastGal
You might be joking about that book, but it sounds like a great idea!
To: tmp02
We had some posts here from that site back when we were discussing Yellowstone and such. Sometimes they're waaaayy out there. But seeing as how alot of folks think that us Threat Matrix posters are waaaay out there, it's a good fit on occasion. LOL
To: Velveeta
From
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=48093 "The following was sent to me by a reader I have known for a while who always has provided excellent
information.
What kind of attack is the Elite preparing for? Nuclear, biological? Chemical? What can Greenbriar
withstand these days?
Greenbriar was the first complex that was prepared from our leaders to wait out a nuclear attack.
Click here for the virtual tour -
http://www.cmu.edu/coldwar/bunker2.htm Rayelan,
The Greenbriar Hotel complex in West Virginia, The very exclusive place which houses the first
underground bunker built foR the DC set, has been in a lock down for a few weeks and the tours of
the bunker are stopped. No one gets in except those attending very high level meetings, which are
going on regularly. It is totally closed to the public. It was a public hotel. The staff are told
that the bunker is needed for storage, but they all know it is being prepared for something big. I
believe this is a real sign. My sources are employees.
Reader K
http://www.cmu.edu/coldwar/bunker2.htm
1,394
posted on
04/30/2004 7:00:02 PM PDT
by
tmp02
To: All
Homeland Security officer indicted in Detroit DETROIT, April 30 (Reuters) - A Department of Homeland Security official has been indicted in Detroit on charges he took bribes for helping four people from the Middle East illegally obtain U.S. citizenship, authorities said on Friday.
Gina Belaya, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office, said Robert Walton -- a district adjudication officer with the Immigration and Naturalization Service -- was alleged to have accepted a golden earring and a diamond and gold bracelet in return.
The four "were all from Middle Eastern countries," said Belaya, adding that she could not be more specific.
A statement from the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District of Michigan said the four were "ineligible to receive the benefits of residency and naturalized citizenship in the United States."
Walton has been charged with bribery and conspiracy to defraud the United States. He was not immediately available for comment.
The federal grand jury indictment, unsealed on Friday, was the second in Detroit targeting people linked to the Department of Homeland Security this week.
Four former employees of the Transportation Security Administration -- the DHS agency responsible for airport security -- were charged on Wednesday with stealing laptop computers and other valuables from baggage being screened at the city's international airport. ((Reporting by Tom Brown, thomas.brown@reuters.com, Reuters Messaging: thomas.brown.reuters.com@reuters.net; 313-967-1902))
1,395
posted on
04/30/2004 7:03:37 PM PDT
by
knak
To: tmp02
To: tmp02
Keep us posted on this one. I can only remember Pre. Bush going there once.
1,397
posted on
04/30/2004 7:14:42 PM PDT
by
DAVEY CROCKETT
(Let your adversary talk. When he has finished, let him talk some more.)
To: knak
"
Walton has been charged with bribery and conspiracy to defraud the United States. He was not immediately available for comment."He SHOULD be in jail without bail for treason.
1,398
posted on
04/30/2004 7:17:31 PM PDT
by
WestCoastGal
("Hire paranoids, they may have a high false alarm rate, but they discover all the plots" Rumsfeld)
To: knak
Goodbye, Robert Walton. Here's hoping they put him away for a long time.
To: WestCoastGal
Pretty darned cheap passage he charged them too. I wonder if the guy was an legalized immigrant himself? What kind of American would do that? Must have pretty damned hard up. Scum bag.
1,400
posted on
04/30/2004 7:24:20 PM PDT
by
knak
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