Posted on 06/24/2004 9:30:45 PM PDT by FairOpinion
The Swiss authorities have been giving information about investigations into suspected terrorist activities. The federal prosecutor said that Switzerland had probably been a base for providing support for al-Qaeda.
However, the country had not played a central role in the group's activities, he said.
The announcement comes in the wake of three separate inquiries into the activities of terrorist groups in Switzerland.
The Swiss authorities set up a special task force to investigate possible terrorist activities four days after the 11 September attacks.
Logistical support
One of the main concerns was whether terrorist groups were using Switzerland as a base to finance their activities.
This does seem to have been the case. Since 11 September the Swiss government has frozen a number of bank accounts containing $27m (22.2m euros).
The Swiss federal prosecutor said that, while Switzerland had not played a central role as a location for terrorist activities, it was suspected that offences of providing logistical and financial support were committed on Swiss soil.
The authorities are also concerned about the use of prepaid mobile telephone cards, which can be bought in Switzerland without proof of identity.
Investigators discovered that some of the 11 September attackers and others connected with the bombings in Saudi Arabia in May last year had been using Swiss telephone numbers.
The Swiss government has now prohibited the sale of prepaid phone cards without proof of identity.
And judicial proceedings are under way against a number of individuals already under arrest in Switzerland who are suspected of providing false identity papers for terrorist groups.
Swiss Probe Illustrates Difficulties in Tracking Al Qaeda's Cash
By Daniel Williams
Washington Post
November 12, 2001
In a town where don't ask, don't tell is the golden rule of business, police carting documents from the Al Taqwa Management Organization was an uncommon sight.
The search and seizure went against the grain of the economics of Lugano -- and all of Switzerland -- with its tradition of bank secrecy and the free flow of money. And hardly anyone here seems to think charges will be filed.
Even the Swiss prosecutors who ordered the raid Wednesday say they acted not because they were ready to make a case, but because Al Taqwa was on a list published by the Bush administration of groups and individuals suspected of having links with reputed terrorists such as Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network.
"I would have liked to know better the . . . various links, but the publication by the United States of a list of people and organizations linked to international terrorism in effect fixed a deadline for taking action," Claude Nicati, the deputy Swiss prosecutor, told reporters Thursday. He said it would take at least three weeks to analyze the documents collected from Al Taqwa, which is thought to be part of a traditional money-transferring system known in Arabic as hawala.
The Swiss government also froze the bank accounts of Al Taqwa and 24 other companies and individuals listed by the United States.
Al Taqwa's lawyer, Pier Felice Barchi, said in an interview that he was confident the investigation "will end in nothing."
The probe appears to be a case study in the difficulties of tracking the money that U.S. officials believe nourished al Qaeda terrorist cells in Europe and the United States. The Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington are believed to have cost tens of thousands of dollars, not millions, to finance. The number of channels available for moving such funds is practically infinite, through banks and dummy companies in tax havens worldwide.
In part, the difficulty in pinning down a Swiss connection lies in a regulatory gap.
Intelligence officials say Swiss law does not specifically deal with Al Taqwa's activities. It is not a bank, so auditing and other requirements for banks operating in Switzerland do not apply. If Al Taqwa were using the hawala system to deal with clients, neither the origin of funds nor their destination would be easily ascertained. "No one in Switzerland asks why anybody receives money. It's just not done. The whole economy depends on such activities," said a Swiss intelligence official.
Lugano lies on a lakeshore in southern Switzerland, and as a result of a peculiar historical twist, it is an especially popular locale for money laundering, intelligence officials say. Nearby lies the town of Campione d'Italia, an enclave surrounded by Swiss territory but under Italian sovereignty. It was ceded to a bishop of Milan in the 8th century and has remained Italian ever since. In the 1930s, Benito Mussolini granted the town permission to open a casino. Because residency requirements in Italy are lax, foreigners can reside in Campione and do business in Lugano, where business rules are loose, but residency requirements strict.
Campione is the home of Youssef Mustafa Nada and Ali Ghaleb Himmat, two elderly officers of Al Taqwa who both hold Egyptian and Italian citizenship. Each appeared on the U.S. list of individuals and businesses suspected of terrorist links. They are suspected of funneling funds to militant Islamic groups in Germany and Italy.
Acting on a Swiss request, Italian police raided their homes Wednesday and seized papers and computer disks. The men were questioned by Swiss police for six hours before being released.
Nada firmly denied ever meeting bin Laden or having any deals with him or his organization. "I am not involved in financing of terrorism," he said last week. He did acknowledge belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic political movement that originated in Egypt.
Another Al Taqwa official, Swiss citizen Ahmed Huber, who converted to Islam and changed his first name from Albert, was also named in the U.S. list. Huber said on Swiss television that he had never met bin Laden, but had encountered "members of his entourage" at Islamic conferences in the Middle East. He said he did not know exactly who they were because they "all traveled under false names." Huber also said Al Taqwa made charitable contributions to Muslim development projects abroad.
Barchi, the lawyer, said Al Taqwa served as an accountant for Middle Eastern business people and conducted "feasibility studies" for potential Middle Eastern investors throughout the world. It has branch offices in several offshore banking countries, including Liechtenstein and, until recently, the Bahamas, where it operated a bank.
Barchi said police first took an interest in Al Taqwa in 1995, when a French journalist wrote an article linking the firm to the Muslim Brotherhood. Last spring, Al Taqwa changed its name to Nada Management Organization.
In Lugano, few people with knowledge about Al Taqwa will speak about it. One intelligence official would speak only hypothetically about companies that want to launder money or simply transfer it anonymously. "These are not enterprises that buy things, add value to them through manufacturing and then resell them," the official said. "Rather, they provide services that do not necessarily result in a concrete product at the end. The value of the services are arbitrary, as are the fees."
What kind of business, for instance? "Feasibility studies could be one. Someone provides $50,000 for research into a project. Does the study really cost $50,000 to produce? Is it really a study? Or is it just a way to transfer $50,000 in disguise?" he said. "Basically, money is given and the giver doesn't want a return."
The official said Al Taqwa was only one of a dozen hawalas in Switzerland, "so closing it down will not resolve problems."
He said information in the seized documents -- names, addresses or hints of wrongdoing -- might contribute to a "map" of money transfers.
Otherwise, it would be hard to pin a crime on Al Taqwa, the official said. Switzerland would need laws to open hawalas to audits and scrutiny, he added, and, "Until September 11, nobody cared about them."
Another 22 mil the terrorists lose. Ah well, it's only money. There's lots more where that came from. Every little kebab shop on Oz has a collection box. For poor windows and orphans. I guess they invest the money in Swiss banks.
But hang on a minute...why would they do that? Earning interest is against islamic law, isn't it? Oh, I get it. The bank just holds it for them...to keep it safe. Silly me!
Beautiful town, I have a few posts to Free Republic back in May '03 made from this place. What's funny is, all this talk about don't ask don't tell...well maybe if you are Swiss. I had a Dutch colleague trying to use Western Union to send money outside the country and was not only 'asked' who he was but was 'asked' to produce a Swiss passport or no deal. Only a glass barrier prevented a fist fight from breaking out, LOL.
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