Dollars of Terror--How terrorists are buying us from within

When referring to the enemy’s money we are usually concerned with how the terrorists collect the funds they need. As we know, the government efforts to stop terrorists financing have not been very successful thus far. However, equally, if not more disturbing is the possibility that terrorists may be using their money to buy into our national infrastructure in order to undermine our economy and security from within. Was Ptech, the Massachusetts-based company, used in this manner?

The privately owned technology company, based in Quincy, Massachusetts, received at least $20 million in financing from Saudi investors between 1994, when it was founded, and 2001. Fourteen million came from Yassin Al-Qadi, who was listed as a specially designated global terrorist on October 12, 2001.

Ptech is used primarily to develop enterprise blueprints at the highest level of US government and corporate infrastructure. These blueprints hold every important functional, operational, and technical detail of the enterprise. A secondary use of this powerful tool is to build other smart tools in a short period of time. Ptech’s clients in 2001 included the Department of Justice, the Department of Energy, Customs, Air Force, the White House, the FAA, IBM, Sysco, Aetna, and Motorola, to name just a few.

Examples of information gathered utilizing Ptech’s capabilities would include the following:

A complete blueprint of a nuclear waste disposal site would detail the security procedures required to access military bases during transfer of nuclear waste materials. It would also include security rules, revealing where tight security searches vs. random searches exist for conducting detailed identity screening and security checks. These are typically noted in the architecture process, and surely, would be of interest to terrorists.

A second example is a complete blueprint of food distribution patterns, which would include food suppliers, warehouse locations, distributors, vehicles and schedules. With this knowledge, fraudulent deliveries of contaminated food would not be difficult to accomplish.

Another example is Product specifications in the blueprint for Smartcards as implemented in various defense facilities. It would include enough information to provide templates for duplication, and for unauthorized production of fake Smart IDs, which are a basic tool in the arsenal of criminals and terrorists alike.

Ptech’s Middle East branch called Horizons, received projects directly from Ptech, and is used to outsource projects for Ptech’s US clients. Other clients come from the Middle East and include clients such as the Egyptian military, the Saudi Bin Laden Company, and the Afghan based BTC Bin Laden Telecom, which provided pre-paid telephone calls.

Among Ptech’s top investors and management in 2001 was Yassin Al-Qadi, who was listed as a specially designated global terrorist on October 12, 2001. His investment of $14 million in Ptech in 1998 made him Ptech’s major investor. Al-Qadi was the Director of the Saudi-based Muwafaq Foundation ("Blessed Relief") that fronted for, and funded, Makhtab Al-Khidamat (MK), Al-Qaeda, Hamas, and the Abu-Sayyaf organization, to name just a few. According to a Treasury Department letter to Switzerland’s Attorney General in November 2001, there was "a reasonable basis to believe that Mr. Kadi has a long history of financing and facilitating the activities of terrorists and terrorist-related organizations, often, acting through seemingly-legitimate charitable enterprises and businesses."

Al-Qadi’s businesses extended throughout the world, and included banking, diamonds, chemicals, construction, transportation, and real estate. It would be hard to find a more strategically placed individual to advance the agenda of Al-Qaeda, or any other terrorist organization. Last August, the Swiss government indicted Al-Qadi for financing terrorism.

The identities and connections of some other Ptech major investors and managers should have also raised a red flag: Suliman Biheiri, an Egyptian, is alleged by the government to have funneled $3.7 million from the Saudi funded charity, the SAAR Foundation, to Islamist terrorists through BMI, a now-defunct New Jersey-based Islamic investment firm of which he was the founder and president, and which fronted for and funded Hamas. Biheiri, who was convicted in October 2004, for lying about businesses with Hamas’ Mousa Abu Marzook, was already in prison for immigration fraud. He also had links to the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda’s money-laundering machine, the Al-Taqwa network. One of Al-Taqwa’s companies, which was designated as a terrorist entity, was used not only to fund Al-Qaeda, but also to launder Saddam Hussein’s money.

Yakub Mirza, a Pakistani, was not only a business partner with Yassin Al-Kadi in Ptech, but also the financial mastermind, Trustee, President and CEO of the SAAR Foundation, which according to the government is connected to the Safa Foundation, which the government claimed also provided material support to Islamist terrorist groups. Mirza was also a Trustee on the board of Sanabel, the investment arm of the Saudi International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), which shared the same address as the SAAR Foundation: 555 Grove Street in Herndon, Virginia. He set up and was the Secretary/Treasurer of the US branch of the Muslim World League (MWL), another Saudi charity that also served as the fund- raising arm of the US branch of the IIRO. Over the last four decades, the MWL received more than $1.3 billion directly from King Fahad. Both organizations have been documented to support Islamist around the world. In addition, according to an alert employee, Mirza was a subscriber to Worldwide Flight Guide since 1987. One wonders why Mirza as well as these organizations are still missing from the US government designated terrorist list.

Abdurahman Muhammad Alamoudi was the President of the American Muslim Council (AMC) and the American Muslim Foundation (AMF); both received thousands of dollars from the Success Foundation. The Success Foundation also shared offices with the SAAR Foundation and provided the logistical and financial support for Islamist terror organizations. Alamoudi also served as the Secretary of the Success Foundation, and openly stated his support for HAMAS and Hizbollah. Like Mirza, he was a member of the IIRO. Alamoudi pled guilty in July 2004 on charges related to a Libyan plot to assassinate Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. He, too, is still missing from the US Government Designated Terrorist list.

Suheil Laher, managed customer services for Ptech, and was closely associated with Care International, which acted as a branch office of the Al-Kifah Refugee Center in Brooklyn, NY from which Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman funded and plotted the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Laher has also written many articles about Jihad, frequently quoting Abdullah Azzam, Bin Laden’s mentor, whose general philosophy is shared by all Islamist terrorists: "Jihad and the rifle alone! No negotiations; No conferences; and No dialogues." (emphasis added).

In October 2001, former Vice-President of Sales for Ptech approached the FBI Boston office with detailed information regarding possible links between Ptech and the 9/11 attacks. He was followed by Indira Singh, a risk consultant at J. P. Morgan Chase, in May 2002, who approached the Boston FBI office, the NY Joint Terrorism Task Force, the management of J. P. Morgan Chase and FBI headquarters with more documentation regarding possible Ptech penetration of US government agencies and corporations.

The FBI finally raided Ptech on December 6, 2002. However, no arrests were made and the company continues to operate, and according to Ptech’s CEO, Oussama Ziade, in May 2004, "Ptech still has government agencies as customers, including the White House."

Even the concerns, few as they were, with Ptech, after it was raided were misplaced. The few questions that were raised were regarding Ptech’s software, and not the information to which Ptech’s employees, management and investors had access. The possibility that Al-Qaeda or other Islamist terrorists have taken advantage of our free market system to undermine our economy and national security seems quite real when you identify the connections and affiliations of Ptech’s management, investors and employees.

So, how could a small, Saudi-financed company with questionable terrorist connections obtain significant government and business contracts, and who facilitated this? Was Horizons, its Egyptian branch, ever investigated? Why wasn’t Ptech shut down? Why is it still allowed to operate? And even more importantly, are there other Ptechs around?

Recently, Ptech changed both the name of the company and of its software to GoAgile.

How Much did the FBI know about P Tech?
http://wbz4.com/iteam/local_story_343145212.html

Dec 9, 2002 2:51 pm US/Eastern
P Tech is being investigated for ties to several individuals suspected of financing terrorist’s -including al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden.

Our I Team investigation began in mid-June of this year.

By late August--federal agents got wind of our investigation and launched their own.

The focus: who is behind P Tech? -- A company that specializes in something called enterprise architecture--essentially the blueprints of the information contained on computer networks.

The client list of this software firm called P Tech reads like a who's who of federal departments involved in national security.

P Tech customers include the Army, the Air Force, the Naval Air Command, the Congress, the Department of Energy, the FAA, the IRS, NATO, the FBI the Secret Service and even the White House.

P Tech's specialty --something called enterprise architecture, blue printing what's inside an agency or business's computer system.

In a five month investigation, the I Team has uncovered a web of connections linking P Tech to individuals and organizations that federal authorities believe have been financing terrorists, including Osama Bin Laden and because of those links, security experts are now concerned that terrorists might have gotten access to key government data that could be used to launch an attack.

Connection number one:

According to three different sources, a powerful Saudi Arabian businessman, Yassin Al Qadi, has been P Tech's chief financier, to the tune of millions of dollars.

Al Qadi's name was on an executive order issued by president Bush in October 2001. It freezes Al Qadi's assets and names him as a key financial backer of Osama Bin Laden and his terrorist organization, a charge Al Qadi denies.

Steve Emerson, Terrorism Expert
"According to US intelligence reports, Yassin Al Qadi is a major financier of Islamic terrorism and has been long associated with Osama Bin Laden through NGO’s--non governmental organizations--as well as co-business ventures in Saudi Arabia and around the world."

Sources tell the I Team that Al Qadi starting pumping money into P Tech, now based here in Quincy, in 1994.

This photograph, taken in Saudi Arabia in 1999, shows Al Qadi at a meeting with the CEO of P Tech, Osama Ziade and other investors.

Matthew Levitt, Former FBI Counter Terrorism
"For someone like that to be involved in a capacity, in an organization, a company that has access to classified information, that has access to government open or classified computer systems, would be of grave concern."

Connection number two:

On P Tech's board of directors until recently -- a Virginia businessman named Yacub Mirza.

Mirza's financial dealings are one focus of a high priority federal investigation. It included a raid, last March, on several companies and charities Mirza has directed here in the Washington, DC suburbs. The government suspects they have been laundering money for Al Qaeda and other terrorists.

Mirza had denied any wrongdoing.

Matthew Levitt, Former FBI Counter Terrorism
"He is a senior official of major radical Islamic organizations that have been linked by the US government to terrorism."

Connection number three:

Among the top executives of P Tech is Hussein Ibrahim.

Title: Vice President and Chief Scientist.

Before joining P Tech, Ibrahim was vice chairman of a now defunct investment group called BMI, based here in New Jersey.

This FBI affidavit filed in a Chicago case names BMI as a conduit to launder money from Yassin Al Qadi to Hamas terrorists. BMI has denied any wrongdoing.

In late August, when investigators here at the US Treasury department learned that the I Team was investigating P Tech, they launched their own investigation.

But the I Team has learned that another federal agency, specifically the Boston office of the FBI, learned about P Tech's questionable ties more than a year ago but failed to act.

An Email sent to the FBI's Boston office in October 2001 and obtained by the I Team.

It was sent by a former executive at P Tech alerting the FBI that Yassin Al Qadi was an investor in the company and that President Bush had just named Al Qadi as a financier of Osama Bin Laden.

Did the FBI convey that information to the treasury department which was investigating Al Qadi?

A high level government source tells the I Team the answer is no.

And consider Indira Singh's experience.

She is a consultant specializing in enterprise architechture and learned --through associates--about P Tech's ties to Yassin Al qadi.

She called the FBI Boston office in early June.

Joe Begantino
Did you inform them of how serious a threat you thought this was?

Indira
Absolutelly, on no uncertain terms."

Over the next several weeks, Singh learned that the FBI had not even alerted a single government agency where P Tech had done work.

Joe Begantino
What was your reaction?

Indira
”Disbelief, shock, frustration, deep alarm."

Another question, despite the FBI's lack of action why didn't anyone else here in Washington know that a man on the President's list of terrorist supporters was financing a company doing sensitive computer work in key government agencies?

Steve Emerson, Terrorism Expert
"It's absolutely amazing that the US Government was not aware of this for years. The fact that a Bin Laden-invested company could be providing data and business to the highest levels of the us government is quite frankly outrageous."

The FBI's Boston office issued a response to our story saying, “this investigation has been going on for quite some time. The FBI and customs, based on the facts of the case, decided it should be led by customs.”

So how did a company financed by Yassin al Qadi an alleged financier for Osama bin Laden end up doing business with the government?

The US general services administration or GSA screens contractors.

It asks a number of questions but one thing it does not ask of privately held companies is --who are your financial backers?

Sources at the National Security Agency in Washington say they are certain that the software installed by P Tech is safe.

But what no one knows at this point is how much sensitive government information P Tech gained access to while it worked in several high level government agencies.

The attorney for Virginia businessman Yaqub Mirza told me that Mirza claims he was not actively involved in P Tech.

Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed--and How to Stop It, Revised Edition
by Rachel Ehrenfeld
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1566252318/qid=1113834868/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-2588786-3154439

From Publishers Weekly
Conservative analyst and pundit Ehrenfeld contends that our image of terrorism is all wrong. Rather than shadowy cells of young, religious martyrs, the true face of terror, she says, is an international network of corrupt state leaders, superwealthy contributors, and drug and crime kingpins. Without money, especially laundered U.S. dollars, there would be no terror, and this lively, well-documented primer reveals the sources, the amounts and the armed terror organizations they support. Not surprisingly, the author of Narco-Terrorism is at her best on the ironies of the West's appetite for drugs, which terror groups exploit for funding, arms and recruiting those who would undermine a degenerate Western society. Some readers might be alienated or distracted by the author's exhaustive yet fascinating description of the activities and funding of the PLO, Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which takes up nearly half the book. Reigniting the drug war and supporting Israel are Ehrenfeld's clear national security priorities, as are other policy initiatives like regime removal and economic sanctions for states sponsoring terrorism. But the Bush administration and a succession of U.S. and Western leaders are taken to task for "a willful blindness" to the role of the international oil and drug trades in funding terror and for "lacking the political will" to confront Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and other states for their "anti-Western agenda." Ehrenfeld's prescription for ending terrorism might depend on an unrealistic hope for immediate international cooperation, but this timely expos‚ should heat up public demand for real progress in the war on terrorism.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description:
By terrorism expert Rachel Ehrenfeld, uncovers the clandestine and sinister ways that Islamic terrorist groups finance their global network. Terrorist have grown increasingly savvy in ways to bolster their financial power. Dr. Ehrenfeld's investigation also details how these undected billions are spent to bring about chaos and destablization. Funding Evil show offers realistic and provocative strategies for winning the war on terror.

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Bonus Books; Expanded edition (February, 2005)

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