Al-Qaeda Threat in Philadelphia?

ABC Channel 6 Action News - Philadelphia ^ | June 27, 2002 | David Henry

[antidisestablishment]

I don't think it's the Simon property. (The Simons are a Jewish family.) The real link is the Intrigue Jewelry kiosks. They are in numerous malls all over the country and apparently filled with terrorists illegals improperly documented aliens from the Middle East.

[Miss Marple]

Right. The only reason the Simons are involved is because they own so many malls. Odds are most Inrigue stores would be in Simon malls because Simons own the most malls.

NOTHING in the news here in Indy.

[Brad’s Gramma]

I'll quit my mall shopping after this weekend.

Quite the contrary. I think, if you have one of those businesses in YOUR mall, you need to keep an eye on things. I'd book it outta there if one day they DIDN'T open up, right? And maybe notify the FBI?????

Another thing I was thinking, is since they've gotten this national attention, they may be changing their business names. In which case, someone needs to post the NEW name.

[Miss Marple]

You know, this got me to thinking about a couple of jewelry stores that have recently opened here. They are free-standing stores...not in malls. One is owned by people that I thought were Indian, but they may be Pakistani.

[Brad’s Gramma]

Aha! I'll put my detective hat on tomorrow and see what I can come up with in my little burg....

[rmlew]

I didn't know we controlled the oil industry (too...LOL!)

Until the Nazis and Communists took over, many Jews were involved in the oil business in Galicia and Romania.
Many were sent to Baku and then to the Gulags.

[antidisestablishment]

Your post reminded me to search on the jewelry link. This has been in the back of my mind all night: Osama's Bloody Diamonds

[Mo1]

I'll quit my mall shopping after this weekend.

Hey there is always the internet .. LOL

[Diddle E. Squat]

Here in DFW there are Intrigue Jewelry stores in Irving Mall and Fort Worth's Northeast Mall. FWIW. If they are open tomorrow, than there may not be a connection. But at first glance it would seem possible that this could be a front chain(pardon the pun).

[blackbag]

Interesting, remember the reports of Israelis operating Kiosks in US malls selling gadgets. Supposedly they were (artists).It was reported that they were a front for mossad and were watching Islamist terrorist
in the USA. This was fallout after 911. Could be an urban legend but was reported in the Washington Times... Disinfo ?

[blackbag]

Jacksonville Mall
Jacksonville, NC


Camp Lejeune, New River Air Station = Marine bases are in this town. BTW the MAll looks more like a big pawn shop since most of the market is 20 yeart old marines

[Ranger]

I posted an article about a week ago from the Hindustantimes.com saying that Indian intelligence had traced Al-Qaeda activity late last year to diamond merchants in the area. Evidently Al-Qaeda was moving money around via diamonds. Also it should be recalled that there were Al-Qaeda ties to diamond and other rare jewel (I've forgotten what kind) mining in Africa.

[antidisestablishment]

No, I remember this:

Another part of the investigation has resulted in the detention and arrest of dozens of Israelis working at kiosks in American malls, where they had been selling toys called "Puzzlecar" and "Zoomcopter."

Investigators suspected a front. Shortly after the New York Times and Washington Post reported the detentions of Israelis on immigration charges last month, the carts began vanishing.

I remember a strange smell about all these "spying incidences." These stories were repeated and embellished in the pro-palie news, but we never saw anything in the US press after the initial, strange blurbs. Makes one wonder how close Mossad was.

[bvw]

Yeah, well be careful with the diamond stuff -- Debeers and it's allied marketeers in its cartel are looking to use "blood" diamonds as a reason to make the sale of non-cartel diamonds outright illegal.

[Clovis_Skeptic]

a quick google search resulted in pages and pages of Intrigue Jewelers all across the fruited plain.

But none in the Fresno/Clovis CA area!!!! Though the people running similiar kiosks in the malls here are ME types, but then so are alot of other businesses roun here

[Grampa Dave]

I could not find the Intrigue home office and a write up about Intrigue on my Google Search. There was about a zillion sites re the various stores which just over whelms a kindly old Grampa.

Hopefully someone will find a link to the main Intrigue home office with something on the owners.

[antidisestablishment]

I searched for corporate or company info all last nite and came up with nothing. This "franchise" doesn't exist. At least not in any normal channels.

[Ranger]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/704570/posts

Indian sleuths probe diamond network links with Al-Qaeda

HindustanTimes | 6/23/02

Posted on 6/23/02 6:07 AM Pacific by Ranger

 

Indian intelligence and financial investigators have investigated alleged links of some jewellers and diamond merchants in the country with an international diamond network which has been laundering funds for Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda, official sources said on Sunday.

Refusing to disclose the nature of operations or against whom investigations had been carried out, the sources said the international transactions of these jewellers and diamond merchants, including those based in Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur and Surat, had been closely monitored.

The officials said the probe had been initiated following reports that Indian diamond-polishing companies had received "above-normal orders" late last year and at the beginning of this year.

Diamond trading had sharply increased after the September 11 terror attacks and the freezing of funds of the terrorist outfit the world over, the sources said adding that while over 110 million dollars worth of Al-Qaeda assets had been blocked worldwide, the outfit's assets are estimated to be worth over five billion dollars.

They said the diamond orders were allegedly placed by those individuals or groups having links with the Al-Qaeda diamond network.

Stating that diamond trading held special advantages over ordinary money laundering, the sources said diamonds could be "easily hidden, they did not lose their value and are hard to track."

"Tracking illegal diamond sales is very complicated and links are very hard to establish," they said.

Meanwhile, a United Nations monitoring group, which was set up after the 9/11 attacks, has produced a report stating that the Al-Qaeda terror network might have been transferring its financial assets into gold and diamonds and using the internet to circumvent an international freeze on its funds.

The UN is "concerned about the use of internet by Al-Qaeda and many of its associates, not only regarding financial transactions, but also in support of their communications, command, control and logistics", a report said.

Experts were looking into ways and means to "disrupt and neutralise" these criminal actions through the internet, the report said but did not give any estimate of the amount of funds that may have been converted into gold and diamonds

 

[Ranger]

Try running Google search of diamonds cross referenced against Osama Bin Laden or Al-Qaeda.

[Grampa Dave]

Try this link: ( GoldConcepts.com link)

We need someone in Floriduh to tell us about this company. I have a friend if Floriduh who manages a chain of jewelry stores in Floriduh, and I have asked him about this company. If and when I get an email from him, I will let you know if he has anything on them.

This is the link to their home page, (Gold Concepts Home Page Link)

They are a Floriduh company. Forget the Intrigue Name which is an old and probably reliable Jewelery design house. The Gold Concepts is the Company to look at.

Hey Travis, it looks like our friendly Islamic Terrorists may be in the Jewelry business.