Posted on 06/27/2002 3:53:38 PM PDT by all4one
Al-Qaeda Threat in Philadelphia?
Philadelphia, PA June 27, 2002 David Henry reports from the Action Newsroom.
An Action News investigation reveals that a chain of jewelry stores operating in the Delaware Valley is being investigated by the FBI for possible connections to the Al Qaeda terror network.
A series of raids were carried out yesterday in Philadelphia and across the state of Pennsylvania.
The stores are mostly kiosks in shopping malls operating under the name "Intrigue Jewelers." They are all owned by Pakistanis under franchise agreements with a company called Gold Concepts, based in Pennsacola, Florida.
Intrigue operates stores at malls in Philadelphia, Plymouth Meeting, Harrisburg, and Monroeville. Until recently, they also had a kiosk at the Lehigh Valley Mall near Allentown. Owners and employees of the Intrigue shops at the Gallery in Center City and at the Plymouth Meeting Mall were questioned yesterday by agents from the FBI and INS. An employee at the shops in the Monroeville Mall tells us he was detained for hours yesterday.
Tariq Hussain says his home was searched and his computer was taken. He says the FBI accused him of funneling money to Ossama bin Laden's terror network. He says they questioned him about a photo he took two years ago of the NASDAQ building in New York, but he doesn't know how they knew about the photo.
The man in the photos taken at the World Trade Center just days before the attacks also worked at the Intrigue Jewelry store at the Lehigh Valley Mall. Two days before the attacks Ashar Iqbal Butt came to a photo shop in the mall looking for the pictures. The clerk says Butt seemed anxious to get them.
He was picked up on September 12th and was later charged with entering the country on a false passport just a month before the attacks.
Action News has confirmed that yesterday's sweep is part of a nationwide investigation involving at least 60 jewelry outlets. The justice department confirms that a number of people have been detained for questioning, but no charges have been filed yet.
NOTHING in the news here in Indy.
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.
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.
Hey there is always the internet .. LOL
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."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.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.
Posted on 6/23/02 6:07 AM Pacific by Ranger
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
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.
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