Posted on 10/13/2001 12:09:56 PM PDT by Wallaby
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
Terrorism's bagmen Paul McKay The Ottawa Citizen SATURDAY OBSERVER, Pg. B1 / Front September 29, 2001 Saturday Final EDITION
A former Nairobi car importer and a Yemeni billionaire may have been the bankers behind Osama bin Laden's global empire of terror. Paul McKay reports.
Two imprisoned men, separated by half a planet and what amounts to a royal fortune, may hold the key to unlocking the secret of how Osama bin Laden finances his global terrorist network. But both are staying stone silent.
Khalid al-Fawwaz is an otherwise undistinguished former Nairobi car importer who lived in a nondescript London apartment and ran an obscure war relief group called the Advice and Reformation Committee (ARC) in London. Now being held in Britain's maximum-security Belmarsh prison, he faces criminal charges in the United States for abetting the 1998 terrorist bombings of embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed or wounded nearly 4,800 people.
U.S. court records -- especially evidence entered by British detectives who raided Mr. Fawwaz's apartment and the ARC office on London's Beethoven Street in 1998 -- leave little doubt that Mr. Fawwaz worked for Mr. bin Laden and personally knew those who were later convicted of the African embassy bombings.
Khalid bin Mahfouz is a controversial, Yemeni-born tycoon worth an estimated $2.5 billion U.S. He founded and ran the world's largest private bank until 1999, when the Saudi royal family quietly arranged for a government investment fund to buy out his 50-per-cent stake in the National Commercial Bank, then forced his dismissal. After a financial audit of the bank's $21-billion assets, Mr. Mahfouz was confined to a military hospital in Taef, Saudi Arabia. Some $2 billion has been reported missing. One of his sisters is married to Mr. bin Laden.
U.S. intelligence services want to know if some of that missing money went to phoney charities secretly funneling money to Mr. bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization, including:
- The London-based Advice and Reformation Committee, run by Mr. Fawwaz and founded by Mr. bin Laden;
- An Africa aid group called Blessed Relief, whose directors included Mr. Mahfouz's son;
- A Kenya branch of Help Africa People, run by several men later convicted or indicted for the U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania;
- The International Islamic Relief Organization, linked to terrorist bomb plots in the Philippines and India;
- The Kenya branch of war and famine relief group Mercy International, where key evidence used to convict the embassy bombers was found;
- A host of other Islamic aid groups working from Afghanistan to Kosovo, some of which were named by U.S. President George W. Bush earlier this week.
U.S. efforts to follow the bin Laden money trail also include searching the worldwide assets of dozens of banks, businesses and ventures in the secretive Mahfouz commercial empire.
It is no easy task. The Mahfouz family still owns a 30-per-cent stake in the National Commercial Bank, and controls worldwide assets through a private holding company called Al Murjan. One of its assets is Globalstar LP, which has licences for satellite broadcasts in eight Middle Eastern countries.
Some of the Mahfouz wealth is interlocked with another Saudi sheik and billionaire, Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi, who has since been appointed to run the private bank Mr. Mahfouz founded. Its clients include much of the Saudi royal family.
The Mahfouz/Al-Amoudi joint ventures include the port facilities in Yemen where the USS Cole was bombed by Islamic militants while it refueled, an alleged chemical weapons plant in Kenya that former U.S. president Bill Clinton ordered destroyed by missiles, and a Washington-based private company called WorldSpace, which provides satellite-based technology and programming to rural Africa and Asia.
Mr. Mahfouz is no stranger to missing money -- or controversy. He is a former director of the infamous BCCI international bank, which triggered a $12-billion U.S. bankruptcy scandal in the early 1990s.
Indicted in the U.S. for a $300-million bank fraud and facing civil claims exceeding $10 billion, he arranged a $225-million settlement with prosecutors and agreed to a permanent prohibition on owning banks in the U.S.
Mr. Mahfouz was also embroiled in a citizenship-for-sale scheme in Ireland, in which foreign millionaires were secretly courted to invest in Irish enterprises in exchange for coveted Irish passports and lucrative tax writeoffs. Mr. Mahfouz purchased 11 passports for Saudi and Pakistani nationals, but failed to make the promised investments.
Is there a connection between Mr. bin Laden and the two far-flung prisoners?
U.S. court records -- especially evidence entered by British detectives who raided Mr. Fawwaz's apartment and the ARC office on London's Beethoven Street in 1998 -- leave little doubt that Mr. Fawwaz worked for Mr. bin Laden and personally knew those who were later convicted of the African embassy bombings.
Seized computer hard drives revealed fiercely anti-American "holy war" edicts from Mr. bin Laden, to be relayed to European Muslims through the ARC "charity." A seized copy of the ARC founding documents bore Mr. bin Laden's signature.
Wiretap evidence, satellite-phone and fax records confirmed that calls were made to or from the now-convicted African embassy bombers and Mr. bin Laden's military lieutenant in Pakistan, Mohammed Atef (who is charged with Mr. bin Laden in the African embassy bombings). Seized bank records showed that Mr. Fawwaz held the signing authority for a Barclay's account for ARC.
The U.S. court records, and testimony from former bin Laden insiders, also indicate that Mr. Fawwaz purchased mobile phone technology that Mr. bin Laden or his aides used to make 140 calls to London and the Kenya bomb group from Afghanistan.
Seizures in Nairobi turned up phone bills for Mercy International in Mr. Fawwaz's name, and calls to that office from Mr. bin Laden's satellite phone. Much of the evidence used to convict four of the embassy bomb plotters in a later U.S. trial was found at the charity's Kenya office.
A former Mercy International staffer in Ireland, Hamid Aich, had earlier shared a Vancouver suburb apartment for three years with Abdelmajid Dahoumane, the accused accomplice of convicted millennium bomb plotter Ahmed Ressam. (Mr. Ressam, part of an Algerian bin Laden cell based in Montreal, has testified that he and Mr. Dahoumane concocted bomb ingredients to blow up the Los Angeles airport at a Vancouver motel in December, 1999.)
Mr. Ressam was caught at the U.S. border with the explosives in his car trunk, and convicted after a U.S. trial this year. Mr. Dahoumane fled Canada, facing criminal warrants here and in the U.S. He is believed to be in Afghanistan. Mr. Aich was arrested in Ireland, but released before police realized his connection to the Canadian-based Algerians. His whereabouts is unknown.
Mr. Fawwaz has denied any involvement in the terrorist bombings linked to Mr. bin Laden, and is fighting extradition from Britain to the United States. The evidence being used to support his transfer to the U.S. has not been tested at trial.
The U.S. has not filed any indictments against Mr. Mahfouz, and there is no public evidence linking him to any of the terrorist attacks against U.S. targets. However, the Saudi royal family restricted his travel last year after U.S. officials shared financial evidence gleaned from investigations following the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and subsequent terrorist attacks against the USS Cole, U.S. military barracks near Riyadh, and the African embassies, a failed 1996 plot to bomb 12 airliners over the Pacific, and a failed plot to bomb U.S. consular offices in India.
American officials had earlier convinced governments in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and Britain to close bank accounts they had linked to Mr. bin Laden. U.S. press reports have disclosed that some wealthy Persian Gulf businessmen also were being "tithed" -- or bribed -- millions to fund Islamic charities that acted as fronts for Mr. bin Laden. One Associated Press report estimated the donations at $50 million, and another reported that even Saudi pension funds were being routed to the phony charities.
According to Indian police, a Bangladeshi man caught with explosives destined for U.S. consulates in India confessed to being a former worker for the International Islamic Relief Organization, and said the IIRO president had personally attended a meeting to plan the bomb attacks.
The Philippines chapter of the IIRO was formerly headed by Mr. bin Laden's brother-in-law, and was fingered as a front for Mr. bin Laden by a man later convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings. Mr. Mahfouz's son was on the board of Blessed Relief in Sudan, a group reportedly linked to the 1995 attempted assassination of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia.
A Lebanese-born U.S. citizen based in Kenya, later convicted of aiding the African embassy bombings, testified that he began working for the bin Laden network after being recruited for the Islamic relief agency Al Kifa by al-Qaeda military boss Mohammed Atef.
He later served as a senior business aide to Mr. bin Laden in Sudan, then through Kenya-based groups that combined legitimate aid work and covert al-Qaeda business, such as preparing false passports, masking travel by bomb plotters, and exchanging money and reports with the bin Laden group in Afghanistan. Some of the convicted or at-large indicted bombers had previously worked for Help Africa People.
Mr. Mahfouz was a major investor with sheik Al-Amoudi in the $100-million El Shifa pharmaceutical plant in Kenya, which was destroyed by U.S. missiles weeks after the embassies were bombed. The Clinton administration claimed the CIA had earlier detected bomb ingredients in the soil nearby. Yet subsequent lab tests and court actions leave little doubt the El Shifa plant was producing only human and veterinary drugs.
The nominal owner, now based in London and a long-time accountant to Mr. Mahfouz, later sued the U.S. government, which quietly settled the case and unfroze his assets in the United States.
The U.S. counter-strike against the El Shifa plant was almost certainly aimed at an innocent target. A simultaneous U.S. cruise missile barrage aimed at Mr. bin Laden himself in his Afghan hideout missed its intended target.
Those retaliatory strikes enraged many in the Muslim world, and may have prompted covert donations to the bin Laden cause from some of the Persian Gulf's wealthy businessmen. They also drew the wrath of military governments in countries like Yemen, Sudan and Ethiopia, where the Mahfouz/Al-Amoudi group often gets preferential projects.
One example is the multibillion-dollar project to modernize the shipping facilities in the Yemeni capital of Aden, completed a year before the USS Cole was hit there by a suicide barge. The lead investor and builder was the Mahfouz/Al-Amoudi Group, through their companies Yeminvest and Yemen Holdings Ltd.
Mr. Mahfouz and Mr. bin Laden were both born in Yemen, and are revered by many Yemenis. A U.S. probe into the terrorist attack there has been stymied by the Yemeni government, which openly supports a "holy war" against the U.S., and has vowed to provide sanctuary for jihad militants.
Paul McKay is a Citizen reporter.
His email address is: pmckay@thecitizen.southam.ca
Photo: Emmanuel Dunand, Agence France Presse ; An Afghani, man holds a poster of Osama bin Laden while trying to imitate his, posture in Quetta, Pakistan.; Colour Photo: Khalid bin Mahfouz: A, Yemeni-born tycoon worth an estimated $2.5 billion.; Colour Photo:, Osama bin Laden: Terrorism kingpin believed to be hiding in, Afghanistan.; Colour Photo: Khalid al-Fawwaz: Operator of an obscure, war relief group in London.
The intercepts, Hersh writes, "depict a regime increasingly corrupt, alienated from the country's religious rank and file, and so weakened and frightened that it has brokered its future by channelling hundreds of millions of dollars in what amounts to protection money to fundamentalist groups that wish to overthrow it."
By 1996, Hersh reports, Saudi money was supporting Al Qaeda and similar extremist groups in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Yemen, and throughout both Central Asia and the Persian Gulf region.
"Ninety-six is the key year," one American intelligence official tells Hersh in the October 22, 2001 issue of the NEW YORKER . Hersh reports that the intercepts have provided several important insights into political and economic affairs in the kingdom, including the extent of the physical incapacitation of King Fahd, the corruption of specific royal-family members, and the funding of fundamentalist groups through charities. The intelligence official tells Hersh that asfar as bankrolling fundamentalist groups goes, the Saudis had "gone to the dark side."
Current and former intelligence officials suggest, Hersh reports, that the instability of the Saudi regime is "the most immediate threat to American economic and political interests in the Middle East," and that "the Bush Administration, like the Clinton Administration, is refusing to confront this reality." Impacting Monday...
Company said it was talking with several potential investors and would approach others later this month, but plan that could save company from liquidation was expected to be in place at least by Oct. because of time-sensitive nature of its cash position. It didn't rule out bankruptcy as option. "We've been saying for quite some time that we cannot rule out the possibility of bankruptcy," spokesman said. "It's not our preferred option by any means." |
Competitors Iridium and ICO already have been forced into bankruptcy, but recent investors have bought into both companies with hopes of reviving them, indication that demand for type of service still exists, officials said. Spokesman said Iridium faced much greater obstacles than Globalstar confronts. "They had a much higher cost structure," he said: "They had to have enormous revenues. Our system cost $3 billion to build, and it cost Iridium $6 to $7 billion. Their monthly operating costs were double or triple ours." Globalstar had 2nd quarter gross service revenue of $2.3 million, 13% over previous quarter. Net revenue, including royalties from phone sales and less discounts and promotions, was $1.8 million, up 21% over first quarter. Company said it had total of 5.4 million min. of use, including both mobile and fixed service, in 2nd quarter, 33% increase from previous quarter. Estimated number of mobile and fixed subscribers at end of June was 51,600, up 27% from previous quarter. |
In the days following the attacks, Iridium Satellite LLC and its main competitor, Globalstar, a division of the British mobile phone giant Vodafone Group plc, donated airtime and equipment to groups helping in recovery efforts. Both companies report that activations and airtime traffic have quadrupled since Sept. 11. Iridium Satellite, a privately held company based in Leesburg, Va., launched commercial service in March after an investment group acquired the assets of the bankrupt Motorola-backed entity called Iridium. The earlier iteration of Iridium filed for bankruptcy less than a year after launching business and threatened to let its satellites fall to earth before investors made a $25 million bid for the company's assets. Iridium Satellite now operates a constellation of 66 low-orbiting satellites that float about 475 miles above the earth's surface."Satellite Phones Increase In Popularity After Attacks," Wireless Week; By Deborah M ndez-Wilson; October 01, 2001; News; Pg. 15
IMO this means that our leadership thinks that we will go back to business as usual after a suitable period of television pyrotechnics has demonstrated to the sheeple that "the job is done". Absent any policy changes (none are on the horizon), their plan appears to be continued exports of boat loads of money to Saudi Arabia and the rest of Islam. Why not? its a system that has made a lot of money for those who back our elected officials.
Well, considering recent events at the World Trade Center and Rockefeller Center, it's also a system that may soon make them dead.
Only in the most immediate sense does the dispute, which has seen Tehran mass 200,000 troops along its eastern border, stem from the murder of nine Iranian diplomats by Taliban militiamen when they captured the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif last month. The outrage at the killings was understandable enough. But the very presence of the diplomats in a town previously held by Shia rebel factions reflects the religious divide between the Taliban who are Sunni Muslims, and overwhelmingly Shia Iran. Long before the murder of the diplomats, Iran was providing bases for Taliban opponents. Its hostility now will only be fuelled by reports of large-scale massacres of Shias after the fall of Mazar-e-Sharif. However, nearly all Islamic countries in the region are Sunni and do not share this instinctive enmity. Pakistan has long been a source of support for the Taliban. Less obviously, Saudi Arabia has extended financial and logistic support to the radical movement. Both are Sunni, and both are among the three countries that have officially recognised the Taliban regime. The other is the United Arab Emirates. The West, too, seems to have quietly decided that the Taliban, however unpalatable some of its methods, is the horse to back. That might not seem so after America's 20 August attack on the Afghan base of the alleged terrorist Osama bin Laden. But the US has been careful to distinguish between the Taliban and Bin Laden. |
After two decades of war and civil war since the Soviet invasion of 1979, the fundamentalist militia seems to offer the best chance of pacifying and stabilising a shattered country. And a more stable country is a more suitable place to build a pipeline. So, finally, to oil, or, more exactly, the colossal energy riches of former Soviet central Asia to the north. The prize for which the two regimes are vying is not only regional leadership. It is also the path to be followed by any pipeline carrying oil and gas from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan to the deep-water ports in the south.
Hence the Afghan alternative. The Houston-based Unocal company and Saudi- owned Delta Oil are ready to go with a 900-mile gas pipeline through Afghanistan to a Pakistani port. Both Afghanistan and Pakistan stand to reap massive economic benefits, which is another reason for their de facto alliance. Their gain would be Iran's loss. Hence the suspicion that Tehran is keeping the fighting going to prevent the pipeline. So, in the politics of oil as well, Tehran is also largely isolated from its neighbours, with the partial exception of Russia. Whether Iran likes it or not, the Taliban - which controls over 90 per cent of Afghanistan - will surely soon be recognised by the international community. For all the belligerent talk from Tehran - and yesterday's closure of the moderate Tous newspaper, which had advocated a negotiated solution to the crisis - a full-scale invasion is unlikely. Memories of the carnage of the eight-year war with Iraq are still fresh, as is the failure of the Soviet Union to tame Afghanistan during the same period. If Iran uses force to avenge the diplomats, air strikes will probably be the chosen method. |
Bad link. Could you try again?
House Revisits Iran Libya Sanctions Act
Gilman's committee also held a hearing on July 23 on the subject of "Iran Libya Sanctions Act--One Year Later." Witnesses included two State Department officials, Assistant Secretary for Economic and Business Affairs Alan Larsen and Acting Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch; Dr. Patrick Clawson of the National Defense University; Dr. Mehdi Khorshidi of the Iranian National Conference; Petroleum Intelligence Weekly editor Sara Miller; and Jeffrey Schott of the Institute for International Economics.
For the most part, the testimony was predictable. Clawson and Miller both agreed that the act had been successful in limiting petroleum investment in Iran and Libya, but each also pointed out the act's cost in terms of lost business for U.S. firms and soured relations with America's allies.
Miller pointed out the irony in limiting access to oil and gas in a region where a major U.S. national priority is to assure unimpeded access to those resources. She also pointed out that for the U.S. to use the "oil weapon" seems short-sighted, considering U.S. reactions in 1967 and 1973 when the Arab League used the same weapon, and she reminded the committee that the U.S. has spoken out strongly against the use of secondary boycotts when they were applied by Arab countries against companies doing business in Israel.
Although the media gave most coverage to State Department witness Larsen's statement that the proposed pipeline to transport Turkmenistan gas through Iran to Turkey does not violate the act so long as it does not also transport Iranian gas, this did not surprise most observers. In fact, onlookers were more surprised with how strongly State Department witnesses appeared to be supporting the sanctions.
Larsen said that although no sanctions have been imposed under the act, this was because international companies have taken the act seriously and have taken care not to violate it. He said the department is looking very hard at the recent agreement by a German bank to lend $90 million to an Iranian oilfield engineering and construction company to see if it violates the act. He also said they are looking at the recently concluded agreement by Malaysia's Petronas and Saudi Arabia's Nimr Petroleum to invest in Libyan oilfield development, but have tentatively concluded that the deal falls below the act's $40 million threshold. He said the department is also closely watching the proposed investment by the French firm Total in developing Iran's South Pars gas field.
The Total South Pars deal especially interested Gilman. He asked the witnesses what the U.S. should do if the deal is completed. Clawson and Miller both pointed out that the field is so large that even a company as big as Total would need partners, which could delay things for a long time. Clawson said that the best approach would be to work behind the scenes to reach an agreement "that doesn't rub Total's face in it" whereby the contract is allowed to be concluded, but with a side agreement that the field will not actually be developed until Tehran changes its policies.
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Observers in Pakistan are attaching much importance to the latest move. A cash-strapped Turkmenistan, they say, would find a lucrative outlet for its gas. As for energy-deficient Pakistan, it would find a source to fuel its development plans and cater to a rapidly growing population and galloping urbanisation. Even though, to date, gas discoveries made have a potential totalling 9 Tcf (IGR 372/26), it still cannot keep pace with continuing industrialisation and a population growing at an annual rate of 2.8%.
However, despite renewed optimism, the fact remains that Unocal held 54.11% of the shares and its exit leaves a big hole to be filled both in equity terms and as project leader. The respective governments have now given the consortium three months to muster the required funding. In case of failure, the three governments say they will share the construction costs, each financing the infrastructure in its territory. This would certainly put the financial and technological wherewithal of the three countries to the test. |
Sorry. Try this. IIRC, Larry Homenick was involved--but I can't find the specific reference.
ISLAMABAD :
The investors lost their confidence when the US Company Unocal announced its withdrawal from the project in August 1998 because of the US bombing of the alleged terrorist bases of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. The project was also rendered impracticable due to fighting close to the proposed pipeline route. "Investors would now feel more secure about the project, and would show their interest in it," an official of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources said. He admitted they could not ensure the investors about the feasibility of the project during the last two years when Unocal backed out of the CentGas consortium formed to carrying out the project. |
The consortium was formed in 1996 to carry gas from Daulatabad in Turkmenistan to Multan in Pakistan with its possible extension to India. The length of the proposed pipeline is estimated to be around 1,800 km. Experts now hope that the fall of Taloqan, capital of Takhar province of Afghanistan and stronghold of Taleban's opposition forces would send positive signals among investors. Experts say that Taleban's latest victory in northern Afghanistan would put Pakistan and Turkmenistan in a strong position to find a replacement for the Unocal and make the project feasible. Pakistan is also working on an alternative plan of importing gas from the Gulf to overcome its shortage. The government is considering import of gas from the North Dome field in Qatar and South Pars field in Iran. The experts believe that the two projects are more practicable. The government has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with UAE Offsets Group (UOG) last year for the supply and transmission of 1.5 billion cubic feet (bcf) of natural gas from Gulf to Pakistan daily. UOG is already planning to supply gas from Qatar's North field reserves to UAE and Oman in a pipeline, which is expected to be extended to Pakistan. Pakistan's gas demand is increasing every next year. According to official estimates the current gas shortage stands at 2.6 bcf a year. The estimates have predicted that the gas shortage would increase to 4 bcf by 2006. The experts in gas sector put the possible gas shortfall at 1.5 bcf a year by 2005. The demand for gas is increasing due to government policy of replacing oil with natural gas and kerosene with liquefied petroleum gas in the domestic sector. Officials say it is the best option to save the foreign exchange reserves from spending a big chunk of it on petroleum import. |
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