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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/10/nyregion/10build.html

Arab Royals Buy 2 Pieces of the Skyline

They are two trophy buildings in Manhattan, familiar if not instantly nameable by anyone who knows the city: 230 Park Avenue, the gold-crowned, 34-story tower that sits astride the avenue between 45th and 46th Streets, and the Essex House, one of the grand Art Deco hotels on Central Park South.

And now they have a new landlord: the royal family of Dubai, the oil-rich Arab emirate on the Persian Gulf.

(snip)

One of the royal family's companies, Istithmar, closed this week on the $705 million purchase of 230 Park, known variously as the Helmsley Building and the New York Central Building. A separate Dubai company closed in September on the $440 million acquisition of the Essex House, home to Alain Ducasse, the restaurant which recently won a coveted three-star rating in the Michelin guide to New York City.

(snip)

Over the past three years, Dubai has also quietly invested more than $1 billion in real estate in the United States, putting money into nursing homes, office buildings, hotels and thousands of apartments in Dallas, Phoenix, Nashville and Atlanta.

(snip)

Now it is plunging into one of the most expensive and most lucrative markets in the world, New York. Essex House last sold for $250 million in 1999. A year earlier, 230 Park was sold for $225 million. With both properties, real estate brokers say, Dubai moved quickly, blowing all other offers out of contention.

To some observers, it sounds like Japan all over again.

(Excerpt)

Dubai:

United Arab Emirates, which remains a cash-based society and is considered an important regional financial center for the Gulf region, because of its role as the primary transportation and trading hub for the Gulf states, East Africa, and South Asia, and with expanding trade ties with the countries of the former Soviet Union, it is regarded as having the potential to be a major center for money laundering. Money laundering may take place within the formal banking system, including the numerous money exchange houses, but is believed to be largely confined to the informal and largely undocumented "hawala" remittance system – an undocumented and nontransparent system. The UAE government also has admitted the need to better regulate "near-cash" items such as gold, jewelry, and gemstones, especially in the burgeoning markets in Dubai. UAE acceded to the Kimberley Process in November 2002 and began certifying rough diamonds exported from there on Jan. 1, 2003. UAE customs officials may delay or even confiscate diamonds entering UAE from a KP member nation without the proper KP certificate.

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(snip)

The evidence at trial also showed that HOMA's principal business was transferring funds from third parties to accounts and individuals around the world, particularly in Iran. During the time GAVIDEL was operating HOMA, there was an embargo against trade with Iran, prohibiting all exports to Iran, including the financial services that GAVIDEL and HOMA provided. As the evidence at trial showed, GAVIDEL disguised his transfers of funds to Iran by sending them in bulk through third parties, principally a broker based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. In total, between mid-1998 and 2000, GAVIDEL illegally transferred approximately $2 million to Iran through Dubai. Proof at trial of this offense included extensive accounting records maintained by GAVIDEL of his illegal transfers to Iran, as well as numerous intercepted faxes from accomplices in Iran and Dubai confirming the receipt and deposit of funds in Iran. Trial evidence also showed that, when questioned by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") about HOMA transactions destined for Iran, GAVIDEL falsely stated that, "at no point had business relations or the transfer of funds between [HOMA] and Iran existed" and described HOMA's business as merely an "importer, exporter and trader of various products in the Middle East and Far East."

Following GAVIDEL's conviction, he was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

(snip)

Top Money Laundering Experts For Dubai Banking Summit

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Colourful ex-felon on speakers’ list

DUBAI - Money laundering, a scourge of the world’s financial and law-enforcement sectors, will be under the microscope in Dubai in April at a global banking strategy summit, Channels, and one of the visiting speakers will know all about having a captive audience.

Among a host of elite speakers flying in from Europe, Asia, the Far East, Australia and South Africa for ‘Channels 2004’ from April 25-28 will be Humberto Aguilar, a one-time criminal defence lawyer- turned criminal himself, and now an anti-money laundering expert.

Miami-based Aguilar is clearly a case of ‘set a thief to catch a thief’. Aguilar certainly boasts first-hand experience, having been convicted in the US in 1990 for helping his clients defraud the Internal Revenue Service by hiding their illegally obtained funds in foreign bank accounts and for having participated in sharing revenues from drug importation conspiracy.

His professional duties these days include lecturing for Money Laundering Alert in Miami, Puerto Rico and Panama, a monthly column for Money Laundering Bulletin and writing for Offshore Financial Intermediary.

Aguilar also says he has been drafted in by the US Government to aid in the War on Terror.

“I have been retained by the US Department of Homeland Security’s Bureau of Immigration and Customs Security to help thwart terrorism financing through money laundering activities.”

Aguilar says he is looking forward to his Dubai visit where he will join more than 50 experts of international standing in the global financial sector who will take the stage at the Channels strategy forum over the four days as either speakers or panelists.

Venue is the Crowne Plaza Hotel, where the exhibition for top-tier players in the financial service industry has been sold out for months due to regional executives being ultra-keen to hear the speakers and panel discussions.

Among globalisation, profitability and technology subjects to be featured at Channels are multi-channel delivery strategies, bancassurance, branding, product innovations and Islamic finance.

“Channels will be the banking industry’s biggest event in Dubai this year. It will be a unique forum that won’t be afraid to deal with the thorniest issues,” says event organiser Cordelia Henry, Conference Director for IIR.

Experts in the globalisation field will deal in depth with the Gulf States and the WTO, cross-border banking as well as mergers and acquisitions.

Another high-profile speaker is Joseph DiVanna, author of six books, whose lively subject will be “Everything You Wanted To Know About Retail Banking in 30 Minutes.”

Channels will be held against a series of significant developments in the economic mechanisms of the Gulf region. A number of Gulf states, notably Bahrain and the UAE, have embarked on pushes to be major international financial players.

Hijacker Fayez Banihammad.

June 25, 2001: Hijacker Fayez Banihammad opens a bank account in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), with 9/11 paymaster "Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi." That name is a likely alias for Saeed Sheikh, who is known to frequently visit Dubai in this time period (see January 1, 2000-September 11, 2001 and September 24, 2001-December 26, 2002). [MSNBC, 12/11/01] Banihammad flies to the US the next day (see April 23-June 29, 2001). Banihammad gives power of attorney to "al-Hawsawi" on July 18, and then "al-Hawsawi" sends Banihammad Visa and ATM cards in Florida. Banihammad uses the Visa card to buy his airplane ticket for 9/11. [Washington Post, 12/13/01, MSNBC, 12/11/01] The same pattern of events occurs for some other hijackers, though the timing is not fully known. [Congressional Intelligence Committee, 9/26/02] Visa cards are given to several other hijackers in Dubai. [London Times, 12/1/01] Other hijackers, including Hani Hanjour, Abdulaziz Alomari and Khalid Almihdhar, open foreign bank and credit card accounts in the UAE and in Saudi Arabia. Majed Moqed, Saeed Alghamdi, Hamza Alghamdi, Ahmed Alnami, Ahmed Alhaznawi, Wail Alshehri and possibly others purchase travelers checks in the UAE, presumably with funds given to them when they pass through Dubai. It is believed that "al-Hawsawi" is in Dubai every time the hijackers pass through. [Congressional Intelligence Committee, 9/26/02]

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Early August 2001 (D): The ransom for a wealthy Indian shoe manufacturer, kidnapped in Calcutta, India, two weeks earlier, is paid to an Indian gangster named Aftab Ansari. Ansari is based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and has ties to the ISI and Saeed Sheikh (see November 1994-December 1999). Ansari gives about $100,000 of the about $830,000 in ransom money to Saeed, who sends it to hijacker Mohamed Atta. [Los Angeles Times, 1/23/02, Independent, 1/24/02] A series of recovered e-mails shows the money is sent just after August 11. This appears to be one of a series of Indian kidnappings this gang carries out in 2001. [India Today, 2/14/02, Times of India, 2/14/02] Saeed provides training and weapons to the kidnappers in return for a percentage of the profits. [Frontline, 2/2/02, India Today, 2/25/02] Note that this appears to be an additional $100,000 sent by Saeed to Atta on top of the $100,000 he likely sent to Atta in 2000 (see June 29, 2000-September 18, 2000). If it's true ISI Director Lt. Gen. Mahmood Ahmed orders Saeed to send $100,000 to the hijackers, it isn't clear to which $100,000 that refers (see October 7, 2001).

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"Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi"

September 24, 2001-December 26, 2002: In 2000, the 9/11 hijackers receive money from a man using "Mustafa Ahmed Al-Hisawi" and other aliases (see June 29, 2000-September 18, 2000). On September 8-11, 2001, the hijackers send money to a man in the United Arab Emirates who uses the aliases "Mustafa Ahmed," "Mustafa Ahmad," and "Ahamad Mustafa" (see September 8-11, 2001). Soon the media begins reporting on who this 9/11 "paymaster" is, but his reported names and identities will continually change. The media has sometimes made the obvious connection that the paymaster is the British man Saeed Sheikh, a financial expert who studied at the London School of Economics (see June 1993-October 1994), who undisputedly sent hijacker Mohamed Atta money the month before (see Early August 2001 (D)), was making frequent trips at the time to Dubai, where the money is sent, and is also known to have trained the hijackers (see January 1, 2000-September 11, 2001)

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January 22-25, 2002: FBI Director Mueller visits India, and is told by Indian investigators that Saeed Sheikh sent ransom money to hijacker Mohamed Atta in the US (see Early August 2001 (D)). In the next few days, Saeed is publicly blamed for his role with gangster Aftab Ansari in financing Atta and organizing the Calcutta terrorist attack (see January 22, 2002). [Press Trust of India, 1/22/02, Los Angeles Times, 1/23/02, Independent, 2/24/02, AFP, 1/27/02, Telegraph, 1/27/02] Meanwhile, on January 23, Saeed helps kidnap reporter Daniel Pearl (see January 23, 2002) and is later arrested (see February 5, 2002). Also on January 23, Ansari is placed under surveillance after flying to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. On January 24, Mueller and US Ambassador to Pakistan Wendy Chamberlin discuss Saeed at a previously scheduled meeting with Pakistani President Musharraf. Apparently Saeed's role in Pearl's kidnapping is not yet known. [AP, 2/24/02] Mueller then flies to Dubai on his way back to the US to pressure the government there to arrest Ansari and deport him to India. Ansari is arrested on February 5 and deported 4 days later (see February 9, 2002 (C)). [AP, 2/10/02, Frontline, 2/16/02, India Today, 2/25/02]

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Aftab Ansari

February 9, 2002 (C): Gangster Aftab Ansari is deported to India. He was arrested in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on February 5 (see January 22, 2002 and January 22-25, 2002). [Independent, 2/10/02] He admits funding terrorist attacks through kidnapping ransoms (see Early August 2001 (D)), and building a network of arms and drug smuggling. [Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 2/11/02] He later also admits to close ties with the ISI and Saeed Sheikh, whom he befriended in prison (see November 1994-December 1999). [Press Trust of India, 5/13/02]

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Sheik accused in camel jockey abuse plot

By JANET PATTON

Lexington Herald-Leader

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Sheik Mohammed, one of the richest horse buyers in Kentucky and the world, has been implicated in the slave trade of child camel jockeys by a cable TV news program.

A report aired this week on HBO's Real Sports includes footage of appalling living conditions at camel-training camps and alleges that boy camel jockeys -- some as young as 3 -- are kidnapped or sold into slavery, starved, beaten and raped. The report links the abuses to Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum.

Sheik Mohammed is the crown prince of Dubai, one of the United Arab Emirates. He also serves as defense minister for the UAE.

No representative of the Maktoum organization would comment on the report. Sheik Mohammed owns two horse farms in the Bluegrass -- Raceland in Paris and Darley at Jonabell in Lexington; no one from the farms would respond publicly.

And an e-mail sent Friday afternoon to Sheik Mohammed from his official Web site was not answered.

The report, which HBO says was filmed in the UAE, is not specific about the locations of the camps featured. Some appear to be in Abu Dhabi, which is also in the UAE. The report lays the responsibility for these atrocities at the feet of ''the rulers of the United Arab Emirates I the sheiks.''

But it focuses on only one member of any UAE royal family: Sheik Mohammed. At least some of the boy jockeys shown are allegedly at the Dubai camel track, which is owned and run by the Maktoum family.

The report calls the track ''the playground of the crown prince'' and contrasts the boys' hovels with the treatment of Sheik Mohammed's horses and camels.

HBO correspondent Bernard Goldberg said on the report that HBO received a letter from unnamed UAE officials who said that they were ''shocked that this is happening'' and that they ''are adamantly against it.''

The UAE, a confederation of Arab states, in 1993 banned the use of jockeys under the age of 15 or under 45 kilograms (99 pounds); in 2002, it reiterated the ban.

Greg Sullivan, chief spokesman for the State Department's Near Eastern Affairs Bureau, said State Department officials have urged the UAE to aggressively crack down on the trafficking of underage camel jockeys and are looking into the allegations raised in the HBO documentary.

''If the allegations prove true, the U.S. will use that information to further engage the United Arab Emirates government on that issue,'' he said.

Sullivan said that the State Department asked HBO to provide the names of the underage children featured in the documentary, but HBO declined to provide the information.

The State Department's 2004 Trafficking in Persons Report said the UAE government has made ''substantial efforts'' to crack down on the trafficking of children for camel jockey work, but Sullivan said the practice still exists as ''a form of human slavery.''

State Department officials have urged the UAE to impose a minimum age of 18 for camel jockeys.

Kentucky ties

Sheik Mohammed and other members of the Maktoum family have long been fixtures at the thoroughbred auctions at Keeneland. Under the royal blue silks of Godolphin, the family racing stable, the Maktoums have run horses in the biggest races in Europe and the United States, including the Kentucky Derby. The Maktoums annually hold the richest race in the world -- the Dubai World Cup at Nad Al Sheba -- and they fly the best horses and trainers there to compete.

Kiaran McLaughlin, a Lexington native who now trains horses in New York, spent a decade working for the Maktoums in Dubai. He said on Friday that he and other horse workers were well-treated.

McLaughlin said that he trained within half a mile of the camels but never saw any abuse or signs of child slavery. ''I don't know about that. I can tell you that I lived there and loved it,'' McLaughlin said.

''I can promise you Sheik Mohammed did not abuse any children,'' he said.

Members of the racing press, including a Herald-Leader photographer and reporter, were invited to Dubai in 1999 and given a tour of the country. While there, they saw tiny jockeys who appeared much younger than 15.

And Anti-Slavery International, a human rights group, in June 2004 released photos that they said were taken in Dubai showing child jockeys; they accused the UAE of keeping the boys in brutal conditions.

Kentuckians Marci and Todd Boston lived in Dubai for years. Todd Boston moved to Dubai in 1995 to work as a blacksmith for Sheik Mohammed. His wife joined him in 1996; Marci left in 2000; Todd left in 2002.

They always said that they loved their time in Dubai, thought of it as a second home, and meant to return someday.

But the Bostons said Friday they are very disturbed by the HBO report, and in retrospect by what they saw in Dubai.

They remember child camel jockeys.

''You kind of knew about it. You knew about the little kids,'' Todd Boston said, but they never heard about sexual abuse or beatings.

But based on the way he saw Arabs treat adult workers from India, Pakistan or Bangladesh, he said, he isn't surprised by the allegations of child abuse.

The HBO report said many of the child jockeys were from slums in those countries.

Marci Boston said that she heard rumors at the time that the boys were ''taken'' from poor homes in South Asia, but that she never imagined the conditions they were living in while in Dubai.

Todd Boston said that in the morning as he went to the horse track he would wait as the camels crossed the road to their track.

''There would be a pickup truck following them with little bitty kids in the back, with little helmets on, waving,'' Boston said.

The Bostons are haunted by the memory of one green-eyed boy, about 4 years old they think, who they saw at the camel market wearing a helmet.

The boy stared at them as if he were ''desperate for love,'' Todd Boston said. They have no idea what happened to him.

''This is a double-edged sword. I worked for Sheik Mohammed and I respect him very much, but on the other side, I am just horrified by this,'' he said.

''I expect to hear from Sheik Mohammed. We need explanations,'' Marci Boston said. ''I'm so angry. We were there -- we saw the kids riding camels. I don't have a doubt about it.''

http://www.newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin298.htm
DUBAI CO. TAKES OVER 9 US MILITARY FACILITIES

By Pastor Chuck Baldwin

May 5, 2006

NewsWithViews.com

As I warned earlier in this column, a United Arab Emirates company has been given control of some 9 U.S. military facilities. The deal is now official.

According to an AP report that ran in my hometown newspaper, The Pensacola News Journal, on Saturday, April 29, 2006, "President Bush has approved the takeover by a Dubai-owned company of American plants that make parts for jets and tanks after a review that seems to have satisfied lawmakers who helped block an earlier Dubai deal." The AP report also said, "Initial reaction from Capitol Hill was favorable."

Specifically, the Dubai company takes over control of at least nine factories, including military production facilities in Connecticut and Georgia. Dubai settled the deal for $1.2 billion.

Therefore, Dubai will now take over operations of factories that produce engine components and turbine blades for military platforms. Clients include Boeing, General Electric, Honeywell, and Pratt and Whitney. Please understand that when we talk about a Dubai company we are talking about a foreign government!

Unlike the private British companies that formerly held these contracts, the Dubai company is a state owned company. Yes, Martha, that means that a foreign government, a government that has direct ties to terrorists, is now in charge of several U.S. military facilities! And the reaction to this foreign takeover on Capitol Hill was "favorable."

Not only was this Dubai deal received favorably in Washington, D.C., the mainstream media has virtually ignored the story. Be honest. How many of you even knew this happened? The story to which I alluded at the top of this column came from page 8C of my local newspaper. That's right. Page 8C. No front page or even second, third, or fourth page news for this one.

Does anyone smell a rat?

If the American people truly understood the depth and degree to which America's big business and political leaders are mired in international commercial activities, it would probably scare us half to death!

No wonder the Bush administration and members of Congress allow and even encourage illegal immigration. No wonder virtually everything we buy anymore is made outside the United States. No wonder America's factories are almost all closed down. No wonder it doesn't matter to a tinker's dam how many letters we write or phone calls we make to our lawmakers in Washington. No wonder our congressmen take frequent "fact finding" trips overseas (at taxpayer expense, no less). No wonder un-American trade deals such as NAFTA, GATT, and soon-to-come FTAA sail through the halls of Congress no matter how unpopular they are with the American people.

Let's face it: for the most part, America's business and political leaders have sold America down the old proverbial river! In my opinion, they are no better than Benedict Arnold!

Now we have a Middle Eastern nation, which has direct ties to international terrorism, running several U.S. factories (on U.S. soil) responsible for producing sophisticated military hardware, and barely anyone in Washington, D.C., gives it a second thought!

Of course, while the President and Congress put out the welcome mat for the UAE (and for illegal aliens of every stripe), they continue to pass legislation (or worse, don't even worry about legality) creating a Big Brother society for the American citizenry.

Believe me, the American people are constantly under Big Brother's microscope, and if you don't believe it, just try purchasing something over $5,000 with cash and see what happens to you. In the meantime, these same politicians, CEOs, CFOs, international bankers, and media moguls make billion dollar business deals with virtually every socialist dictator, Marxist government, and rogue regime on earth on a daily basis!

Until the American people shake off their infatuation with the two- party system and begin holding their elected representatives accountable to the U.S. Constitution, there will be no change in the direction of the country. Big money interests control both major parties, which is why nothing changes no matter who is elected.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2040486/posts?page=526#526

OBAMA VISITED KARACHI IN 1981

>>>Yes, it’s a graphic satire of so-so quality which should be obvious. The crux of the matter is the true nature of Hussein’s “innocent vacation to Pakistan and India”—
Actually Phil, there is another, HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT, point in that article that is being overlooked from you post.

There is a reference in your article linked at your post from a standard report that affirms Obama’s family is the controlling tribe of East Africa: Kenya, Somalia, the Ogaden sector of Ethiopia and Tanzania. Tanzania being the most significant.

Daniel Pearl last article that was published was about the underground gem trade coming out of Tanzania that funded Al Qaeda. The underground routes were controlled by Militant Muslims. Obama’s family is the controlling tribe, Luo.

One of the routes goes right to Iran, as well as Dubai. Iran owns a number of companies that handle the Tanzanite trade.

Iran in turn supplies the tribes with weapons and means for bombings, like EMBASSIES. The U.S. has intercepted communications from Iran to militant bases from our listening posts.

The militant Muslims also have control of slaves in East Africa. They go from village to village and take the able children of native Africans to work these mines.

Wilson Peter, 12 year-old child miner: “At the mines we sift through sand for gems. Sometimes we find nothing. We get hungry and go home. We go to eat. After we eat we go back into the mine. We work until six, then we go home. At home we rest for a while. After resting we change our clothes. Then we go to fetch water to use in the house. Then we help mother with chores. After dark we go to bed.”

Mererani, Tanzania: the only place on earth where the rare gem tanzanite is found.

Thanks FARS:

Explains various dark corners. thanks.

It is not only African mine worker slaves.

Iranians of the Islamic Regime own several of the high rise luxury hotels, office buildings and residences) in Dubai and auction girls (mostly) and boys on a nightly basis as sex slaves in the basements of the hotels.

Bidders (generally Arabs but not exclusively) choose girls and boys as young as nine and buy them for a night, a week, a month or take possession of them and export them to wherever they want to use them.

For short term ones, they are returned to their original Mullah owners at the end and resold.

With some HALF MILLION homeless, unprotected street children of both sexes in the capital city of Tehran alone and some 100,000 abandoned women and girls also on the streets, without anyone to protect them, the Mullahs have a huge source of supply of flesh to send across the Gulf for the sex slave trade.

Mullahs have often set up brothels in the outskirt towns of Tehran, such a Karaj, by setting themselves up as charities and orphanages dedicated to protecting young girls (only) whose families cannot afford to support and feed them. they then use the girls as local brothel prostitutes. None of the girls dare to complain to the authorities, controlled by those very Mullahs, nor contact their families after having been shames this way.

Even within Iran, prostitution - often under the religious cover of “temporary marriages” which can be for ten minutes, an hour or any length of time, women are sucked into sellling themselves, usually for money or sometimes just for a roof over their heads and food. Or a trip to a Caspian seaside resort to have fun with a stranger as their temporary wife.

A whole tourist trade exists with the travel agencies providing their in-house Mullah to register the temporary marriages, making the whole event “legitimate” by law and by the tenets of religion, which would otherwise require the stoning or execution of the WOMAN.

Men generally get excused for being seduced by the charms of the woman and thus not culpable.

In France they say “cherchez la femme” (find the woman) to locate the source of a man’s success in life. In Iran it is find the woman to use as the fall person to blame for everything and allow the man to be blameless.

A woman and her daughter were raped by a Mullah official and stabbed him in gthe process. He died and they were condemned to death for MURDER.

This is the mentality - in addition to Communist roots - that Obama appears to want to impose on us with his “change” from traditional customs and mind sets and principles, with his pally-wally attitude to Iran.

The Mullahs have instructed their followers and agents in the USA to support and promote Obama. I was not aware of the Tanzania gem trade to Iran and Dubai but heard the Mullahs were spending fortunes trying to get him elected. Specially by covertly buying time on drive-by media, including Farsi language TV and radio stations.

958 posted on Friday, July 04, 2008 5:55:59 PM by FARS