Feds Raid Boston Area Computer Firm Suspected of Links to Al Qaeda

ABC News ^ | 12-6-02 | Brian Ross

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Dec. 6 — Federal agents have raided a Boston-area computer software firm looking for evidence that the company, which does business with key government agencies including the FBI, might have links to Osama bin Laden's terror network.

The Quincy, Mass., firm, Ptech, makes software and is allegedly secretly owned by Qassin al-Kadi, one of 12 Saudi businessmen accused of funneling millions of dollars to al Qaeda. U.S. government investigators told ABCNEWS' chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross that there are fears al Qaeda may have had access to some of the government's most closely held secrets through the company, which provided computer software for the FBI, the Navy, the Air Force and the agency that handles nuclear weapons security.

Just before midnight Thursday, in a driving snowstorm that blanketed the East Coast, a team of U.S. Customs agents raided the firm's Quincy offices.

The raid was the culmination of a top-secret investigation coordinated with the White House amid concerns that the company was secretly owned and controlled by al Qaeda activists or sympathizers.

The agents brought their own computers with them to download files from the firm's computers.

Agents could be seen inside the Ptech headquarters, searching the offices and going through the company's computers.

The company's Web site reveals a list of customers that is a who's-who of sensitive government agencies, including the Naval Air Systems Command, NATO, the House of Representatives and the Department of Energy, which handles security for nuclear weapons and material.

Looking for a ‘Back Door’

Officials believe Ptech is linked to one of bin Laden's alleged money men, a Saudi multi-millionaire named Qassin al-Kadi.

Al-Kadi has repeatedly denied any connection to bin Laden, but he is on the U.S. government's so-called "dirty dozen" list of leading terror financiers who are being investigated by the CIA, and his accounts have been frozen by the United States.

In an interview last year with ABCNEWS' John Miller, al-Kadi denied sending any money to bin Laden. "To hear such an accusation had been put on myself, this is a complete mistake, a big one," he said.

American officials say al-Kadi and the other businessmen on the CIA list all have business and personal connections to the Saudi royal family.

The Customs investigation has been given the highest priority inside the goverment and for the last few weeks, government agencies have quietly been searching their computer software to see if there are any hidden bugs or "back doors" that would make it easy for terrorist hackers to break in.

[Fred Mertz]

Thanks for the heads up.

[Woodstock]

AAA Michigan, ABN AMRO, Aetna, Allegheny Energy Supply, Applied Materials, Booz Allen Hamilton, Edward Jones, FAA, FBI, Fleet Securities, IBM Global Services, IRS, Meijer, The MITRE Corporation, MetLife, Motorola, NATO, NAVAIR, OneBeacon Insurance Group, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Southern California Edison, Sprint, SYSCO, WSIB, US Air Force, US Department of Energy, US Department of Education, US Department of Veteran Affairs, US House of Representatives, USDA Forest Service, US Postal Service, and Weyerhaeuser.

Notice, of course, NSA is not listed. But, I'll bet a dollar they are affected as well. Remember, they started contracting out their system initiatives in the 80's after The Cold War.

[marty60]

Forget Wall Street. All those companies go right into average Americans HOMES.

[TigersEye]

You mean that sucking sound is coming from my basement? ;^)

[marty60]

No, I don't know about where you live, but in Houston a lot of people had their bank accounts accessed for PINs and card numbers etc. We got hit. Luckily Wells Fargo called us within two hours of the illegal activity and cancelled the card. However, the Companies that where they hit, lost money and that hits everyone in the pocet book.

[marty60]

Sounds like a Pretorian to me.


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Ptech’s KnowledgeGateway™ (PKG) offers a new level of simplicity in accessing information in Ptech’s celebrated FrameWork™ solution that is meaningful and in the right context to each user’s needs. Backed by the immediacy and added power of secure Web access, Ptech’s KnowledgeGateway helps organizations share information faster and make decisions based on the latest information - responding better to today’s dynamic business environment.
Competing today means harnessing the full assets of the organization at a moment’s notice. Ptech’s KnowledgeGateway acts as a front-end portal to all information contained within not only Ptech’s flagship FrameWork business process modeling and analysis software, but also other operational systems enabling expanded knowledge sharing across the enterprise. Ptech’s KnowledgeGateway empowers all decision-makers in the organization with the latest information at their fingertips. With sophisticated administration capabilities, including privileges for confidentiality and internal security, Ptech’s KnowledgeGateway lets everyone in the organization make productive use of information assets - from tacit knowledge to paper-based documents to electronic - without losing priceless intellectual capital.


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[dansangel]

Ping...know this company?

[constable tom]

"Notice, of course, NSA is not listed. But, I'll bet a dollar they are affected as well."

Pure speculation; it's a good thing NSA is not listed, as it is also a good thing this company is in Boston instead of the Beltway. The bad news is what they do: Knowledge Management. This is basically using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to facilitate keeping track of and making use of knowledge assets (e.g., who-knows-what; mapping business processes; proprietary information; etc.) in an enterprise. FWIW, I have some idea of the kind of scrutiny NSA applies to its contractors and I am not surprised PTech didn't do business with them. I doubt they would have passed NSA's smell test (too bad they seemed to pass so many others').

[Cachelot]

Hehe. About time that the apples started to fall. Ptech isn't gonna be the only one, if the feds are awake :).

[marty60]

Where are the AMERICANs that work for these companies? Is their jobs more important to them than the security of this Country. The only ones taking this threat seriously is the BUSH ADMINISTRATION. It's time for ordinary American Citizens to step up to the plate.

[FlyingA]

Mostly H1b Visa folks working in Hi-Tech today.
Indians, Paki's etc.

[aristeides]

There was an interesting front-page article on this al-Kadi guy (there spelled "Qadi") in the Wall Street Journal last week.

[Grampa Dave]

Sam thanks for posting this!

Damn, this is scary. I hope all the back doors on any program from this Jihadist Terrorist Company have been closed. Hopefully they got a bunch of hidden viruses to send to their middle east financial backers.

[Grampa Dave]

Before 9/11 there was no concern about the Saudis. So any background check would not have included concern about Saudis.

[Mr. Mojo]

Check out Boston on this map.....

[Grampa Dave]

Bingo what you posted is right on target. Investigate all funding from the Opecker Princes and the Islamofascist thugs in control of the rest of the Middle east.

See how many bucks went to the Clintoons, the Carters, rats in the Senate, the House and governors.

Your reply: Why would you be surprised. The Comp. start up was in 1994. Election year for the Thing and the Things Dumocrat party. I think it's time to check the DNC Donor list. What year did The Thing let Bin Laden have SAFE Passage from the Sudan? Everything related to terrorism has links in the Dumocrat party.

[Salvation]

** Federal agents have raided a Boston-area computer software firm looking for evidence that the company, which does business with key government agencies including the FBI, might have links to Osama bin Laden's terror network.**

If this, indeed, did happen, it is not good news.

However, the good news is that they got caught!

[Grampa Dave]

You posted a great question: Where are the AMERICANs that work for these companies? Is their jobs more important to them than the security of this Country. The only ones taking this threat seriously is the BUSH ADMINISTRATION. It's time for ordinary American Citizens to step up to the plate.

How about this for a short and simple answer. Most of these workers for this firm were probably card carrying Rat Voters living the Boston Area. They have voted for homosexual predators like Barney Frank, killers like Orca Kennedy and the Clintoons. They hate America and George Bush! So they were glad to get a good paycheck and to hurt our company. Every programmer at this company needs to be audited and investigated for possible treason.

[doug from upland]

Why hasn't this guy committed suicide with three shots to the head?

===========================

Perhaps we will soon hear of vigilante groups taking care of these problems.

[thinden]

you failed to highlight FAA, FBI, and IRS.