Continued: Sibel Edmonds, Narco-Terror, 9/11

2008-03-10T06:50:00.002-07:00

This is a continuation of "Sibel Edmonds, Narco-Terror, 9/11".

Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed--and How to Stop It, Page 66:

"According to U.S. intelligence sources, when Mohammad Atta failed to obtain a $1.1 million loan from the U.S. government with which to acquire cropdusters, [Sami] al-Arian and a coconspirator incorporated the Florida Baraka Exchange. This financial entity, which collapsed after September 11, apparently served to funnel money to the al-Qaeda hijackers who trained in Florida."

"Alleged Terrorist Met With Bush Adviser," The Washington Post, February 22, 2003:

"[Sami al-Arian] attended a 2001 group meeting in the White House complex with President Bush's senior adviser, Karl Rove, administration officials said yesterday.

... Al-Arian and his family also were photographed with Bush during a March 2000 campaign stop near Al-Arian's suburban Tampa home. ... Al-Arian posed with Bush and his wife, Laura, at the Florida Strawberry Festival on March 12, 2000, a moment captured in an Al-Arian family photo."

George W. Bush with Sami al-Arian and family

"Loftus refiles lawsuit," The Oracle, July 8, 2002:

"[Former DOJ prosecutor John] Loftus said [Sami] Al-Arian is protected by the Saudi Arabian government... Loftus said the United States government has deep connections to Saudi Arabia, and, thus, protects Al-Arian. ... "It is a matter of record that an organization known as the Baraka group laundered the money to the skyjackers of Sept. 11. Sami Al-Arian incorporated Baraka in the state of Florida, which was dissolved on Sept. 28, 2001," Loftus said. ..."

Congressional testimony of Richard Clarke, October 22, 2003:

"[Soliman] Biheiri was the President and founder of BMI, Inc... BMI allegedly received a $500,000 investment from Baraka Group. ... Biheiri’s computer reportedly contained contact information for Sami al-Arian, the indicted North American leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad."

"The U.S. Provides Details of Terror-Financing Web," The Wall Street Journal, September 15, 2003:

"Investors in BMI ... included Saudi businessman Yassin Qadi... Prosecutors identified a third BMI investor as Abdullah Awad bin Laden... He is a nephew of Osama bin Laden...

... [Al-Qadi] was also a major investor in Ptech, a Boston computer firm that Mr. Biheiri helped start..."

"Perilous Power Play," National Review, May 27, 2003:

"Even after the September 11 attacks, the FBI failed to pursue obvious terrorist financing leads. In a hugely embarrassing moment, the FBI failed to do anything about Ptech, Inc., a company whose prime investor was a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Entity, Saudi Yassin al-Qadi.

... The FBI ignored the repeated requests of concerned employees. Frighteningly, when an employee told the President of Ptech he felt he had to contact the FBI regarding Qadi's involvement in the company, the president allegedly told him not to worry because Yaqub Mirza, who was on the board of directors of the company and was himself a target of a terrorist financing raid in March 2002, had contacts high within the FBI."

"Trails Lead to Saudis," National Review, March 21, 2003:

"In March 2002, Federal terrorism investigators descended upon a group of Saudi-backed executives operating out of northern Virginia. The government hauled away truckloads of files and computer hard drives from the "SAAR Network," a web of dozens of related companies with interlocking officers, directors, and corporate headquarters. ... At the center is SAAR Executive Yaqub Mirza. ...investigators are revisiting the financial activities of two SAAR affiliated Islamic charities, the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), and its sister organization Sana-Bell, Inc.

Red flags have been raised by the fact that Sana-Bell's Washington, D.C. branch was founded by two known al Qaeda financiers, Saleh Kamel (CEO of the Dallah al-Baraka Group) and Ibrahim Afandi. Yaqub Mirza is also listed as a founding trustee.

Kamel and Afandi are members of the Golden Chain, a group of wealthy Gulf patrons that donated millions of dollars to Osama bin Laden. ... The Golden Chain was established at the time of al Qaeda's formation in 1988; Sana-Bell's DC branch was organized only months later."

More to come....

Sibel Edmonds, Narco-Terror, 9/11...

2008-02-08T10:16:00.000-08:00

"...If they were to do real investigations we would see several significant high level criminal prosecutions in this country. And that is something that they are not going to let out. And, believe me; they will do everything to cover this up..."

--Sibel Edmonds

Sibel Edmonds, "The Highjacking of a Nation, Part 2":

"...For Al Qaeda’s network Turkey is a haven for its sources of funding. Turkish networks, along with Russians’, are the main players in these [Afghan poppy] fields; they purchase the opium from Afghanistan and transport it through several Turkic speaking Central Asian states into Turkey, where the raw opium is processed into popular byproducts; then the network transports the final product into Western European and American markets via their partner networks in Albania. ... These operations are run by mafia groups closely controlled by the MIT (Turkish Intelligence Agency) and the military. ... The Turkish government, MIT and the Turkish military, not only sanctions, but also actively participates in and oversees the narcotics activities and networks."

Daniel Ellsberg, quoted by Lukery, audio here:

"...Al Qaeda, she's (Sibel's) been saying to congress, according to these interviews, is financed 95% by drug money - drug traffic to which the US government shows a blind eye, has been ignoring, because it very heavily involves allies and assets of ours - such as Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan - all the 'Stans - in a drug traffic where the opium originates in Afghanistan, is processed in Turkey, and delivered to Europe where it furnishes 96% of Europe's heroin, by Albanians, either in Albania or Kosovo - Albanian Muslims in Kosovo - basically the KLA, the Kosovo Liberation Army which we backed heavily in that episode at the end of the century."

Jane's Intelligence Review, "The 'Balkan Medellin',":

"If left unchecked, this growing Albanian narco-terrorism could lead to a Colombian syndrome in the southern Balkans, or the emergence of a situation in which the Albanian mafia becomes powerful enough to control one or more states in the region. In practical terms, this will involve either Albania or Macedonia, or both. Politically, this is now being done by channelling growing foreign exchange (forex) profits from narco-terrorism into local governments and political parties. In Albania, the ruling Democratic Party (DP) led by President Sali Berisha (pictured below) is now widely suspected of tacitly tolerating and even directly profiting from drug-trafficking for wider politico-economic reasons, namely the financing of secessionist political parties and other groupings in Kosovo and Macedonia."

Sali Berisha and George W. Bush, June 10, 2007

"Financial Infrastructure of Islamic Extremists in the Balkans," Counterterrorism Blog:

"...Interest in the presence of radical Islam in Albania and its connection with the authorities was reawakened on April 11, 2007, with the broadcast of a show "Fiks Fare" on state television. The show publicized documents indicating that Abdul Latif Saleh a close associate of Osama bin Laden, was given Albanian citizenship in 1992 at the personal insistence of then-President, now prime Minister Sali Berisha.

Saleh, a Jordanian, owned construction companies "Mak Albania" and "Cement Albania," which were used to launder the money of Saudi businessman Yasin Qadi's "Caravan" association in Tirana. In 2000, Saleh was deported from Albania on suspicion of Al-Qaeda connections, and his bank account in Tirana was frozen after an attempt to withdraw 2.4 million Euros."

More on Yasin al-Qadi here and here, including the following from The New Anatolian:

"[Turkish] Inspectors Hamza Kacar and Galip Sabuncu wrote a report in which they claimed that they had uncovered significant evidence of money movements linked to Yasin el Kadi in Turkey, but added that their probe was blocked by certain bureaucrats and politicians.

The inspectors said that el Kadi's money movements were concentrated on Albaraka Turk, an Islamic finance institution, of which [Turkey’s Finance Minister Kemal] Unakitan was a shareholder and executive board member before he was elected as a deputy at the last general elections in 2002."

Jean-Charles Brisard, "Turkey finally enforcing UN sanctions against Kadi, extending investigations":

"In “Charitable terrorist”, Nedim Sener, a Turkish investigative journalist alleges that a Kadi firm has been founded by the current legal advisor to the Turkish Prime minister. He also claims that a ruling party leader was an associate of Kadi. According to the book, a key institution for Kadi transactions was Albaraka Turk, owned by the [Dallah] Albaraka Banking Group. The current Turkish finance minister, Kemal Unakitan, is a former shareholder and board member of the bank."

Arab News, "Treasury actions smacks of arrogance, vilates human rights, says Al-Qadi":

"Al-Qadi has worked for Skidmore, an American consulting firm in Chicago, for three years. “I have also met with US Vice President and former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney in Jeddah when he came for a lecture organized by the Dallah [Al-Baraka] Group," [al-Qadi said]. “I spoke to him for a long time and we still have cordial relations.”

CNS News, "Tearful FBI Agent Apologizes To Sept. 11 Families and Victims":

"In a memorandum written 91 days before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, an FBI agent warned that Americans would die as a result of the bureau's failure to adequately pursue investigations of terrorists living in the country.

... "Vulgar Betrayal" was the first operation that culminated with the use of civil forfeiture laws to seize the U.S. assets of terrorist groups. The confiscated funds were directly linked to Saudi Arabian businessman Yassin Kadi, also known as Yassin al-Qadi, who has since been identified as one of the "chief money launderers" for Osama bin Laden. ... Wright says that FBI management "intentionally and repeatedly thwarted and obstructed" his attempts to expand the investigation to arrest other terrorists and seize their assets."

The Miami Herald, "Graham Book: Inquiry into 9/11, Saudi Ties Blocked,":

"Two of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers had a support network in the United States that included agents of the Saudi government, and the Bush administration and FBI blocked a congressional investigation into that relationship, Sen. Bob Graham wrote in a book to be released Tuesday. ... Graham wrote that the staff of the congressional inquiry concluded that two Saudis in the San Diego area, Omar al-Bayoumi and Osama Bassan, who gave significant financial support to two hijackers, were working for the Saudi government."

Senator Bob Graham, Intelligence Matters (Hardcover) Page 167:

"Eleanor [Hill, Joint Inquiry Staff Director,] explained that al-Bayoumi's income and his cover came from employment in a subsidiary contractor for the Saudi Aviation Authority, a ghost job from which he received a paycheck but never reported to work. Since 1993, he had worked for a company called Ercan, which in turn contracted with Dallah Avco Aviation, a Saudi government contractor owned by Saleh Kamel, a wealthy Saudi who belongs to what is known as "the Golden Chain," which provides money to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda on a regular basis."

The Wall Street Journal, "Riyadh Paid Man Linked to Sept. 11 Hijackers,":

"For seven years, the finance department of a Saudi Civil Aviation Presidency project called Air Navigation Systems Support employed Mr. Bayoumi. The project is managed by Dallah Avco Aviation, a unit of the giant Dallah Al-Baraka business group, which for five of the seven years was reimbursed by the government agency for Mr. Bayoumi's salary. During the five-year period, Mr. Bayoumi was considered a Saudi civil servant.
Sept. 11 figure Omar Bayoumi is shown by documents to have been hired for an aviation project by order of the Saudi government."

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, "Lawsuits target financiers of 9/11 attacks,":

"The [9/11] families contend that the U.S. Department of Justice has impeded the progress of their lawsuit by invoking a doctrine, known as the state secrets privilege, to prevent a former FBI translator from giving a deposition in their case. ...then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said her deposition likely would reveal classified information that would harm U.S. security, according to an affidavit filed with the court. Edmonds disputes Ashcroft's assertions, saying that some of her work may be relevant to the Burnett case. She said the FBI was spying on Turkish cultural groups who may have helped -- wittingly or unwittingly -- to launder money for Saudis citizens who were connected to terrorists."

National Security Whistle Blowers Coalition, "Federal Judge in Libby Trial Deliberately Hides Financial Background":

"In July 2004, Judge Reggie Walton disposed of Edmonds’ First Amendment case on the basis of the government’s assertion of State Secrets Privilege. On the same day as the decision, Judge Walton quashed a subpoena for Edmonds’ deposition by attorneys representing over 1,000 family members who lost love ones during the terrorist attacks on 9/11. In limiting the deposition in the case, Burnett et al. v. Al Baraka Investment & Development Corp., Judge Walton prevented the 9/11 attorneys from asking a majority of the proposed questions related to the attacks."

First defendant listed on the 9/11 families' lawsuit:

"AL BARAKA INVESTMENT AND
DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, a/k/a AL
BARAKA BANK, a/k/a DALLAH ALBARAKA
GROUP, LLC..."

Continued here...

Launching Research Blog

2008-02-07T21:08:00.000-08:00

This blog will feature raw notes and research from The American Monitor.