In the following articles, the reader can see the evolution of the money trail of global terrorism.
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A special report By Syed Nooruzzaman
"...ways also to ensure an uninterrupted supply of money. These include: (1) sale of narcotics on a large scale (the United Nations Drug Control Programme has it that the ISI annually makes around $ 2.5 billion through this source and it must be spending anything between Rs 537.5 crore and Rs 1,075 crore on fuelling militancy every year); (2) printing of fake currency notes by the National Jehad Council at its printing press at Muzaffarabad in occupied Kashmir; (3) collections made in West Asia and European countries for the Jehad Fund; and (4) extortions from traders, contractors and other moneyed people.... "
Original url: http://www.timesofindia.com/today/02home5.htm
"..The Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, with which the Centre had briefly engaged in abortive peace talks, is the single-largest recipient among the Kashmiri militant groups of funds from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, according to the Army. ....during 1999 has revealed that the Hizb alone received Rs 18.5 crore. ...the ISI's annual revenue, generated through the drugs and narcotics trade, is a staggering $2.5 billion (approximately Rs 10,750 crore). Of this, between five to 10 per cent is spent on aiding and abetting insurgency and terrorism in Kashmir, the report says. ...... The Hizb, which was formed as a pro-Pakistan group after the ISI failed to win over the pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) in the early years of insurgency, is the largest and the most influential outfit in Kashmir with about 4,500 trained cadre in Pakistan, including 1,000 hardcore militants in Kashmir.
.... `awards' to its men for killing security personnel in the state....Rs 50,000 for killing a Colonel, Rs 20,000 for a Major and Rs 10,000 for a jawan. .....rank and file are paid a monthly `salary' of Rs 3,000, Hizb `company commanders' are paid between Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000, `battalion commanders' Rs 7,000 to Rs 10,000, and `district commanders' Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000. In contrast, foreign militants, mostly from Pakistan and Afghanistan, receive a lumpsum of Rs 4 lakh - Rs 2 lakh before infiltrating into India and another Rs 2 lakh on their return. Between 1991 and May this year, 1,583 foreign militants died in encounters. Of them about 672 remain unidentified. Mercenaries from Bahrain, Bangladesh, Chechnya, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkey, and Yemen have so far had only token involvement in Kashmir. In the Army's assessment, the inflow of funding has increased after Gen. Pervez Musharraf's bloodless coup in October last year. Gen. Musharraf has publicly pledged Rs 50 crore for ex-gratia payment to families of terrorists killed in J&K and a further Rs 85 crore for rehabilitation of Kashmiris who claim to have migrated to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK). "
The companies, based in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Crawley and Leicester, operate on behalf of an organisation called Al-Muhajiroun - which means the voice, the eyes and the ears of the Muslims, the daily said.
.... One of the companies, called `Info 2000 Software', is based on Haringey Council's Lee Valley techno-park in North London. ..set up in March 1998 and has never traded. Its London offices act as a base for Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, the Syrian-born founder of Al-Muhajiroun. ..... Al-Muhajiroun...has also established a series of agents to allow it to organise large fund-raising events at key venues across the country. There are more than 30 of these organisations, most of which have misleading names such as the ``Society of Muslim Parents'', ``Society of Muslim Doctors'' and ``Society of Muslim Teahers''. Last year the Albert Hall cancelled a booking by the ``Society of Muslim Women'' when it discovered the group's links with Al-Muhajiroun. Four weeks later, the meeting was advertised as a discussion on the relative merits of Islam and Christianity. It was actually a fund-raising event for Islamic groups operating in ...Chechnya. ...(PTI) "
"New Delhi, Oct. 8. (PTI): Pakistani Director-General of Inter- Services Intelligence (ISI), Lt. Gen. Mahmud Ahmed, has been forced into retirement after FBI investigators established "credible links" between him and Umer Sheikh, one of the three militants released in exchange for passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines plane in 1999.
The FBI team, which had sought adequate inputs about various terrorists including Sheikh from the Intelligence agencies, was working on the linkages between Sheikh and Gen. Mahmud which are believed to have been substantiated.
Informed sources said there were enough indications with US Intelligence agencies that it was at Gen. Mahmud's instruction that Sheikh had transferred one lakh US dollars into the account of Mohammed Atta, one of the lead terrorists in strikes at the World Trade Center on September 11.
Prime Minister Vajpayee had also mentioned to British Prime Minister Tony Blair about the specific links between IC-814 hijacking and September 11 terrorist attacks. The Indian Intelligence agencies had also shared several inputs about the linkages between the hijacker and the ISI chief with the US and other western Intelligence groups, the sources said.
Sheikh was among the three militants released by the Indian Government after
the IC-814 was hijacked to Kandahar in 1999. The other two were Maulana Masood
Azhar and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar. "
http://www.dawn.com/2001/10/09/top13.htm
"DAWN" of Karachi, Pakistan, October 8, 2001
Monitoring Desk
NEW DELHI, Oct 8: Director General of Pakistan's Inter- Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt Gen Mahmud Ahmed has been replaced after the FBI investigators established credible links between him and Umar Sheikh, one of the three militants released in exchange for passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines plane in 1999.
The FBI team, which had sought adequate inputs about various terrorists including Sheikh from the intelligence agencies, was working on the linkages between Sheikh and former ISI chief Gen Mahmud which are believed to have been substantiated, reports PTI website.
Informed sources said there were enough indications with the US intelligence agencies that it was at Gen Mahmud's instruction that Sheikh had transferred 100,000 US dollars into the account of Mohammed Atta, one of the lead terrorists in strikes at the World Trade Centre on Sept 11, it adds.
"Yesterday we noted a report from a Pakistani newspaper that Lt. Gen. Mahmud Ahmad had been fired as head of Islamabad's Inter-Services Security agency after U.S. linked him to a militant allied with terrorists who hijacked an Indian Airlines plane in 1999. Now the Times of India says Ahmad is connected to the Sept. 11 attacks:
Top sources confirmed here on Tuesday, that the general lost his job because of the "evidence" India produced to show his links to one of the suicide bombers that wrecked the World Trade Centre. The US authorities sought his removal after confirming the fact that $100,000 were wired to WTC hijacker Mohammed Atta from Pakistan by Ahmad Umar Sheikh at the instance of Gen Mahumd.
Senior government sources have confirmed that India contributed
significantly to establishing the link between the money transfer and the
role played by the dismissed ISI chief. While they did not provide
details, they said that Indian inputs, including Sheikh's mobile phone
number, helped the FBI in tracing and establishing the link. "
At Least Six Hijacking Suspects Got U.S. Visas in Saudi Arabia;
Men Dispersed Across Globe to Major Cities Before Entering States Over
18-Month Period
By GARY FIELDS and DAVID S. CLOUD , Staff Reporters
of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Quote: "Investigators now believe the operation's financing was arranged by top bin Laden aide Shaykh Saiid, who was using the name Mustafa Ahmad as an alias. Investigators don't know "for sure" that Mr. Saiid was the operation paymaster, but many investigators "seem to think that's right," said a U.S. official.Several wire transfers totaling $100,000 came from the United Arab Emirates to a Florida bank account of suspected hijacker Mohamad Atta roughly a year before the attacks. The money is believed to come originally from Pakistan, an official said."
http://detnews.com/2001/editorial/0109/30/a17-306400.htm
"The writing was on the wall on July 5, 1991, when the Bank of England
shut down what was the most important Islamic bank in the world, the Bank
of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). This criminal entity was created
by the Pakistani Aaga Hassan Abedi "to fight the evil influence of the
West"; to help with the creation of the "Islamic Bomb"; to finance all
Muslim terrorist organizations; and to launder the money that was generated
mostly by illicit drug trafficking and other illegal activities, including
arms trafficking. "....
"A "Black Network," a special enforcement unit supported by Abu Nidal
and other terrorist organizations, operated from Pakistan. The same Pakistan
that harbored bin Laden for many years while its officials told the United
States that they didn't know his whereabouts. And the same Pakistan that
for decades, even according to the State Department's annual report, had
been a major drug trafficking and money laundering center. "
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/9/30/104405.shtml
PR Newswire Monday, Oct. 1, 2001 NEW YORK -
"- Although two interrelated global charities directly financed by the Saudi government -- the International Islamic Relief Organization and the Muslim World League -- have been used by terrorist leader Osama bin Laden to finance his operations, both organizations were left off the list of groups sanctioned by the U.S. last week, intelligence officials tell Newsweek, in order to avoid embarrassing the Saudi government. Another organization dropped from the list despite being known as a bin Laden front was the Rabita Trust for the Rehabilitation of Stranded Pakistanis, with the president of Pakistan, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, on its board. Intelligence officials tell Newsweek that Washington gave Musharraf 36 hours to quit, but when he didn't, the Rabita Trust was quietly dropped from the list, reports Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas in the Oct. 8 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, Oct. 1). ..."
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/10/01/inv.pakistan.funds/index.html
October 1, 2001 Posted: 11:00 AM EDT (1500 GMT) WASHINGTON (CNN)
Excerpts: "-- As much as $100,000 was wired in the past year from Pakistan to Mohamed Atta .... the wire transfers from Pakistan were sent to Atta through two banks in Florida. Then, Atta allegedly would obtain money orders -- a few thousand dollars at a time -- to ddistribute to others involved in the plot in the months before the hijackings. Atta lived in Florida much of that time. ... sources in the Middle East confirm that Atta and two other men wired more than $15,000 back to the United Arab Emirates just before the attacks -- what may have been leftover cash from the terrorism funds. The money went to a man who flew out of Dubai for Karachi, Pakistan, on September 11 -- the day of the attack. Atta sent $5,000, according to the sources. His Florida roommate, Marwan Al-shehhi, wired $5,400. A third man, Waleed Alshehri, sent slightly more than $5,200......".." From CNN Correspondents Susan Candiotti in Washington, Rym Brahimi in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and CNN Producer Rich Phillips in Miami. "
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/10/01/inv.investigation.facts/index.html
Excerpts: "..Law enforcement sources said Pakistan is a common conduit
for money going in and out of Afghanistan, home to Islamic militant Osama
bin Laden, the primary suspect in the attacks. But investigators still
do no know where the funds may have originated. (Full story) Wire transfers
from Pakistan were sent to Mohamed Atta, identified by U.S. investigators
as the suspected leader of the attacks, through two banks in Florida, sources
said. Then, Atta allegedly obtained money orders -- a few thousand dollars
at a time -- to distribute to others involved in the plot in the months
before the hijackings... "
• The notorious Harakat ul-Mujahidin (HUM)— "movement of holy warriors"—labeled
a terrorist organization by the U.S.
With leaders trained in Afghanistan, HUM focused its activities on Kashmir,
killing tourists there. It was responsible for
the December 1999 hijacking of an Indian airliner to Afghanistan. The group
fought the Soviets during the war and has
close ties to the Taliban. It reportedly has recruited in North America.
• International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) and the Muslim World
League, two closely associated Muslim charities.
Both are tightly tied to the Saudi royal family and have been previously
investigated for possible terrorist activities,
according to The Washington Post. The IIRO has given $60 million to the
Taliban. In 1999 an Orlando, Florida, resident
who had worked for the Muslim World League in Pakistan was jailed after
he refused to explain his connections to
people involved in the U.S. embassy bombings in Africa. The IIRO said it
has nothing to do with terrorism, and Saudi
intelligence claims there are no ties to the Saudi royal family. But Jonathan
Winter, a former State Department official,
testified before Congress last week, saying that Islamic charities have
"either provided funds to terrorists or failed to
prevent their funds from being diverted to terrorist use," according to
the Post.
• Al-Fuqra (AF), which began clandestine activities in the Muslim communities
of North America and the Caribbean in
the 1980s. This group is reported to have raised money for fundamentalist
groups in Pakistan and recruited groups of
African Americans to train within Pakistan. Based in Hancock, New York,
the group had an estimated 1000 to 3000
members in the U.S. in the '90s.
Rediff.com, October 11, 2001
".The Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist group has
renamed itself Tehrik-al-Furqan, fearing its inclusion in
the U S State Department's list of terrorist groups, Online news agency
reported on Thursday. "We have reports that the Pakistan government
is going to seal our offices and freeze our accounts all over the country,"
a Jaish official said.
A religious scholar, Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, has been named the patron-in-chief of the Tehrik-al-Furqan, while Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Maulana Mazhar Shah will be the convenor of the new group. ...."
"..list of 39 individuals and groups, which adds to 27 identified in a White House executive order last month, appears for the first time to draw a direct link between Mr. bin Laden and prominent members of Saudi society.
It names Yasin al-Qadi, a Saudi businessman who has run a foundation with trustees that have included some of the kingdom's most prominent families. It has funneled millions of dollars from Saudi businesses to Mr. bin Laden..
....identified Mr. Qadi and the Saudi-based charitable organization, Muwafaq Foundation. Administration officials said today that the foundation has transferred millions of contributions to Mr. bin Laden, with much of that money coming from a select group of Saudi businessmen with high level connections.....
...Also on the list is Rabita Trust, a Pakistani charity that at least until recently had Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, on its board. ..secretary general, Wael Hamza Jalaidan, was an original founder of Al Qaeda along with Mr. bin Laden.
Officials say that they have seized about $24 million in assets linked to suspected terrorists since Sept. 11, not including hundreds of millions of dollars tied to the Taliban...... The administration has a much broader list of Saudi-linked organizations under scrutiny, including several large Islamic charities thought to wittingly or unwittingly donate money to Al Qaeda.. ..Last January, the United Nations Security Council identified five of them and ordered members to impound their assets. They are: Sad al-Sharif, Mr. bin Laden's brother-in-law; Bilal bin Marwan, a senior lieutenant of Al Qaeda; Amin al-Haq, an Afghan-born doctor thought to be Mr. bin Laden's security coordinator; and Saqar al-Jadawi and Ahmad Said al-Kadr, two bin Laden aides. European nations had already acted to block assets in any accounts linked to those men. It is unclear why Treasury Department officials did not ..."
"..Ahmad Said al-Kadr, another person on the list, was said to run the Afghan operations of Human Concern International, with headquarters in Canada. He is an aide to Mr. bin Laden,.."
"Al Hamati Sweet Bakeries and two honey businesses, Al Nur Honey
Press Shops and Al Shifa Honey Press for Industry and Commerce, all based
in Yemen, asserting that those companies channeled profits to Mr. bin Laden
and helped him transport arms."
"..first instance of greater British responsiveness to Indian allegations that some of the support for terrorism in Kashmir comes from Britain-based Pakistanis. ........Shafiq-ur Rahman, a Manchester-based cleric, is accused of recruiting and funding the Lashkar-e-Taiba. He has finally been deemed a threat to Britain’s national security four years after his deportation was first ordered by the then British home secretary, Jack Straw..... Rahman, who worked as an iman in a mosque, always acknowledged that he raised money for the Markaz-e DawaIrshad or MDI, the political wing of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and even suggested that most of the funds he collected were used to buy sheep for the Eid sacrifice."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59495-2001Oct14.html
"....Money flowed from the coffers of the oil-rich kingdom -- by some accounts, as much as $1 billion -- to supply and arm fighters gathering under the tutelage of U.S. and Pakistani intelligence services. Volunteers simply signed up for "relief work," one Saudi recalled, and flew off on deeply discounted air tickets, courtesy of Saudi Arabian Airlines. National guard members could even take paid leave to join the fight. "We helped them with everything," said a high-ranking Saudi intelligence official...."
"..set of reports, all accusing Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence
(ISI) of having played its role while facilitating the September 11 terrorist
attacks in New York and Washington.
... Pakistan President and military ruler, Gen. Parvez Musharraf,
has tried to divert Washington's attention by sacking the ISI chief, Gen.
Mehmood Ahmed, America's FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) and CIA
(Central Intelligence Agency) seem determined to investigate the allegations
against the ISI.
.. "most damaging evidence".. ISI chief's connection with Omar Sheikh, the Pakistan-born British national, who was released by the Government of India along with Masood Azhar and Mushtaq Zargar towards the end of 1999 to seek the freedom of passengers of the hijacked plane of India Airlines at Kandahar in Afghanistan.
... Omar Sheikh's cellphone number-0300 94587772... FBI's examination of the hard disk of the cellphone company... "link" between him and the Gen. Mehmood Ahmed...sensational information surfaced with regard to the transfer of 100,000 dollars to Mohammed Atta... Gen. Mehmood Ahmed, the FBI investigators found, fully knew about the transfer of money to Atta.
..Omar Sheikh and Masood Azhar launched Jaish-e-Mohammed after the
Kandahar hijacking episode... contact the two... developed with Osama bin
Laden...
....Omar was seen in Karachi a fortnight before the September 11
strikes. .. "crucial link".. into the September 11 attacks. He has
gone underground since the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre and
the Pentagon..."
"The police official named the three suspects as Hashim Qadir, Imtiaz Siddiqui and Bashir, saying they had helped Pearl arrange meetings at the time of his disappearance. Police said Qadir, also known as Arif, arranged to take Pearl to meet Bashir, who in turn was supposed to lead the reporter to a meeting with Mubarak Ali Shah Gilani, leader of the radical Islamic group Jamaat al-Fuqra. Police said Siddiqui was also supposed to meet Pearl. Gilani was detained by police last week and has denied involvement in Pearl's disappearance. "
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/popoff/Video/020205pearl_video_popoff/index.html
"Investigators have also identified two key suspects: Mohammed Hashim Qadeer, known to be a member of a terrorist group that hijacked an Indian Airlines jet in 1999, and Sheik Omar Saeed, who was freed from an Indian prison as part of the deal that ended that hijacking. "
"..Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi...wired about $15,000 in cash to the currency exchange on the eve of the attacks. .... wire transfers to a man identified as Mustafa Ahmad, thought to be a financial officer in Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda terrorist network.
..Al-Shehhi wired $5,400 to Ahmad, also known as Shaykh Saiid, shortly
before noon on Sept. 10 from a Western Union office at the Greyhound bus
terminal in Boston...
... Separately, .. Waleed M. Alshehri sent $5,215 to Ahmad from
a currency booth at Boston's Logan Airport on the evening of Sept. 9.
.... Finally, Atta wired money to Ahmad on Sept. 8 and 9. ... Ahmad
picked up the transfers on Sept. 11 from the Al Ansari exchange in Sharja...
The same day, Ahmad used a Saudi Arabian passport to fly from Dubai to
Pakistan.."
Note to readers: The Sheikh Sayyad (sp.)is the same individual who is reported to have a handler (Lt.Gen.Mehmood Ahmed) in the Pakistani ISI.
http://www.rediff.com/us/2001/nov/01ny5.htm
" ..... FBI have also tracked down a public phone booth in
Karachi from where someone had called Mohammad Atta three times within
a few days. ... Ahmed Omar Sayed Sheikh one of the Kashmiri militants who
wired $100,000 to Mohammad Atta, could have used the public booth... said
Indian sleuths. According to them, Atta and his accomplices did visit Pakistan
and went right up to Afghanistan border to meet someone just a few weeks
before the September 11 attack. The officials believe Atta and his associates
met Osama bin Laden at the border. "
http://www.thefridaytimes.com/news9.htm
"...The American 'praise' for General Mehmood was tempered by the
news
in Dawn (9 October 2001) that the FBI had
actually found out that he had contacts with Al-Qaeda activist Sheikh Umar
Saeed who had remitted from Pakistan 100,000 dollars to Muhammad Ata
who
was one of the attackers of New York's World Trade Center. The news item
alleged that the money was sent to Muhammad Ata on his instructions. On
3 October Azim Mian of The News filed from Washington that the evidence
presented by the American ambassador to General Musharraf 'also unveils
some details about individuals and institutional sympathisers and patrons
of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban inside the government set-up of Islamabad
as well as non-governmental players'. That would place the ISI chief in
a totally different light. It would lead to the charge that the general
was somehow working for al-Qaeda and that he could be held partly responsible
for the acts of terrorism. And through him, Pakistan could be blamed by
its enemies for taking part in international terrorism, a
charge already made by president Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, who names
Pakistan for the attempts made on his life but keeps the Pakistan
government out of it, and ex-prime minister of Bangladesh
Hasina Wajed who thought that the ISI had tried to kill her twice...."
"...German investigators say Bahaji rented an apartment in Hamburg in 1998 and shared it with Mohamed Atta, .."
"...Bahaji and three companions traveled to Karachi from Hamburg one week before the hijackings. The four - all of whom carried Western European passports, but were of Arab origin - spent the night at a Karachi hotel and made calls to Hamburg.
They traveled from Karachi to the southwestern city of Quetta and were believed to have crossed the border into Afghanistan.
Bahaji confirmed a reservation on the Tuesday flight to Istanbul,
but did not show up to get the ticket. .."