Dollars of Terror
By Rachel Ehrenfeld <http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/authors.asp?ID=579>
FrontPageMagazine.com
<http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=17730> | April 18, 2005
When referring to the enemy's money we are usually concerned with how the
terrorists collect the funds they need. As we know, the government efforts
to stop terrorists financing have not been very successful thus far.
However, equally, if not more disturbing is the possibility that terrorists
may be using their money to buy into our national infrastructure in order to
undermine our economy and security from within. Was Ptech, the
Massachusetts-based company, used in this manner?
The privately owned technology company, based in Quincy, Massachusetts,
received at least $20 million in financing from Saudi investors between
1994, when it was founded, and 2001. Fourteen million came from Yassin
Al-Qadi, who was listed as a specially designated global terrorist on
October 12, 2001.
Ptech is used primarily to develop enterprise blueprints at the highest
level of US government and corporate infrastructure. These blueprints hold
every important functional, operational, and technical detail of the
enterprise. A secondary use of this powerful tool is to build other smart
tools in a short period of time. Ptech's clients in 2001 included the
Department of Justice, the Department of Energy, Customs, Air Force, the
White House, the FAA, IBM, Sysco, Aetna, and Motorola, to name just a few.
Examples of information gathered utilizing Ptech's capabilities would
include the following:
A complete blueprint of a nuclear waste disposal site would detail the
security procedures required to access military bases during transfer of
nuclear waste materials. It would also include security rules, revealing
where tight security searches vs. random searches exist for conducting
detailed identity screening and security checks. These are typically noted
in the architecture process, and surely, would be of interest to terrorists.
A second example is a complete blueprint of food distribution patterns,
which would include food suppliers, warehouse locations, distributors,
vehicles and schedules. With this knowledge, fraudulent deliveries of
contaminated food would not be difficult to accomplish.
Another example is Product specifications in the blueprint for Smartcards as
implemented in various defense facilities. It would include enough
information to provide templates for duplication, and for unauthorized
production of fake Smart IDs, which are a basic tool in the arsenal of
criminals and terrorists alike.
Ptech's Middle East branch called Horizons, received projects directly from
Ptech, and is used to outsource projects for Ptech's US clients. Other
clients come from the Middle East and include clients such as the Egyptian
military, the Saudi Bin Laden Company, and the Afghan based BTC Bin Laden
Telecom, which provided pre-paid telephone calls.
Among Ptech's top investors and management in 2001 was Yassin Al-Qadi, who
was listed as a specially designated global terrorist on October 12, 2001.
His investment of $14 million in Ptech in 1998 made him Ptech's major
investor. Al-Qadi was the Director of the Saudi-based Muwafaq Foundation
("Blessed Relief") that fronted for, and funded, Makhtab Al-Khidamat (MK),
Al-Qaeda, Hamas, and the Abu-Sayyaf organization, to name just a few.
According to a Treasury Department letter to Switzerland's Attorney General
in November 2001, there was "a reasonable basis to believe that Mr. Kadi has
a long history of financing and facilitating the activities of terrorists
and terrorist-related organizations, often, acting through
seemingly-legitimate charitable enterprises and businesses."
Al-Qadi's businesses extended throughout the world, and included banking,
diamonds, chemicals, construction, transportation, and real estate. It
would be hard to find a more strategically placed individual to advance the
agenda of Al-Qaeda, or any other terrorist organization. Last August, the
Swiss government indicted Al-Qadi for financing terrorism.
The identities and connections of some other Ptech major investors and
managers should have also raised a red flag: Suliman Biheiri, an Egyptian,
is alleged by the government to have funneled $3.7 million from the Saudi
funded charity, the SAAR Foundation, to Islamist terrorists through BMI, a
now-defunct New Jersey-based Islamic investment firm of which he was the
founder and president, and which fronted for and funded Hamas. Biheiri, who
was convicted in October 2004, for lying about businesses with Hamas' Mousa
Abu Marzook, was already in prison for immigration fraud. He also had links
to the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda's money-laundering machine, the
Al-Taqwa network. One of Al-Taqwa's companies, which was designated as a
terrorist entity, was used not only to fund Al-Qaeda, but also to launder
Saddam Hussein's money.
Yakub Mirza, a Pakistani, was not only a business partner with Yassin
Al-Kadi in Ptech, but also the financial mastermind, Trustee, President and
CEO of the SAAR Foundation, which according to the government is connected
to the Safa Foundation, which the government claimed also provided material
support to Islamist terrorist groups. Mirza was also a Trustee on the board
of Sanabel, the investment arm of the Saudi International Islamic Relief
Organization (IIRO), which shared the same address as the SAAR Foundation:
555 Grove Street in Herndon, Virginia. He set up and was the
Secretary/Treasurer of the US branch of the Muslim World League (MWL),
another Saudi charity that also served as the fund- raising arm of the US
branch of the IIRO. Over the last four decades, the MWL received more than
$1.3 billion directly from King Fahad. Both organizations have been
documented to support Islamist around the world. In addition, according to
an alert employee, Mirza was a subscriber to Worldwide Flight Guide since
1987. One wonders why Mirza as well as these organizations are still missing
from the US government designated terrorist list.
Abdurahman Muhammad Alamoudi was the President of the American Muslim
Council (AMC) and the American Muslim Foundation (AMF); both received
thousands of dollars from the Success Foundation. The Success Foundation
also shared offices with the SAAR Foundation and provided the logistical and
financial support for Islamist terror organizations. Alamoudi also served
as the Secretary of the Success Foundation, and openly stated his support
for HAMAS and Hizbollah. Like Mirza, he was a member of the IIRO. Alamoudi
pled guilty in July 2004 on charges related to a Libyan plot to assassinate
Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. He, too, is still missing from the US
Government Designated Terrorist list.
Suheil Laher, managed customer services for Ptech, and was closely
associated with Care International, which acted as a branch office of the
Al-Kifah Refugee Center in Brooklyn, NY from which Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman
funded and plotted the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Laher has also
written many articles about Jihad, frequently quoting Abdullah Azzam, Bin
Laden's mentor, whose general philosophy is shared by all Islamist
terrorists: "Jihad and the rifle alone! No negotiations; No conferences; and
No dialogues." (emphasis added).
In October 2001, former Vice-President of Sales for Ptech approached the FBI
Boston office with detailed information regarding possible links between
Ptech and the 9/11 attacks. He was followed by Indira Singh, a risk
consultant at J. P. Morgan Chase, in May 2002, who approached the Boston FBI
office, the NY Joint Terrorism Task Force, the management of J. P. Morgan
Chase and FBI headquarters with more documentation regarding possible Ptech
penetration of US government agencies and corporations.
The FBI finally raided Ptech on December 6, 2002. However, no arrests were
made and the company continues to operate, and according to Ptech's CEO,
Oussama Ziade, in May 2004, "Ptech still has government agencies as
customers, including the White House."
Even the concerns, few as they were, with Ptech, after it was raided were
misplaced. The few questions that were raised were regarding Ptech's
software, and not the information to which Ptech's employees, management and
investors had access. The possibility that Al-Qaeda or other Islamist
terrorists have taken advantage of our free market system to undermine our
economy and national security seems quite real when you identify the
connections and affiliations of Ptech's management, investors and employees.
So, how could a small, Saudi-financed company with questionable terrorist
connections obtain significant government and business contracts, and who
facilitated this? Was Horizons, its Egyptian branch, ever investigated?
Why wasn't Ptech shut down? Why is it still allowed to operate? And even
more importantly, are there other Ptechs around?
Recently, Ptech changed both the name of the company and of its software to
GoAgile.
Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, a member of the Committee on the Present Danger, is
Director of American Center for Democracy, and author of Funding Evil: How
Terrorism is Financed - and How to Stop It (Bonus Books, 2004,2005).
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