http://www.rinf.com/columnists/news/assets-of-reported-cia-front-man-frozen-in-turkey

March 4th, 2007
Assets of reported CIA front-man frozen in Turkey

Devlin Buckley

A court in Turkey has ruled to freeze the assets of Yasin al-Qadi,1 a
one-time acquaintance of Vice President Dick Cheney2 and reported “chief
money launderer” of Osama bin Laden.3

Al-Qadi, prior to being publicly identified as a key al-Qaeda financer,
owned a prominent U.S. technology firm and reported CIA front known as
Ptech.4 He also escorted U.S. officials around during their visits to
Saudi Arabia.5

“Council of State Administrative Cases Bureau on Thursday decided to
annul a lower court’s decision to rescind a cabinet order to freeze the
assets of Saudi financier Yasin al-Qadi, who has been accused of
financing terrorism,” the Turkish Daily News reported Saturday.6

As the Daily News summarizes, this is part of a long and ongoing
political dispute in Turkey:

“The previous government in Turkey had ordered the assets of Qadi frozen
after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, saying that he was suspected of
channeling money to terrorist organizations. … The Council of State 10th
Bureau overturned the order in July on technical grounds and ordered
that the assets be returned, after a challenge made by Qadi.

Upon appeal by the government, the case was taken up to the Council of
State Administrative Cases Bureau, which is the top court on such cases
(and ultimately ruled to freeze Qadi’s assets).”7

Turkish investigations into al-Qaeda have been obstructed to protect
conflicts of interest, financial and otherwise, among al-Qadi and
high-ranking Turkish officials, according to dissenting investigators
and government officials.8

Al-Qadi, as the Turkish Daily News notes, “has high-level support in
Turkey, with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan going on record as
saying ‘I know Mr. Yasin, and I believe in him as I believe in myself,’
when speaking to NTV on July 11, 2006.”9

“Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal accused Erdogan’s
government of blocking an investigation into Qadi’s financial affairs,
focusing on reported money transfers by Erdogan’s adviser Cuneyd Zapsi
to Qadi in the 1990s when Zapsi and Qadi were business partners,” the
Turkish Daily News notes.10

As the New Anatolian explains, “The file against figures allegedly
financing terror groups, including Middle Eastern-based al-Qaeda was
[purportedly] dropped due to a lack of evidence, but many believed that
the reason for it being dropped was intense pressure from the government
on the inspectors, since several ruling Justice and Development (AK)
Party members have close business ties with a Middle Eastern figure
being investigated.”11

According to the New Anatolaian:

“The history of the file goes back to late 2001 when the government of
the time, a coalition led by late Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, ordered
the Finance Ministry to assign inspectors to look for Turkish links to
terror financiers.

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.”12

Similar allegations of obstruction of justice and dereliction of duty
have been reported here in the United States, where following the 9/11
attacks FBI agent Robert Wright and other members of his unit claimed
that their investigation into Yasin al-Qadi had been repeatedly blocked
by higher ups at the FBI.13

As Agent Wright told ABC News in 2002, “the supervisor who was there
from [FBI] headquarters was right straight across from me and started
yelling at me: ‘You will not open criminal investigations. I forbid any
of you. You will not open criminal investigations against any of these
intelligence subjects.’”14

According to Agent Wright, who seized $1.4 million directly linked to
al-Qadi in 1998,15 it is very likely that 9/11 would have been prevented
if he had simply been allowed to do his job.16

Over the course of Wright’s investigation, however, al-Qadi was
apparently assisting the CIA in Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia, and the United
States itself.17

Al-Qadi owned a Massachusetts-based technology firm and defense
contractor known as Ptech, which, according to U.S. intelligence
officials who spoke to 9/11 whistleblower Indira Singh, was a “CIA
clandestine op on the level of Iran-Contra.”18

Moreover, according to Singh, a CBS affiliate in Boston “paid for
private investigators to follow a couple of the Ptech people, and it did
go to a mob-run warehouse area and the reports came back that basically
it was a drop shipment place for drugs.”19

According to 9/11 whistleblower and former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds,
state-sponsored Turkish networks make up the “main players” in
Afghanistan’s illicit opium trade.20

Such groups, according to Edmonds, “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.”21

Coincidently, in December of last year, as reported by The American
Monitor, al-Qadi’s assets were confiscated in Albania, where he
reportedly assisted the CIA to funnel covert support to the Kosovo
Liberation Army (KLA). Such operations were reportedly financed using
opium profits.22

“Since the 1950s,” Edmonds notes, “Turkey has played a key role in
channeling into Europe and the U.S. heroin produced in the “Golden
Triangle” comprised of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. These operations
are run by mafia groups closely controlled by the MIT (Turkish
Intelligence Agency) and the military.”23

According to Edmonds, “The Turkish government, MIT and the Turkish
military, not only sanctions, but also actively participates in and
oversees the narcotics activities and networks.”24

“We know that Al Qaeda and Taliban’s main source of funding is the
illegal sale of narcotics,” Edmonds notes, adding, “we know that Turkey
is a major, if not the top, player in the transportation, processing,
and distribution of all the narcotics derived from the Afghan poppies,
and as a result, it is the major contributing country to Al Qaeda.”25

Yassin al-Qadi was also affiliated with Bosnia’s wartime president,
Alija Izetbegovic, the recipient of substantial CIA support during the
Bosnian civil war.26 To fund these operations, the intelligence agencies
of the U.S., Turkey, and Iran, in collaboration with a “range of radical
Islamist groups,” established a “vast secret conduit of weapons
smuggling though Croatia.”27

1. “Council of State freezes Qadi’s assets,” Turkish Daily News,
February 24, 2006, .

2. Dan Verton, “Ptech workers tell the story behind the search,”
Computer World Magazine, January 17, 2003, quoting Ptech Chairman and
CEO Oussama Ziade, ; “Treasury action smacks of arrogance, violates
human rights, says Al-Qadi,” Arab News, October 14, 2001, .

3. Jeff Johnson, “Tearful FBI Agent Apologizes To Sept. 11 Families and
Victims,” Cybercast News Service, May 30, 2002, .

4. “Customs searches software firm near Boston,” CNN, December 6, 2002,
; Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, “Dollars of Terror,” Front Page Magazine, April
18, 2005, ; Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, “The Business of Terror,” Front Page
Magazine, June 17, 2005, ; Indira Singh, Testimony at the 9/11 Citizens’
Commission Hearing, September 9, 2004, , .

5. Merrie Najimy, “Support Ptech Employees,” The American Arab
Anti-Discrimination Committee- Massachusetts, March 2003, ; Lynn Grant,
“Hastert’s Turkish Allies Tied to Bin Laden,” International Post, August
15, 2005, quoting The Boston Globe, .

6. Ibid., 1.

7. Ibid.

8. “Judiciary resumes controversial terror financier case,” The New
Anatolian, February 23, 2007, ; Ibid., 1.

9. Ibid., 1.

10. Ibid.

11. “Judiciary resumes controversial terror financier case,” The New
Anatolian, February 23, 2007, .

12. Ibid.

13. “FBI AGENT ROBERT WRIGHT SAYS FBI AGENTS ASSIGNED TO INTELLIGENCE
OPERATIONS CONTINUE TO PROTECT TERRORISTS FROM CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS
AND PROSECUTIONS,” Judicial Watch press release, September 11, 2002, .

14. Brian Ross and Vic Walter, “FBI Called off Terror Investigations,”
ABC News, December 19, 2002, .

15. Ibid., 3.

16. Transcript of Judicial Watch press conference, National Press Club,
May 30, 2002, .

17. Devlin Buckley, “Ptech owner’s assets confiscated in Albania,” The
American Monitor, January 16, 2007, .

18. Ibid., 4.

19. Indira Singh, Testimony at the 9/11 Citizens’ Commission Hearing,
September 9, 2004, , .

20. Sibel Edmonds, “The Highjacking of a Nation, Part 2: The Auctioning
of Former Statesmen & Dime a Dozen Generals,” National Security
Whistleblowers Association, November 29, 2006, .

21. Ibid.

22. Ibid., 17; M. Bozinovich, “Independence: Kosovo Albanian Criminal
Enterprise,” Serbianna.com, February 11, 2007, .

23. Ibid., 20.

24. Ibid.

25. Ibid.

26. Devlin Buckley, “Scratching the Surface,” The American Monitor,
November 16, 2006, .

27. Richard J Aldrich, “America used Islamists to arm the Bosnian
Muslims,” The Guardian, April 22, 2002, .

+++




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