Recorded January 16, 2005
REALAUDIO
When Washington Post reporters Woodward and Bernstein consulted with their anonymous informant “Deep Throat,” he advised them to “follow the money.” This program highlights the significance of the 9/11 money trail in understanding the fundamentals of that monumental incident. Beginning with discussion of Michael Chertoff—nominated to head up the Department of Homeland Security—the show sets forth Chertoff’s legal representation of a New Jersey doctor (Dr. Magdy el-Amir) who appears to have actively funded bin Laden’s activities. When Chertoff was overseeing the day-to-day operations of the 9/11 investigations, he did not investigate his former client, raising serious questions about conflict of interest and his fitness to hold such a sensitive position. The second half of the program updates various aspects of the investigations into terrorist funding—Operation Green Quest, in particular.
Program Highlights Include: Investigations into the relationship of the Riggs Bank to the CIA and Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia; the expansion of an investigation into Yeslam bin Laden’s relationship to Al Qaeda; the sentencing of two associates of the Muslim Brotherhood to prison terms; the relationship of Abdurahman Alamoudi to GOP kingpin Grover Norquist; disclosure that stock trader Anthony Elgindy had been receiving inside information about the FBI’s investigation into 9/11; the fact that Elgindy had donated a considerable amount of money to Mercy International, an Islamic charity that is an offshoot of Al Qaeda financial repository Bank Al Taqwa.
1. The first half of the program is devoted to the subject of Michael Chertoff, the man who oversaw the most critical aspects of the legal investigation of 9/11. Chertoff is the Bush administration nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security. Chertoff represented an apparent Al Qaeda funding source—Dr. Magdy el-Amir. His successful defense of Dr. el-Amir and his apparent continued cover-up of his client’s activities raise serious questions about Chertoff’s qualifications for the job. It appears that Chertoff is another of the Bush administration officials with professional connections to the people involved with Al Qaeda and/or the Muslim Brotherhood. (For more about this, see--among other programs—FTR#’s 356, 357, 415, 454, 462, 464, 467.) “Michael Chertoff, appointed by President Bush to head the Homeland Security Department, may have shielded from criminal prosecution a former client suspected by law enforcement of having funneled millions of dollars directly to Osama bin Laden while in charge of the U.S. Government’s 9/11 investigation. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.] Egyptian-born Dr. Magdy el-Amir, a prominent New Jersey neurologist, was at the center of terrorist intrigue in Jersey City.”
(“Did Bush’s New Homeland Chief Shield Terror Ring in New Jersey?” by Daniel Hopsicker; MadCowMorningNews; 1/12/2005; p. 1.)
2. Chertoff represented Dr. Magdy el-Amir, who has a number of connections to the milieu of Al Qaeda: “El-Amir gave money to a conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing--Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman. His brother in Cairo was caught on tape attempting to buy weapons from an American undercover agent for Islamic militant groups. Before being arrested in a terrorist deal involving oil and heroin for guns and training, arms smuggler Diaa Mohsen was paid at least $5,000 by one of Dr. el Amir’s companies, NBC’s Dateline reported. And his HMO was suspected by law enforcement of being used to funnel money directly to Osama bin Laden.” (Idem.)
3. “Chertoff’s client ‘caused more than $507 million to be paid by wire transfers to be paid by wire transfers to unknown parties,’ said the lawsuit filed shortly before the state took over his failing HMO. News accounts about el-Amir’s legal difficulties contain unanswered questions about undue political influence and its effect on national security. For example, how did el-Amir who only the month before had been granted a state license to operate an HMO, finagle a lucrative contract from the state of New Jersey in 1995?” (Ibid.; pp. 1-2.)
4. “ ‘Why was this doctor allowed to start a health plan?’ asked the October 25, 1999 issue of the medical trade journal Medical Economics. ‘How could this medical entrepreneur, who had no experience running a managed-care or health insurance company, receive a license for an HMO that now provides care to 44,000 of New Jersey’s most vulnerable citizens?’ asked The Bergen Record. ‘Moreover, how could the state pay such a novice $6 million a month in taxpayers money to take on such a responsibility?’ Why did Michael Chertoff even take the case?” (Ibid.; p. 2.)
5. Like Grover Norquist’s associates in the Islamic Institute (see the program descriptions noted above), Dr. el-Amir appears to have bought his extraordinary status with a generous donation to the Republican Party. His HMO may have been funded by Osama bin Laden, and funds skimmed from the HMO apparently went to support Al Qaeda. “Answers were slow in coming, until it was revealed that at the same time el-Amir was pitching state business he had begun making generous contributions to the governing Republican party, donating nearly $18,000 to various GOP candidates in 1996. And a foreign intelligence report made available to the Chairman of the House International Committee alleged that an HMO owned by Dr. el-Amir in New Jersey was ‘funded by bin Laden,’ and that in turn Dr. el-Amir was skimming money from the HMO to fund ‘terrorist activities.’ . . .” (Idem.)
6. “Stuff like that doesn’t happen, does it? In New Jersey? Barely three years after enrolling its first patient, APPP lay in financial ruins, its network doctors and hospitals were saddled with millions of dollars in unpaid claims, and its founder had retained the services of Michael Chertoff. Did Chertoff know where the stolen money was going?” (Idem.)
7. “ ‘Frankly, we can’t differentiate between terrorism and organized crime and drug dealing,’ then-Asst. Attorney General Michael Chertoff told the Senate Banking Committee looking into the terrorists’ money trail in the aftermath of 9/11. ‘These groups don’t hold themselves independently: They work with one another. Terrorists get engaged in drug activity. They have relationships with organized crime,’ Chertoff said.” (Idem.)
8. Note that Chertoff was in charge of the day-to-day operations of the 9/11 investigation, even after successfully shielding his former client from investigation. “Chertoff was undoubtedly worth every penny Dr. Magdy paid him: though doctors and hospitals calculated they were owed more than $45 million, Dr. el-Amir faced no criminal charges. When the MadCow Morning News first reported on Mob and terrorist connections to “Magic Dutch Boy’ Rudi Dekkers and the covert operations conducted at the Venice Airport, Michael Chertoff was running the official U.S. investigation. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.] Dekkers remains free. Magdy el-Amir continues to live and practice in New Jersey.” (Ibid.; pp. 2-3.)
9. “Now that Chertoff has been tapped to keep America safe, questions are sure to resurface about whether he hadn’t himself been instrumental in helping to make America dangerous. Documents in the el-Amir case remain under seal. Fortunately, the following information does not. From the Bergen County Record (New Jersey) on January 24, 1999: ‘For a while, Magdy el-Amir looked like the Horatio Alger of managed care in New Jersey. An Egyptian immigrant who parlayed a storefront medical practice in Jersey City into a multimillion-dollar health-care empire that served thousands of the state’s poorest citizens, he lived in a Saddle River mansion and contributed generously to candidates for political office’ . . .” (Ibid.; p. 3.)
10. “ ‘His health maintenance organization, American Preferred Provider Plan Inc., is about to be sold by state regulators to salvage some money for doctors and hospitals who calculate they’re owed more than $45 million.’ In August 2002, NBC’s 'Dateline' reported on the el-Amir case: ‘Last fall, DATELINE obtained information about this man, Magdy el-Amir, he’s a prominent doctor, a neurologist with a practice in Jersey City. Born and educated in Egypt, he moved to this country about 20 years ago and since then has built a fortune’ . . .” (Idem.)
11. “ ‘Well, take a look at this document obtained by DATELINE last fall. A foreign intelligence report that makes a startling allegation about the doctor, that he has had financial ties with Osama bin Laden for years. The report was given to a senior member of Congress, Ben Gilman, back in 1998 when he was chairman of the House International Relations Committee’ . . . The report alleges that an HMO owned by Dr. el-Amir in New Jersey was ‘funded by bin Laden,’ and that in turn, Dr. el-Amir was skimming money from the HMO to fund ‘terrorist activities.’. . .” (Idem.)
12. “ ‘Less than a year after the congressman says the FBI received the report, Dr. el-Amir’s HMO was taken over by the state of New Jersey. . . according to sources close to the investigation, more than $15 million is unaccounted for. Where did that money go? DATELINE has reviewed documents that show at least some of it went into hard-to-trace offshore bank accounts’ . . . But the intelligence report suggests one thing that he doesn’t deny, that he has donated money to the mosque where the blind sheik once preached, Omar Abdel-Rahman, who is now in prison for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing’ . . .” (Idem.)
13. “ ‘DATELINE has found another reason why federal investigators might want to pay close attention to Dr. el-Amir and his family. It’s something we learned when we interviewed Randy Glass, the con man-turned-undercover operative who helped the government break up an illegal weapons ring allegedly tied to terrorist groups. It turns out that one of the people recorded trying to arrange an arms deal with Randy Glass was Dr. el-Amir’s own brother, Mohamed, an engineer, also a US citizen now living in Egypt. And just listen to what he was interested in’ . . .” (Idem.)
14. “ ‘Mr. GLASS: (From tape) OK. They want to ship things like tanks, correct?’ ‘Mr. EL AMIR: (From tape), Un-huh. . . No, no, no, no, just ammunition, not tanks.’ ‘Glass says federal agents told him to drop the matter’ . . . ‘That same intelligence report that talks about Dr. [Magdy] el-Amir also names his brother Mohamed as having ties to Osama bin Laden.’” (Idem.)
15. “The el-Amirs appear to be intimately linked with Osama bin Laden, making the following report from The Bergen Record quite puzzling, dated December 11, 1998: ‘A Superior judge on Thursday ordered state Insurance Commissioner . . . to take control of American Preferred Provider Plan, Inc., a health-maintenance organization for Medicaid patients allegedly bled dry by its Saddle River owner, neurologist Magdy el-Amir. . .’” (Ibid.; p. 4.)
16. “ ‘But in a hint of the gravity of his legal predicament, he was represented in court by Michael Chertoff, the former U.S. attorney in Newark and counsel to U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato’s Whitewater Investigation.’ Yes, the soon-to-be Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff represented a known bin Laden operative. Perhaps more troubling, Chertoff also headed the U.S.’s investigation into the September 11th attack. From the New Jersey Law Journal, August 4, 2003: ‘The Sept. 11th investigation was supervised by Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, head of the U.S. Criminal Justice Division, who is now a Third Circuit judge.” (Idem.)
17. “More on Chertoff from the New Yorker, November 5, 2001: ‘Since the September 11th terrorist attacks, Chertoff’s office has become the funnel for what is probably the most important criminal investigation in American history, as prosecutors and F.B.I. investigators pour in to seek the boss’s approval. What leads can we use from the search of a hijacker’s car in Portland, Maine? Where do the hijackers’ credit-card records lead? . . . For day-to-day decisions, Chertoff has the last word’.” (Idem.)
18. “Though el-Amir’s HMO was known to be affiliated with bin Laden since the mid-1990’s, Chertoff offers an alternate view of the HMO’s financial statements. From The Record, December 18, 1998: ‘El-Amir’s attorney, Michael Chertoff, the former U.S. attorney in Newark, offered the doctor’s first in-depth defense to the state charges Thursday, insisting that el-Amir had not misappropriated any funds from APPP [el-Amir’s HMO].’” (Idem.)
19. “Also from The Record, December 16, 1998: ‘Michael Chertoff, a former U.S. attorney, who is el-Amir’s attorney, said the state’s papers don’t give the complete picture of the company’s finances. ‘It’s a one-sided picture of what’s going on,’ he said. It would be unfortunate if the state’s approach is to find someone to punish, rather than solve the problem.’ Chertoff said el-Amir would like to work with the state in its effort to rehabilitate the HMO.’” (Idem.)
20. “Chertoff’s comments on the case made the New York Times on December 18, 1998: ‘Dr. el-Amir’s lawyer, Michael Chertoff, said that all transactions were approved by state agencies and that his client has done nothing improper.’” (Idem.)
21. “The Bergen Record printed a post-trial wrap-up of the case on February 22, 2000: ‘A year after a Medicaid HMO accused of misusing state and federal funds was dissolved by the state, its founder is still enjoying a millionaire’s income while the hospitals and doctors who allegedly were defrauded delay programs for the poor and fight for restitution’ . . .APP’s founder, Saddle River neurologist Magdy el-Amir, continues to practice medicine in a Jersey City storefront office and lives in a $ 1.8 million mansion in one of Bergen County’s toniest suburbs, court records show. His car leases alone total $65,000 per year, the records show. The Egyptian immigrant also operates a chain of MRI facilities in Newark, Irvington, and Paterson, a limousine company, and a medical management company. Combined with his medical practice, his income totals more than $18,000 weekly, nearly $1 million a year, records show.’” (Ibid.; pp. 4-5.)
22. “ ‘He’s still in good spirits,’ said Michael Chertoff, the former U.S. attorney in Newark whom el-Amir hired as his defense lawyer. Public records in the civil case contain no reference to a criminal investigation but court officials said some documents in the case were under seal. The state Attorney General’s Office would neither confirm nor deny an investigation. The state’s Medicaid fraud division is not involved in the case, a Medicaid spokesman said’ . . .” (Idem.)
23. Be sure to read Daniel’s original article in its entirety.
24. Reprising information presented in FTR#391, the program highlights the significance of Osama bin Laden’s fund-raising capabilities for his rise in the Jihadist hierarchy during, and after, the Mujahideen war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. It was his ability to use his family connections to raise money that was the key to his ascendancy within the Muhahideen. “Years before the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda organization and other terrorist groups had systematically built financial networks capable of sustaining their aim of bringing their war to the United States on its own soil. Indeed, bin Laden initially rose to prominence not as a fighter but as the most influential financier of the mujahideen fighting to drive the Soviet army out of Afghanistan. ‘It is this financial architecture that continued with him when he turned to terrorism, and it’s this financial architecture that is at the heart of how al Qaeda today gets its finances,’ said William F. Wechsler, who specialized in tracking terrorist funding while at the National Security Council during the last two years of the Clinton administration.”
(Blood From Stones; by Douglas Farah; Broadway Books [HC]; Copyright 2004 by Douglas Farah; ISBN 0-7679-1562-3; p. 1.)
25. “When bin Laden was given sanctuary by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 1996, he was able to use his rolodex to solicit funds while building a stable base of operations. Within a few years the al Qaeda money trail stretched from the tropical diamond fields of West Africa to the gold markets of the United Arab Emirates, from the money merchants of Pakistan to the suburbs of Washington, D.C. the melding of the financial resources with the control of a country made al Qaeda a terrorist organization without peer.” (Idem.)
26. Among the aspects of the 9/11 money trail that have been under investigation is the Riggs Bank. Holding accounts used by the Saudi Embassy, the bank has been suspected of being a source for monies used in the execution of the 9/11 attacks. (The president’s uncle—Jonathan Bush—is a director of the bank.) One powerful obstacle to an open, transparent investigation of Riggs concerns the operations conducted through that bank by Prince Bandar—Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., close friend and ally of the Bush family, and a longtime CIA asset. (For more about Riggs Bank, see: FTR#’s 431, 438, 442, 447, 461.) “ . . . Prince Bandar’s connections to the CIA have long been a significant, albeit little-discussed, aspect of the Riggs affair. During the initial phase of the controversy over Saudi accounts at Riggs in early 2003. Prince Bandar detailed his work for the CIA in a meeting with Treasury Secretary John Snow, according to current and former U.S. intelligence officials who interpreted the disclosure as an explanation for the prince’s large unexplained cash transactions at Riggs. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s]”
(“Riggs Bank Had Longstanding Link to the CIA” by Glenn R. Simpson; The Wall Street Journal; 12/31/2004; p. A4.)
27. Notice that some of the covert operations with which Bandar was involved include the Iran-Contra affair and the Afghan mujahideen support effort—both operations with evidentiary tributaries running forward to the events in and around 9/11.) “The meeting took place at the Treasury Department’s headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue, which is across the street from Riggs headquarters. A spokesman for Prince Bandar declined to comment on the specifics of the discussions with Mr. Snow, as did the Treasury Department. During the 1980’s, Prince Bandar helped fund the anticommunist Nicaraguan Contra rebels at the request of the White House and CIA, and later helped support Afghan rebels fighting the Soviet Union. More recently, he helped broker a diplomatic rapprochement between the U.S. and Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.” (Idem.)
28. Next, the program revisits the subject of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Operation Green Quest raids of 3/20/2002. One of the principal figures in the SAAR network milieu—Abdurahman Alamoudi—has been sentenced to prison without cooperating with federal prosecutors. Alamoudi is very close to the GOP/Islamist network constructed by Grover Norquist, as well as to the Islamofascist Muslim Brotherhood network that spawned Al Qaeda. Another Brotherhood figure who was (like Alamoudi) connected to Youssef Nada was Soliman Biheiri is also looking at some serious time. (For more about Operation Green Quest, Norquist, Alamoudi, the Muslim Brotherhood et al, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 356, 357, 359, 415, 435, 454, 455, 456, 462, 464, 467.) Two key figures in a government probe of alleged terror financing in the U.S. likely face long prison stints after last week. Muslim leader Abdurahman Alamoudi, once a prominent lobbyist for Islamic causes, received a 23-year sentence for violating terrorism sanctions against Libya. Soliman Biheiri, who managed money for a top Hamas leader as well as Mr. Alamoudi, was convicted of immigration fraud and lying about his ties to the Palestinian terrorist group. . . .”
(“Terror Finance Suspects Face Prison” by Glenn R. Simpson; The Wall Street Journal; 10/18/2004; p. A10.)
29. “ . . . With his guilty plea, Mr. Alamoudi promised to cooperate with the Justice Department, but the decision by prosecutors to proceed with sentencing indicates he has yet to give anything they consider useful. If that changes. Mr. Alamoudi can apply for a reduction in his sentence. . . .” (Idem.)
30. “ . . . The founder of BMI Inc., an Islamic investment firm that went bankrupt four years ago amid allegations of fraud, Mr. Biheiri has acknowledged extensive dealings with numerous top Muslim Brotherhood figures, officials say. His convictions carry a sentence of as long as 15 years, and prosecutors want to add a so-called terrorism enhancement that could boost it by an additional 10 years. The government wants the two men to cooperate in a continuing probe of a network of Islamic organizations centered in a continuing probe of a network of Islamic organizations centered in Herndon, Va., and founded by top U.S. leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. The group, which received its original funding from wealthy Islamists in the Middle East and has millions of dollars in assets, is under investigation for tax fraud and racketeering as well as possible ties to terrorism.” (Idem.)
31. Following the update on Alamoudi, Biheiri and the Muslim Brotherhood, the program highlights the continuing probe into the operations of Osama’s half-brother Yeslam bin Laden and Yeslam’s SICO firm. Disclaimers to the contrary notwithstanding, there are a number of indications that SICO has been involved in Al Qaeda’s activities. (For more about SICO, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 354, 355, 356, 357, 377, 482, 492.) “A French judge has widened a probe into the financial network surrounding the family of Osama bin Laden after questioning his half-brother and learning of a 241 million euro transfer to Pakistan, Le Monde daily said. Investigating magistrate Renaud Van Ruymbeke received court authorization to extend his investigation after Yeslam bin Laden was questioned on Sept. 27 over allegations of links with the organizers of attacks in 2001 in the United States, the paper said in its Saturday edition.”
(“French Magistrate Widens Bin Laden Finance Probe” [Reuters]; 12/25/2004; p. 1.)
32. “As a result, Van Ruymbeke was adding ‘other instances of money laundering’ to the probe already under way, Le Monde said. The court was unreachable for comment on Saturday. On Dec. 5, 2001, French authorities opened an investigation into financial transfers carried out through Paris between firms grouped within the Saudi Investment Company (SICO) run by Yeslam bin Laden, who also manages some assets of the family’s Saudi Binladin Group (SBG). Yeslam bin Laden was questioned by the French judge in 2002, and has handed over a copy of documents detailing the distribution of the bin Laden family wealth to 54 brothers and sisters after the death of their father in 1967, the paper said.” (Idem.)
33. It appears that, his disclaimer to the contrary notwithstanding, Yeslam has had contact with Osama in the past 20 years. “Although he denied having had any contact with his half-brother for the past 20 years, the paper said, documents held by Swiss banking authorities suggest that Yeslam and Osama bin Laden held a joint account in Switzerland between 1990 and 1997, according to Jean-Charles Brisard—a private investigator hired by families of the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. Yeslam told French investigators in September that he had omitted to mention the existence of that account, while still insisting he had not had mixed with his half-brother, Le Monde said. Yeslam bin Laden’s Swiss-based lawyer, Pierre de Preux, could not immediately be reached by Reuters for comment. . . .” (Idem.)
34. “ . . . The French authorities, however, say the facts require further checking. Brisard notified Van Ruymbeke on Sept. 6 this year of several suspicious funds transfers, Le Monde said. The investigator noted a 241 million euro transfer made to Pakistan in 2000 from an account belonging to a company called Cambridge, a SBG subsidiary that was opened at Deutsche Bank in Geneva, the paper added. U.S. authorities are aware of the existence of those funds, which they believe were transferred into an account belonging jointly to Osama bin Laden and someone of Pakistani nationality, it said. The French authorities say the presence of SICO within the Saudi Binladin Group’s orbit in Geneva justifies its probe, Le Monde added.” (Idem.)
35. A fascinating and important detail concerning the hijackers is the fact that Yeslam bin Laden’s SICO subsidiary trained its pilots at Huffman Aviation in Venice, Florida!! Huffman is the school at which Atta and company were “trained.” Although he denies it, there are profound indications that Yeslam and SICO are involved with the activities of Al Qaeda. (For more on this, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 354, 355, 356, 377.) This subject will be dealt with at greater length below. “ . . . Swiss police questioned Yeslam [bin Laden] because one of his companies, Avcon Air Charter, had offered flight training to clients at the Venice flight school attended by some of the hijackers. As a result of what Le Monde called ‘a still unexplained coincidence,’ the pilots of Yeslam bin Laden’s company trained at Huffman Aviation in Florida, the paper stated. ‘I didn’t chose that flight school,’ Yeslam protested. ‘I don’t have contact with my half-brother since over 20 years ago.’”
(Welcome to Terrorland: Mohamed Atta & the 9-11 Cover-Up in Florida; by Daniel Hopsicker; Madcow Press [HC]; Copyright 2004 by Daniel Hopsicker; ISBN 0-9706591-6-4; p. 178.)
36. “Swiss magazine L’Hebdo reported that Swiss federal inspectors were seeking information on the activities of several bin Laden family companies, including Geneva-based Saudi Investment Company, a financial clearinghouse for the family’s international investments, and Avcon Business Jets SA, which owned a fleet of private jets which it leased to clients. . . .” (Idem.)
37. Reviewing information presented in FTR#356, the program notes that SICO opened 16 unpublished accounts with the Clearstream network in early 2001. (For more about the Clearstream network—owned by the Deutsche Borse [the German stock exchange]—see FTR#’s 356, 357, 360, 367, 376, 387, 458, 463, 485.) The possibility that these accounts were used to finance the activities of 9/11, including (perhaps) the enormous amounts of cash available to Rudi Dekkers, Atta and company is one to be SERIOUSLY INVESTIGATED. Note in this context that Clearstream is owned by the Deutsche Borse, which in turn is owned by the major German commercial banks and they are controlled by the Bormann group. Note also that the BCCI heavily utilized the Clearstream network, as (apparently) did the 9/11 conspirators. As noted in FTR#’s 462, 464, Robert Mueller covered up the BCCI investigation and his FBI is now covering up Operation Green Quest—the investigation into the 9/11 money trail. “In November, U.S. authorities named some banks that had bin Laden accounts, and it put them on a blacklist. One was Al Taqwa, ‘Fear of God,’ registered in the Bahamas with offices in Lugano, Switzerland. Al Taqwa had access to the Clearstream system through its correspondent account with the Banca del Gottardo in Lugano, which has a published Clearstream account (No. 74381). But Bin Laden may have other access to the unpublished system. In what he calls a ‘spectacular discovery,’ Ernest Backes reports that in the weeks before CEO Andre Lussi was forced to leave Clearstream last May, a series of 16 unpublished accounts were opened under the name of the Saudi Investment Company, or SICO, the Geneva holding of the Saudi Binladen Group, which is run by Osama’s brother Yeslam Binladen (some family members spell the name differently.) Yeslam Binladen insists hat he has nothing to do with his brother, but evidence suggests SICO is tied into Osama’s financial network. SICO is associated with Dar Al-Maal-Al-Islami (DMI), an Islamic financial institution also based in Geneva and presided over by Prince Muhammed Al Faisal Al Saoud, a cousin of Saudi King Fahd, that directs millions a year to fundamentalist movements. DMI holds a share of the Al Shamal Islamic Bank of Sudan, which was set up in 1991 and partly financed by $50 million from Osama bin Laden. Furthermore, one of SICO’s administrators, Geneva attorney Baudoin Dunand, is a partner in a law firm, Magnin Dunand & Partners, that set up the Swiss financial services company SBA, a subsidiary of the SBA Bank in Paris, which is controlled by the bin Mahfouz Family.”
(“Banking with Bin Laden” by Lucy Komisar [sidebar to “Explosive Revelation$”]; In These Times; 3/15/2002.)
(For more about SICO, Yeslam Bin Laden, and Baudoin Dunand, see FTR#’s 354, 355, 456.)
38. A former co-chairman of the board of directors of SICO (the holding company that manages the Bin Laden business interests in Europe) is Baudoin Dunand, a friend and professional associate of Francois Genoud, one of the most important postwar operatives of the Underground Reich. Dunand is a director of SICO at present. Dunand’s involvement with the Bin Mahfouz interests is discussed above. (For more about Genoud, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 453, 456.) “This company, established by the bin Ladens in 1980, is the flagship for the group’s activities in Europe. It is headed by Yeslam bin Laden, and the board of directors is made up almost exclusively of members of the family clan, except for a Swiss citizen, Baudoin Dunand. This well-known lawyer from French-speaking Switzerland, who is on the boards of several dozen companies, came to public notice in 1983 when he agreed to represent the Swiss banker Francois Genoud, a controversial figure who had been a disciple of Hitler and sole heir of Goebbels’s copyrights before becoming one of the financiers of the FLN during the Algerian War. The friendships of the bin Ladens sometimes seem surprising, but they are logical: Francois Genoud has always been pro-Arab.”
(In the Name of Osama Bin Laden; by Roland Jacquard; Copyright 2002 [SC]; Duke University Press; ISBN 0-8223-2991-3; pp. 17-18.)
39. The program concludes with discussion of Anthony Elgindy, suspected by some of having foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks. Elgindy was receiving inside information from a former FBI agent, who was keeping him apprised of developments in the FBI’s investigation of 9/11. (For more about Elgindy, see FTR#361.) “A former FBI agent admitted that he gave online stock traders confidential details of federal investigations, including a probe of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. One of the recipients was San Diego penny-stock picker Anthony Elgindy. Elgindy was investigated by a Justice Department task force examining whether anyone might have known of the terrorists’ plans and profited by selling vulnerable stocks just before the attacks, Jeffrey Royer said. . . .”
(“Ex-FBI Agent Admits He Gave Tips” [AP]; Los Angeles Times; 1/5/2005)
40. “For five days, jurors have seen dozens of e-mail messages, a litany of Internet chat room logs and countless company reports as federal prosecutors presented their conspiracy case against Anthony Elgindy, the San Diego stock adviser accused of obtaining illegal information from an F.B.I. agent to manipulate the stock market. But they will not hear evidence supporting an assertion that prosecutors once made suggesting that Mr. Elgindy might have had advance knowledge of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a judge said yesterday.”
(“Judge in Stock Adviser’s Trial Bars Testimony on Terrorism” by Eric Dash; New York Times; 11/9/2004.)
41. “The matter came up in the fourth full day of testimony in United States District Court in Brooklyn. Derrick Cleveland, a former business associate of Mr. Elgindy who is now a government witness, was asked by an assistant United States attorney, Kenneth Breen, about a mid-September 2001 F.B.I. investigation into Mr. Elgindy. When Mr. Cleveland responded that the investigation was related to ‘terrorism,’ Judge Raymond J. Dearie brought the hearing to a halt. . . .” (Idem.)
42. It is noteworthy that Elgindy had contributed to Mercy International, an offshoot of the Bank Al Taqwa—the financial arm of the Muslim Brotherhood. (For more about Bank Al Taqwa, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 354, 356, 359, 377, 378, 387, 455, 456, 462, 464.) “ . . . Mr. Cleveland was allowed to continue with his testimony, recounting how he learned that Mr. Elgindy was a subject in a criminal investigation. Mr. Cleveland said that Jeffrey A. Royer, an F.B.I. agent who was the source of that information and a defendant in the case, told him that investigators were looking into $6 million that Mr. Elgindy had liquidated from two brokerage companies, Charles Schwab and Salomon Smith Barney, shortly before Sept. 11. Mr. Royer also relayed information that the government was examining the money Mr. Elgindy gave to Mercy International, which Mr. Breen described as a Middle Eastern charity.” (Idem.)
43. Illustrating the connections between Mercy International, Al Taqwa, Gulf Office and the Embassy bombings in 1998, the program reviews information presented in—among other programs—FTR#’s 349, 351, 361, 377. “The Milanese connection originates in the Bahamas. Since leaving its first head office in Nassau, Al Taqwa established itself at NIGH (Nasreddin International Group Holdings)—10, Dewaux Street in Nassau. The NIGH holding company deserves close attention. Yussef Nada’s assistant Ali Ghaleb Himmat works there. The Bank of Gothard is NIGH’s bank, through account CC/B No. 313656, through the agency of Chiasso, in the name of a Charity foundation. The Bank of Gothard also appears, in a confidential report on Al Taqwa’s activity, under the heading of business connections. The bank manager at Gothard, Claudio Generale, told me, however, that he does not know either Al Taqwa or its director, much less the holding company NIGH.”
(Dollars for Terror: The United States and Islam; by Richard Labeviere; Copyright 2000 [SC]; Algora Publishing; ISBN 1-892941-06-6; p. 150.)
44. “The president and creator of NIGH, Nasreddin Ahmed Idris, who also appears on the list of the first shareholders in Al Taqwa, is honorary consul of Kuwait in Milan. Living in Italy, Switzerland and Morocco, this businessman directs a multitude of financial companies, most of which end up leading again to the nebula of Al Taqwa. One of them, Gulf Office (Association for Commercial, Industrial and Tourist Development between the Gulf States and Switzerland), currently dormant, had been housed in the same building as the mosque of Lugano. In 1994, the Italian judicial system had its sights on Gulf Office and conducted an inquiry into its activities in the context of the operation ‘clean hands’. . . .” (Idem.)
45. “But Nasreddin Ahmed Idris’s real representative at the head of Gulf Office is another member of the Muslim Brothers, Khaldoun Dia Eddine, who belongs to the Syrian branch of the organization. He too was ‘employed’ by the bank Al Taqwa, which he represented in Lugano, before he took on the coordination of the activities of ‘Mercy International,’ an Islamic humanitarian organization. The humanitarian organizations, Islamic nongovernmental organizations (NGO’s), represent one of the other ‘derivative products’ from Al Taqwa bank.” (Ibid.; p. 151.)
46. On the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, an Israeli-owned resort was bombed in Mombasa, Kenya. Mercy International’s situation is interesting to contemplate in the context of that bombing. “Lastly, in the spring of 1997, the Kenyan police also dismantled several Islamic NGO’s in Mombasa and the Sudan border area, including an office of ‘Mercy International.’” (Ibid.; p. 353.)
47. It is worth noting where Mercy International relocated to: “Today, [1999] Mercy International has moved its headquarters to the United States: it declares a gross budget of $2 million.” (Ibid.; pp. 151-152.) Have Mercy!
