And the below Globe article was on that site. Of course, shortly thereafter, Americans got bombarded with television advertisements claiming if you buy drugs you support terrorists. Does this mean if you buy or sell stocks and bonds you support terrorists?
So much for trying to make the world a better place, huh!?!
9/18/01 : BOSTON GLOBE * TRACKING MONEY BEHIND PLOT
Michael Kranish
WASHINGTON - Federal officials said yesterday that they have launched an investigation into whether Osama bin Laden or associated terrorist organizations developed a secret financial network that intended to profit from last Tuesday's attacks via strategic selling in the stock market.
The confirmation of a probe came from an official of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which was examining whether associates of the terrorists recently sold stocks short, betting that their price would decline precipitously.
Market regulators in Germany, Italy, and Japan also began investigations to determine whether terrorist organizations profited financially there from short selling or futures trading. Investigators also are examining whether the terrorist network hoped to profit in some way through trading of reinsurance contracts.
While officials said it was too early to say whether terrorists profited from yesterday's sharp stock market decline, the reports led to calls for measures to track and prevent such sales.
''Intentional market manipulation would be a new subtlety of the terrorists, which we have not experienced and for which we have not planned,'' said Jonathan M. Winer, former deputy assistant undersecretary of state for law enforcement.
Winer said traders could conceal their identify by using offshore entities to launder the profits. The important thing, he said, is that such questions show that the United States has no plan to stop such manipulation and must develop one.
Separately, a source familiar with inquiries made by the CIA said the hijackers generally avoided using electronic bank transfers and relied much more on old-fashioned transfers of cash, making the source of funds much harder to track.
Investigators are tracking the financial path of the hijackers by examining credit card receipts, telephone records, and other data. But the amount of money used by the terrorists may not be as large as initially suspected, and the original source may be concealed by cash transactions.
''These guys get support from a variety of different channels, some legitimate, some not legitimate,'' said L. Paul Bremer, chairman of the National Commission on Terrorism. ''Terrorism is a pretty low-cost form of warfare. What is useful on the finance tracking is the intelligence it leads you to. It may lead to you to the companies, and you get surveillance on the people, cellphone records, credit cards.''
Some of the hijackers charged first-class airline tickets on credit cards at the last minute, which gives investigators some means of tracking their initial financial records.
Harvey Kushner, author of the book ''Terrorism in America,'' said it would be very difficult to track the financial records back to the Middle East, if that is where the terrorist network originates. For that reason, stock market manipulation might be an important investigative avenue, said Kushner and other specialists.
In the past, terrorist groups have owned enough stocks and stock futures in US markets to move the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and manipulation could have occurred in connection with last week's attacks, Kushner said.
''That is not beyond the capability of these networks,'' he said. ''It wouldn't surprise me that people in these cells might have taken advantage of the upcoming scenario.''
Bin Laden, whom President Bush has called the ''prime suspect'' in the attacks, is the son of a Saudi Arabian billionaire and has a $300 million fortune, according to Saudi officials. That money reportedly spread through banks and securities markets throughout the world, helping to finance many terrorist cells in many countries, including the United States.
Reports vary about the wealth of bin Laden and his ability to get access to his money. He reportedly spent much of his fortune helping to finance the war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Terrorist organizations also receive financing from wealthy individuals, various governments, illegal drug sales, and even diverted charity funds, according to US officials.
Bin Laden's financial network appears to have improved in recent years. According to testimony during the trial in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, some of those affiliated with bin Laden had continual financial trouble and complained about lack of payment. Indeed, the effort to destroy the twin towers in 1993 may have failed because the bombers couldn't afford to buy enough explosives.
But by the time of the 1998 bombing of two US embassies in Africa, those allegedly affiliated with bin Laden had access to much larger amounts of money. One witness in the trial of those charged in the embassy bombings, Wadih El Hage, said he was paid $1,200 per month by bin Laden while working in Sudan. El Hage said that bin Laden had accounts in numerous banks and that the funds were wired to him monthly. |
