Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Policy Discussion Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: D. Long who wrote (431)	12/8/2002 9:28:48 AM
From: lorne	Respond to of 15987

FBI reportedly didn't act on Ptech tips By Ralph Ranalli, Globe Staff, 12/7/2002 The Boston FBI office received two reports that a Quincy software company had financial ties to a suspected terrorist financier but acted on neither, according to law enforcement and government officials and a televised report. A whistle-blower from Ptech Inc. told the Boston FBI in October 2001 that the company was being financially backed by Yasin al-Qadi, a Saudi businessman whose US assets were frozen after the Sept. 11 attacks amid allegations that he has funded terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda and Hamas, a Bush administration official and a former Clinton administration official involved in the case said yesterday. WBZ-TV reported last night that a second whistle-blower went to the Boston FBI office this past June with allegations that the company had financial ties to the suspected terrorist financier. A spokeswoman from the FBI's Boston office denied that it had failed to follow up on leads about Ptech's financial backing. ''That is not accurate,'' spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz said. ''This investigation has been going on for quite some time, and it was jointly decided by the FBI and Customs that Customs would take the lead.'' WBZ reported that a former Ptech consultant named Indira Singh came forward this past June. Singh said last night in an interview on WBZ that she told the FBI ''in no uncertain terms'' about the connection between Ptech and Qadi. She said that weeks after talking to the Boston FBI, she was ''shocked'' and ''frustrated'' to learn that the FBI still had not alerted any of the government agencies using Ptech software that there were questions about the company's ties to suspected terrorist fund-raisers. Ptech has sold information management software to a range of government agencies, including the Army, Air Force, Congress, the White House, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the FBI. The FBI, the officials said, didn't aggressively pursue the initial October 2001 tip, prompting that whistle-blower to go to other government officials this past summer. The US Customs Service ended up leading the investigation, and the search Thursday night and yesterday of Ptech's headquarters. News that the FBI may have ignored the tips comes after a recent scathing memo from top FBI officials to the bureau's field offices complaining that not enough is being done to combat terrorism. The New York Times reported last month that Bruce Gebhardt, the FBI's deputy director, sent a memo to the FBI's 56 field offices, saying he was ''amazed and astounded'' that field supervisors were not committing essential resources to fighting terrorism. The allegation is the latest in a series of embarrassments for the Boston FBI office, including a failure to follow up on bank robber Gary Sampson's offer to surrender before he went on a killing spree, and the scandal over the agency's coddling of murderous organized crime informants. Documents provided to the Globe by The Investigative Project, a Washington, D.C.-based terrorism research organization, show that two of Ptech's founding directors were former employees of BMI, a now-defunct collection of Islamic finance companies that was targeted in an investigation by the FBI's Chicago office. ''BMI was an Islamic financial institution that would loan money in an Islamically permissible manner,'' said Matthew Epstein, director of research for The Investigative Project. ''According to the FBI, they were involved in Hamas financing activities and potentially involved in the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Africa,'' he said. BMI was targeted by the FBI's Chicago office in a probe of alleged money laundering and funnelling of funds to terrorist groups like Hamas. BMI also shared office space in Secaucus, N.J. with Qadi International, an organization controlled by Qadi. According to state records, two of Ptech's founding directors were former officials with BMI. One of the directors, Soliman Biheiri, was quoted in Management Review magazine as the ''president of BMI Leasing'' in an article about financial institutions that adhered to Islamic law. Another director, Hussein Ibrahim, is currently listed as Ptech's vice president and chief scientist. Ibrahim's resume, filed with the US General Services Administration as part of the company's application to do business with the US government, lists his prior employment from 1989 to 1995 as a vice president of BMI. boston.com

To: D. Long who wrote (431)	12/8/2002 10:55:25 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Respond to of 15987

Getting past Islam's "fire and brimstone" period. Nice metaphor.. Hawk

To: D. Long who wrote (431)	12/8/2002 2:54:32 PM
From: lorne	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 15987

No. We will not help you kill our moslem brothers.....What's this? You will give us 3 billion $ if we help...OK go get em. :o) SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM Wednesday, December 4, 2002 ANKARA — Turkey has approved a U.S. request to use its military bases for a possible campaign against Iraq in exchange for the promise of more than $3 billion in aid from Washington. Turkish leaders agreed to the U.S. use of Turkey's air space and military bases in any offensive against the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The leaders said Washington would first require United Nations endorsement, but officials said this condition appears flexible. "If it comes to that, then of course, we will cooperate with the United States because it's a big ally and we have excellent relations with the United States," Turkish Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis said on Tuesday. "What we mean by cooperation is opening air bases and opening facilities to use. The military authorities of the two countries are consulting on the assumption that such a cooperation may be necessary one day." The Turkish offer of cooperation came during the visit of a senior U.S. delegation to Ankara led by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman. Officials said the Bush administration has offered Turkey $3.4 billion in aid. The package consists of about $2.5 billion in military aid and the rest in a low-interest credit. Other elements in the military package include Washington's pledge to transfer unspecified technology and grant licenses for U.S. defense systems. Yakis said Ankara would also allow U.S. fighter-jets to launch strikes against Iraq from Turkish air bases. He did not say whether Turkey would fly combat missions against Iraqi targets, but other officials said Washington has asked Ankara for 35,000 soldiers to help contain northern Iraq and its Kurdish and Turkmen populations. Yakis said the deployment of tens of thousands of American troops in Turkey is a scenario he found difficult to envision. Hours later, the Turkish Foreign Ministry appeared to backtrack from Yakis's assurances to Washington. The statement said Yakis's words did not comprise a "commitment on the part of Turkey, because these possibilities have not been the subject of discussion with any country." Wolfowitz provided assurances of U.S. support for its longtime ally. "U.S.-Turkish cooperation is serious ... If there is a crisis in this region, we know that Turkey is going to be one of the countries the most affected. We want to make sure we deal with that." Wolfowitz also met Turkish military commanders and senior defense officials. A Turkish military statement said the issues discussed included the future of Cyprus, Iraq, European Union defense policies and strategic relations between Ankara and Washington. worldtribune.com