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To: afrayem onigwecher who wrote (11917)	7/29/2003 2:00:58 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 19428

IRS tipped SEC to Enron in 1999 Internal Revenue Service referred bankrupt energy trader to DOJ, SEC due to activity in Guatemala. July 29, 2003: 9:53 AM EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission declined to act on a criminal referral by the Internal Revenue Service four years ago to probe now-bankrupt energy trader Enron Corp., according to a published report Tuesday. The IRS was investigating Enron's financial charges in Guatemala, possible bribes paid to Guatemalan officials to win an electric-power contract, the Washington Post reported. The development of Enron's Guatemala project was overseen by Thomas White, the former U.S. Army Secretary who resigned in April in part due to controversy over his role at Enron. The information was revealed in a new Senate Finance Committee report to be released Tuesday, the paper reported. Accounting scandals at Enron led to its bankruptcy in December 2001. The IRS district director in Houston, tipped off by an Enron whistle-blower, sent letters to the then-U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1999, according to the Post. Both the U.S. attorney's office and the SEC declined comment to the paper.

To: afrayem onigwecher who wrote (11917)	7/29/2003 7:31:24 PM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19428

U.S. Issues Worldwide Terrorism Alert, Warns of Hijackings July 29 (Bloomberg) -- The war in Iraq has heightened the threat of terrorism to U.S. citizens worldwide, including the possibility of hijackings, suicide attacks and kidnappings, the U.S. State Department said. ``Tensions remaining from the recent events in Iraq may increase the potential threat to U.S. citizens and interests abroad,'' the State Department said in an e-mailed statement. ``Terrorist actions may include, but are not limited to, suicide operations, hijackings, bombings or kidnappings. They may also involve commercial aircraft.'' U.S. government offices worldwide may temporarily close or suspend their services as security is assessed in various countries, the statement said. U.S. citizens traveling abroad are advised to take steps to ``increase their security awareness.'' U.S.-led forces ousted Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq in April after a three-week war. Allied forces in the country have come under increasing attacks in the past month from opponents of the occupation. The U.S. also issued a worldwide warning that the al-Qaeda terrorist network may try to use a hijacked commercial airliner to commit an attack sometime before September, Cable News Network reported, citing an advisory sent to the aviation community. The government is examining possible targets on the East Coast of the U.S., and in the U.K., Australia and Italy, the report said. The group is looking at those areas because of the ``relatively high'' concentration of economic, military and government targets, CNN said, citing the advisory from the Department of Homeland Security. The hijackings may involve the use of five-man teams that would try to control aircraft on takeoff or landings, so they wouldn't have to have training to fly airplanes, CNN said. The hijackers may try to convince passengers they are involved in a ``traditional'' hostage situation rather than a terrorist attack and may use common travel items such as cameras that have been modified as weapons. Last Updated: July 29, 2003 18:44 EDT

To: afrayem onigwecher who wrote (11917)	8/1/2003 12:14:34 AM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19428

Senators Demand U.S. Treasury List of Saudi Terror Financiers July 31 (Bloomberg) -- A U.S. Senate committee is demanding a list of Saudi Arabian citizens that the U.S. Treasury Department has secretly identified since Sept. 11, 2001, as financiers of terrorist front groups. Treasury has published the names of 202 individuals from several nations who have provided funding to either al-Qaeda or the Taliban. Another 79 people have been named for funding other terror groups, allowing the U.S. and United Nations member states to freeze their assets. The Treasury has been blocked from seizing the bank accounts of another list of Saudis and others whom the department has identified as funding terrorism, senators and U.S. officials said at a Government Affairs Committee hearing in Washington. ``There is a considerable concern here in the Congress about Saudi Arabia being shielded for foreign policy purposes,'' said Senator Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican. He and Michigan Democratic Senator Carl Levin asked the Treasury to provide the Senate panel within 24 hours with the names of people who've been kept off the lists by State or other agencies. The committee is looking into Saudi Arabian financial and ideological links to al-Qaeda and Hamas. The two groups have claimed responsibility for terrorist bombings against the U.S. and Israelis. State Department Objections Richard Newcomb, director of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, said in response to senators' questions that his office had documented the financial ties of some individuals to terrorist organizations and then been prevented from identifying them. ``There are a whole range of targets that we are prepared to move forward on, can move forward on and have developed evidentiary packages,'' Newcomb said. Often the U.S. State Department objects to listing Saudi citizens on diplomatic grounds, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation insists on not naming individuals it has under investigation or surveillance, Newcomb said. ``We look very strongly to the State Department and the State Department is a very active player in all of these,'' Newcomb told Government Affairs. Today's hearing followed Bush administration action to keep secret 28 pages of a congressional report released last week that lawmakers said suggest Saudi Arabia was a major source of financing for the Sept. 11 hijackers and other terrorists. President George W. Bush said yesterday he and top U.S. law enforcement officials didn't want to compromise an FBI investigation into the attacks by allowing release of information on Saudi Arabia. Money Trail ``The people have a right to know about the trail of money that made it possible for the Sept. 11 terrorists to murder our people,'' said Jonathan Winer, former deputy assistant secretary of state in the Clinton administration. The Saudi government has called for release of the report's 28 classified pages. Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, said after meeting with Bush Tuesday that his country has been accused ``by insinuation'' because of speculation about what the secret section contains. ``The paper trail of Saudi money, funneled through a network of charities and religious organizations, leads to some of the most violent terrorist groups in the world, including al-Qaeda and Hamas,'' said Steven Emerson, executive director of the Investigative Project, a group that conducts research on Islamic terrorists. Support for Hamas Dore Gold, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations and author of the 2003 book ``Hatred's Kingdom; How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism,'' will cite documents seized by Israel and the FBI showing Saudi funds going to terrorists. ``The Israeli national assessment is that Saudi Arabia today funds more than 50 percent of the needs of Hamas and the Saudi percentage in the total foreign aid to Hamas is actually growing,'' Gold said, according to prepared testimony. Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the U.S., said his government has taken steps to tighten controls on charities and financial institutions and is cooperating with the U.S. on other anti-terror measures. Saudi officials declined to appear at today's hearing, senators said. John Pistole, FBI assistant director for counter-terrorism, told senators that Saudi cooperation with U.S. investigators was ``very limited'' prior to a triple-suicide bombing by al-Qaeda on May 12 in Riyadh that killed 35 including nine Americans. ``The cooperation since May 12 and the Riyadh bombings has been unprecedented except for the financing, and there are a number of issues still on the table for that,'' Pistole said. Last week's report followed congressional intelligence committees' investigation last year into the 2001 hijacked-plane crashes that killed almost 3,000 people. The report concluded that the Central Intelligence Agency and the FBI ``failed to capitalize'' on information and ``missed opportunities'' to disrupt the Sept. 11 attack. Last Updated: July 31, 2003 13:07 EDT