[iwar] [fc:Bin.Laden.Money.Trail.World.Wide]

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Subject: [iwar] [fc:Bin.Laden.Money.Trail.World.Wide]
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Bin Laden Money Trail World Wide
By SHARON THEIMER
.c The Associated Press

  
WASHINGTON (AP) - As recently as seven months ago, U.S. authorities detailed 
in open court an extensive network of companies and bank accounts established 
by Osama bin Laden and his terror group - enterprises as diverse as road 
construction and peanut farming. 

Witnesses during the trial of suspects charged in the 1998 bombings of two 
U.S. embassies in Africa identified businesses that bin Laden's al-Qaida 
group ran in Sudan to obtain equipment and cash and provide favors for the 
Sudanese government. 

Sudan previously has provided asylum to the multimillionaire Saudi exile, 
whom U.S. authorities have long accused of running a global terrorist network 
known as al-Qaida. 

Jamal Ahmed al-Fadl, a bin Laden associate turned government witness, 
recounted a 1992 meeting at which bin Laden was asked if the companies had to 
make money, because business was poor in Sudan. 

Speaking in broken English, al-Fadl testified: ``He say our agenda is bigger 
than business. We are not going to make business here, but we need to help 
the government and the government help our group, and this is our purpose.'' 

U.S. investigators have identified bin Laden as the prime suspect in last 
week's terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and are 
tracing the money believed to have funded the operation and other terrorist 
groups. 

``We seek to create a big picture profile of the financial infrastructure of 
terrorists groups,'' said Jimmy Gurule, the Treasury undersecretary for 
enforcement. 

Bin Laden was charged in connection with the 1998 embassy bombings but has 
never been captured. He and the ruling Taliban Islamic militia in 
Afghanistan, where bin Laden is believed hiding, have long denied terrorist 
involvement. 

The embassy bombings case provides a glimpse of money behind bin Laden's 
financing, outlining wide-ranging business holdings in Sudan through which he 
converted currency and imported equipment. 

In Sudan, ``bin Laden and his group began taking actions to prepare to do 
battle with his enemies, particularly the United States,'' prosecutor Paul 
Butler told jurors during opening statements in the trial last February. 

Al-Qaida's Hijra Construction Co. built the Thaadi - or ``revolutionary'' - 
Road from Khartoum to Port Sudan for the Sudanese government, which paid by 
giving al-Qaida ownership of the Khartoum Tannery, according to court 
records. 

Bin Laden and al-Qaida also ran the Blessed Fruits farming business, growing 
peanuts, fruit, sesame, white corn, sunflowers and wheat, according to 
testimony. 

Products were run through other countries, including Cyprus, to evade 
international sanctions against Sudan and allow for a more profitable sale in 
Europe and America, testimony showed. 

Several crops were grown on a farm near Ed Damazin in eastern Sudan that also 
was used for weapons and explosives training, according to the testimony. 

Al-Qaida also ran a fishing business on the coast of Kenya used to support 
members of a terrorist cell there, prosecutors further alleged. 

The vast network of companies purchased products from around the world, 
including a used plane in the United States for bin Laden, the testimony 
said. The companies also bought tractors in Slovakia and trucks in Russia. 

There was a profit motive. 

Bin-Laden associates with U.S. or European passports sought to buy goods in 
other countries and sell them in Sudan at a price high enough to make a 
profit, according to testimony. 

Another branch of al-Qaida's business focused on obtaining travel documents, 
both false and legitimate; the Sudanese government issued several passports 
identifying noncitizens as Sudanese nationals. 

Dating back to Afghanistan, al-Qaida sometimes used documents of dead Muslims 
to help others travel, testimony showed. 

Bin Laden himself was able to travel under a false name, al-Fadl said. 

The trial also examined numerous bank accounts connected to bin Laden and 
al-Qaida in Sudan, at Barclay's Bank in London, Girocredit in Vienna, a bank 
in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. 

Vince Cannistraro, former CIA counterterrorism operations chief, said he 
thinks most of bin Laden's companies in Sudan were aimed at winning over the 
government and facilitating the training of his network. 

Last week's attacks probably were made possible with money from Islamic 
charities and front groups and wealthy Islamic businessmen, Cannistraro and 
other terrorism experts said. 

Cannistraro said he believes it's unlikely that bin Laden is using whatever 
is left of his estimated $300 million inheritance to finance his terrorist 
network. 

As far as bank accounts, those accessible to Western governments, including 
the Barclay's Bank account, are closed down, Cannistraro said. 

Presumably bin Laden's financial transactions now go mostly through Asia, 
possibly including China, Cannistraro said. 

Complicating the hunt for bin Laden's money is his likely use of ``hawala,'' 
an underground Middle Eastern banking system, a congressional source said. 
Parties in essence swap money to get it from place to place and avoid 
detection. 

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said he believes contributions from Islamic groups 
are key sources of bin Laden's financing. Such U.S. groups don't have to 
disclose their sources of donations and spending. 

On the Net: State Department report of trial: 
<a href="http://usinfo.state.gov/topical/pol/terror/01020708.htm">http://usinfo.state.gov/topical/pol/terror/01020708.htm> 

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