ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Law firms representing victims of the 9/11 attacks in an ongoing legal dispute with wealthy Saudis suspected of financing al-Qaeda have recently turned their attention to two individuals with unique ties to the U.S. government.

Lawyers for victims of the attacks, as well as insurance companies of property owners in New York, have filed a motion of discovery in federal district court in Manhattan targeting the Saudi-owned National Commercial Bank (NCB) and two of its former executives, Khalid bin Mahfouz and Yassin al-Qadi.

Both Mahfouz and al-Qadi have a murky history that includes alleged ties to the CIA, the White House, the Bush family, al-Qaeda, and organized crime on a global scale.

ORIGINAL

“In the United States of America there is a hidden government about which you know nothing.”

So begins a revealing television exposé aired by CNN in 1991. The hour-long Special Assignment presented the findings of a yearlong CNN investigation into the ultra-secretive Continuity of Government (COG) program, commonly referred to as the “doomsday government” or the “shadow government”.

The COG program was originally designed in the 1950s to ensure the survival of the federal government in the event of a nuclear attack. The highly secretive emergency plans were substantially upgraded during the 1980s and have become a focus point of the current administration, particularly since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

The Passing of a Legend — Goodbye, Michael Corbin
By SHARON K. GILBERT
March 19, 2008

(PID NEWS) — THIS is a very dark time for listeners of A Closer Look with Michael Corbin, for a great light has gone out.

Yesterday afternoon, legendary radio host Michael Corbin, passed away in Denver, Colorado, following a massive stroke that had left him in a coma since Monday.

Corbin might well be called the father of alternative news, both in radio and on the internet. Beginning in the 1980s with FIDONet, Corbin refused to accept mainstream media spin, choosing instead to dig into first hand accounts from news-watchers all over the world. It was through FIDOnet, that Corbin met Indira Singh; and it was through Singh that Derek and I grew to know and appreciate Corbin’s work.

Full article available at http://rememberingmichael.wordpress.com/

From The American Monitor's new research blog...

"...If they were to do real investigations we would see several significant high level criminal prosecutions in this country. And that is something that they are not going to let out. And, believe me; they will do everything to cover this up..."

(Are they watching you too?)

Private intelligence firm targets The American Monitor
Devlin Buckley, 3/21/07

According to online statistics provided by The American Monitor’s Internet host, a private corporation specializing in online surveillance, Cyveillance Inc., has begun monitoring this site.¹

A court in Turkey has ruled to freeze the assets of reported CIA front-man Yasin al-Qadi (top). This story crosses paths with three 9/11 whistleblowers: Robert Wright (left), Indira Singh (center), and Sibel Edmonds (right).

A court in Turkey has ruled to freeze the assets of Yasin al-Qadi,¹ a one-time acquaintance of Vice President Dick Cheney² and reported “chief money launderer” of Osama bin Laden.³

Al-Qadi, prior to being publicly identified as a key al-Qaeda financer, owned a prominent U.S. technology firm and reported CIA front known as Ptech.⁴ He also escorted U.S. officials around during their visits to Saudi Arabia.⁵

“Council of State Administrative Cases Bureau on Thursday decided to annul a lower court's decision to rescind a cabinet order to freeze the assets of Saudi financier Yasin al-Qadi, who has been accused of financing terrorism,” the Turkish Daily News reported Saturday.⁶

FULL ARTICLE

[NOTE: This is a full response to the recent blog entry accusing 9/11 Press For Truth of spreading disinformation via the ISI link to 9/11. Be sure to note that the intention of this thread is not to exchange insults or divide the ‘truth community’, but rather to inspire friendly debate, further analysis, and a better understanding of the issue at hand. So keep it civil!]

The Albanian gov't has seized assets belonging to Yasin al-Qadi, the one-time owner of a U.S. defense contractor and alleged CIA front known as Ptech. In October 2005, the Albanian gov't made a similar seizure of property at the twin towers of Tirana, pictured above.

Ptech owner's assets confiscated in Albania
The American Monitor
Devlin Buckley
January 16, 2007

The Albanian government has seized the assets of a wealthy Saudi that, for several years, reportedly maintained simultaneous connections to both al-Qaeda and the U.S. government while serving the interests of the CIA.

“The Finance Ministry said it ordered authorities to block four apartments, a house, four bars and shops, and more than 2 hectares (about 5 acres) of land belonging to Yasin al-Qadi,” the Associated Press reports, citing the Official Gazette.¹ ...

...Despite his alleged affiliations to terrorism, al-Qadi has maintained concurrent contacts within influential Washington circles.⁴ In fact, prior to being publicly connected to money laundering and terrorist financing, al-Qadi regularly spoke of his relationship with Vice President Dick Cheney.⁵

Al-Qadi, who has been identified as one of Osama bin Laden’s “chief money launderers,”⁶ owned a prominent U.S. technology firm and alleged CIA front known as Ptech.⁷ He also escorted U.S. officials around during their visits to Saudi Arabia.⁸ ...

...Most notably, he once owned a Quincy, Massachusetts-based technology company known as Ptech,¹⁶ which he allegedly used to funnel cash to Islamic militants.17

Raided by federal authorities in 2002, Ptech marketed highly sophisticated software to numerous U.S. government agencies,¹⁸ maintained a security clearance with the military,¹⁹ and held several sensitive contracts.²⁰

Intelligence officials have privately confided to 9/11 whistleblower Indira Singh that Ptech served as a front for the CIA, apparently laundering mob-linked drug money for covert operations.²¹

A similar pattern is apparent in Albania, where Yasin al-Qadi, according to federal law enforcement officials, assisted the CIA with efforts to provide underground support to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).²² ...

FULL ARTICLE

Drug mafia, CIA blamed for sacking of Afghan governor
Devlin Buckley, 12/11/06
The American Monitor

In a country flooded with narcotics traffickers and corrupt government officials, one of Afghanistan’s few remaining ‘clean’ governors, Mohammed Daud, has been removed from his position, and many are blaming the drug mafia and the CIA for his abrupt dismissal.

Daud was appointed at the request of the British government in order to oversee Helmand province, the country’s largest opium producing region. The former and now possibly future governor of Helmand, Sher Muhammad Akhunzada, whom Daud replaced earlier this year, has been widely implicated in the drug trade.

Contrary to Akhunzada, “British officials regarded Mr Daud as the cleanest governor in Afghanistan and hoped that his extensive experience in development would help to win over Helmand’s population,” The Times reported.

Last month, however, the British government expressed frustration with the effort, pointing to the fact that Afghan President Hamid Karzai continued to meet with the former governor, Akhunzada. Adding further strain on the situation, Karzai appointed Akhunzada as a Senator and made his brother, Amir Muhammad Akhundzada, Daud's deputy.

"The president is undermining his own governor," one British official told The Times. "It doesn’t help what we’re trying to do."

It would appear U.S. officials, particularly from the Central Intelligence Agency, were influencing Karzai’s actions, undercutting the efforts of their British counterparts. Moreover, as The Independent reported, “British sources have blamed pressure from the CIA for President Hamid Karzai's decision to dismiss Mohammed Daud as governor".

“The Americans knew Daud was a main British ally,” one official explained to The Independent, “yet they deliberately undermined him and told Karzai to sack him.”

The U.S. apparently favors Daud's predecessor and purported drug lord, Akhunzada...

FULL ARTICLE

Dr. M. Yaqub Mirza, a suspected money launderer and terrorist financer, will speak tomorrow at Shenandoah University in Northern Virginia.

For several years, Dr. Mirza has been at the center of the nation's largest terrorism-financing investigation, allegedly using a web of corporations, charities, and other organizations to launder money for terrorist activities overseas and in the United States.

...Yaqub Mirza directed the ‘SAAR network’, a complex web of charities, think tanks, and businesses based in Northern Virginia. Federal agents raided dozens of the group’s offices and homes in March of 2002, nearly all of which were run by Mirza.

Although is has gone drastically underreported in the mainstream media, the network under investigation, in addition to having connections to the “Golden Chain” of al-Qaeda financers, also has intimate links to the U.S. government...

Full article

Fearing for his life, Sami al-Arian, an admitted terrorist financer and one-time acquaintance of President George W. Bush, has refused to provide information to a federal grand jury regarding a Northern Virginia-based criminal network with connections to the U.S. government.

For nearly five years, investigators have been attempting to untangle the complex web of corporations, charities, and think tanks, which have allegedly been used by al-Arian and his associates to launder money for terrorist activities overseas and in the United States.

Although it has been grossly underreported in the mainstream media, the network under investigation has been intimately linked to the U.S. government, suggesting that some of the group’s activities have been sanctioned, protected, and possibly even coordinated by U.S. intelligence.

Sami al-Arian and another convicted terrorist supporter, Abdurahaman Alamoudi, both of whom have alleged links to 9/11, met several times with senior Bush Administration officials in the run-up to the attacks.

In June 2001, for instance, as a member of the American Muslim Council (AMC) (which was founded by Alamoudi) al-Arian was “invited to the White House complex for a briefing by Bush political adviser Karl Rove.”

Bush with al-Arian and friends

Similarly, in 2000 Alamoudi “was one of several Muslims invited to meet with [presidential] candidate [George W.] Bush in Austin, Texas”; and remarkably, just three days after the 9/11 attacks, Alamoudi was invited to a prayer service with the president.

Bush with Alamoudi

In addition to founding the AMC, Alamoudi also co-founded a U.S. government-contracted company known as Ptech, which U.S. intelligence officials have described as a CIA front “on the level of Iran-Contra.” More after the fold...

Writing for Spero News, Adrian Morgan scratches the surface of the CIA-supported al-Qaeda network:

"...Wahhabism was an alien ideology to the Muslims of former Yugoslavia, though in the Bosnian war of 1992 - 1995, it became imported by radical Muslims. These had been invited to the region by then-president Alija Izetbegovic. ... When the civil war began in 1992, he invited Mujahideen fighters to the region, incorporating them into the Bosnian army. ... Izetbegovic was portrayed by the Clinton administration as a moderate, though it was recently revealed that he was in the pay of a Saudi Al Qaeda operative, Yassin al-Khadi (Yassin al Qadi). Izetbegovic was also in direct communication with Osama bin Laden, according to British journalist Eve-Ann Prentice. ..."

Although it is rarely mentioned in the mainstream media, the United States did more than just portray Izetbegovic as a moderate, as the above article suggests. Izetbegovic and the Mujahideen fighters he invited to the region were the recipients of logistical, financial, and military support from the US.

As London's The Spectator has noted, "If Western intervention in Afghanistan created the mujahedin, Western intervention in Bosnia appears to have globalised it."

Indeed, several current and former top al-Qaeda militants and financers participated in the Bosnian civil war with the full support of the United States. It was, after all, for the Bosnian jihad that the 9/11 'paymaster', Omar Sheikh, was reportedly recruited to fight by the CIA and MI6.

As the above excerpt notes, it was recently revealed that Izetbegovic was "in the pay" of Yassin al-Qadi, a specially designated global terrorist and widely reported al-Qaeda financer. Izetbegovic reportedly received $195,000 from al-Qadi in 1996, the same year he earned the "International Democracy Award" from the Center for Democracy.

Alija Izetbegovic receives the 1996 International Democracy Award during a ceremony held at the United Nations on March 25, 1997.

Al-Qadi, in addition to financing the Bosnian jihad and acting as a "chief money launderer" for Osama bin Laden, owned a company called Ptech, which provided sophisticated software to several departments and agencies of the US government, including the Army, the Air Force, Naval Air Command, Congress, the Department of Energy, the Department of Justice, Customs, the FAA, the IRS, NATO, the FBI, the Secret Service, and the White House.

The same year (1996) al-Qadi was allegedly making payments to Izetbegovic, the al-Qaeda financer began obtaining contracts from the US government.

According to US intelligence officials who spoke to 9/11 whistleblower Indira Singh, Ptech was a "CIA clandestine op on the level of Iran-Contra." More after the fold...

It is official, Donald Rumsfeld is out and former CIA Director Robert Gates, if confirmed, will be in as the new Defense Secretary. As usual, the more you read, the worse it get...

In November of 1999, Mr. Gates openly expressed his satisfaction with the arming of the Afghan Mujahhadin during the 1980s, a covert policy that gave rise to 'al-Qaeda'.

At a Texas A&M University Dinner, Mr. Gates stated the following:

"Operationally, CIA had important successes in covert action. Perhaps the most consequential of all was Afghanistan where CIA, with its management, funneled billions of dollars in supplies and weapons to the Mujahhadin, and the resistance was thus able to fight the vaunted Soviet army to a standoff and eventually force a political decision to withdraw."

To his credit, Gates does acknowledge that the "training and weapons we provided after the conflicts ended sometimes were put to unwelcome purposes and even used in actions hostile to US interests," but nonetheless, he states, "All in all, CIA uniquely among the world's intelligence services, endeavored to conduct its operations according to presidential directive under the rule of law and in every way possible consistent with American values. ... In sum, CIA in my view was remarkably successful".

New article available at From The Wilderness regarding the alleged 9/11 'paymaster', Omar Sheikh, and his affiliations to Pakistani and Western intelligence agencies. FTW has made this article available to all nonsubscribers at my request. Short excerpt:

"...This suggests Pakistan is not only guilty of complicity in the 9/11 attacks, but is directly responsible for financing and coordinating the operation, which may explain why Musharraf chose to omit such pertinent information from his new book.

Moreover, there are several members of Musharraf’s own government, according to The Pittsburgh Tribune, who believe Omar Sheikh’s true power “comes not from the ISI, but from his connections with our own CIA.”21

Given Omar’s reported history, this certainly seems like a plausible explanation; and if true, it would establish a significant degree of U.S. government culpability for the 9/11 attacks. ..."