FTR#425—Closing the Ring: Update on 9/11—(Two 30-minute segments) (Sources
are noted in parentheses.) (Recorded on 9/22/2003.)
Note: FTR#’s 260-316, 317, 324,
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Summary of FTR#425—(Note: The massive
volume of “For The Record” programs about 9/11 and related topics is summarized
and analyzed in the periodically-updated description for FTR#391. It is recommended that listeners use this
description and e-mail it to others. Also: The “meat” of the book “Martin
Bormann: Nazi in Exile” has been digested into an extended description for FTR#305. Listeners can now e-mail this
quintessentially important book to people around the world. In addition, the
professional history of the late Paul Manning, the book’s author, is presented
in the description “About Paul Manning.” This
enables listeners to acquaint others with Mr. Manning’s journalistic
credentials. Understanding the Bormann organization is essential to comprehending
the concept of “the Underground Reich.”) As
investigations of September 11 continue, it is important to note that they are
closing in on the Islamofascist milieu of Al Taqwa and the Muslim Brotherhood.
One of the investigations stemming from the Operation Green Quest raids of
3/20/2002 implicates the Youssef Nada/Al Taqwa milieu still further in the
events of 9/11. In Spain, crusading judge Baltasar Garzon has indicted Osama
Bin Laden and 34 others in connection with the 9/11 attacks. Judge Garzon’s
inquiry is also moving in the direction of the Muslim Brotherhood. After
discussing these parallel investigations, the program further develops the
story of the Operation Green Quest investigations, as well as the kidnap-murder
of “Wall Street Journal” reporter Daniel Pearl, the D.C. sniper case and the
possibility that Pakistani intelligence officials sympathetic to Al Qaeda may
obtain nuclear weapons for that organization.
Program Highlights Include: The profound
role of Al Taqwa’s Youssef Nada in setting up the SAAR network; the
investigation and harassment of the Green Quest investigators by the FBI and
the CIA; links between the D.C. sniper investigation and the Pearl kidnapping
and murder; the Nazi influence on Omar Sheikh (Pearl’s killer); further indications
of possible Islamist influence within the Chaplain corps of the armed forces.
1.
Beginning with discussion of parallel investigations underway in Spain
and the United States, the program notes that both inquiries focus on the
Muslim Brotherhood. (Judge Garzon’s investigation in Spain subsequently
resulted in the indictment of some 35 individuals, including Osama Bin Laden,
in connection with 9/11.) (For more about the Muslim Brotherhood, see—among
other programs—FTR#’s 343, 350, 351,
377, 378, 381, 382.) “A pair of investigations in the United States and Spain is
bringing new attention to the hidden role played by a secretive group called
the Muslim Brotherhood in supporting radical terror networks. The brotherhood
has a rich history of fomenting mayhem throughout the Middle East. It first
popped up in Egypt more than 75 years ago, dedicated to overthrowing that
country’s government and replacing it with a strict Islamic state. Later, the
group fell off the radar screens of Western intelligence agencies. . .” (“Jihad’s
Long Reach” by Mark Hosenball and Michael Isikoff; Newsweek Web Exclusive; 9/17/2003; pp. 1-2; accessed at www.msnbc.com
.)
2.
In the U.S. the investigation of Solomon Biheiri in conjunction with
the Operation Green Quest raids of 3/20/2002 has uncovered connections with the
Brotherhood. (For more about the Biheiri investigation, see FTR#423. For more about the Operation
Green Quest raids, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 356, 357, 359, 382, 389, 390, 406.) “ . . . Some of the most striking new evidence
about the Brotherhood’s octopuslike connections have surfaced only in the past
few days as part of the case against Solomon Biheiri, an Egyptian-born
businessman who has been arrested by federal agents investigating a murky web
of Islamic charities based in Herndon and Falls Church, Va., that are allegedly
linked to terrorism and money laundering.” (Ibid.; p. 2.)
3.
“Biheiri has
been detained on immigration charges; no terrorism charges have been filed
against him and his lawyer has denied any connection to terrorism. But to make
their case that Biheiri should be detained pending trial, federal prosecutors
last week portrayed Biheiri as the U.S. banker of the Muslim Brotherhood,
linked him to a leading Muslim Brotherhood cleric in the Middle East and
described apparent connections to Al Taqwa, a Swiss-based financial network
whose assets have been frozen by the U.S.
Treasury Department and which investigators believe functions as the
central bank for the Muslim Brotherhood.” (Idem.)
4.
“At the same
time, a Spanish investigation into Al Qaeda operations in that country has run
up against a parallel, and possibly overlapping, network of Muslim Brotherhood
members. Overseen by that country’s crusading jurist, Baltasar Garzon, the
Spanish inquiry has laid out an elaborate terror conspiracy that includes the
ferrying of cash from Spain to Al Qaeda members in Afghanistan. One alleged
player-a jailed Syrian born al Jazeera correspondent named Taysir Alouni—is
identified in a Spanish police report obtained by Newsweek as ‘a person strongly connected to the Muslim
Brotherhood,’ and some of his associates are strongly suspected Brotherhood
members, as well.” (Ibid.; p. 3.)
5.
Much of the program highlights the courageous work of Rita Katz, an
Iraqi-born Jew who utilized her Arabic language skills to infiltrate the
funding conduits investigated under Green Quest. (To highlight the SAAR
network, see—among other programs—FTR#’s
353, 356, 382.) (Visit Ms. Katz’s
website at www.siteinstitute.org .)
“SAAR wasn’t a
what. It was a who. SAAR: Sheikh Sulaiman Abdul Aziz al-Rajhi. Or his brother,
Saleh Abdul Aziz al-Rajhi. Two Saudi tycoons, among the richest people on
Earth. This was my missing link, my clue, my Open Sesame to Ali Baba’s secret
cave. Al-Rajhi was behind it all along, behind SAAR, behind IIIT, behind 555
[Grove Street, Herndon, Virginia], behind the devious and elusive
multibillion-dollar enterprise that funneled money to some of the world’s most
dangerous terrorist groups. I wasn’t sure whether it was Saleh or Sulaiman who
gave SAAR its name. Perhaps it was both. It made little difference to me; these
two were the main players in the al-Rajhi empire that created 555. . .” (Terrorist Hunter by “Anonymous” [Rita
Katz]; CCC [imprint of Harper Collins]; Copyright 2003 by Harper Collins [HC];
ISBN 0-06-052819-2; p. 293.)
6.
Highlighting the tangle of institutions implicated by the Green Quest
sleuths in terrorist financing, the program sets forth the importance of 555
Grove Street in the investigation. “A year after I’d figured out the connection between 555 and
al-Rajhi, the embassy bombings trial began, during which the government
released previously classified documents about the investigation. One such
document was Wadih al-Hage’s phone book. The same book in which Ghassan
Dahduli’s numbers had been found. I went through the book, parts of which are
in Arabic and others in English. Some portions were hardly legible. Toward the
end of the book, I saw the name, with an address in Saudi Arabia. The
name—Saleh Abdul Aziz al-Rajhi. SAAR. Now why would Usama Bin Laden’s personal
secretary have the contact information for Saleh al-Rajhi?” (Ibid.;
p. 294.)
7.
“A few days
later, the government released al-Hage’s other phone book. Again Saleh
al-Rajhi’s name appeared in it, this time not with the address, but with a
telephone number in Saudi Arabia. During his testimony in that trial, al-Hage
disclosed how he started his way with Bin Laden by joining the Afghan
mujahideen as a relief worker with the Saudi organization Muslim World League,
MWL. I knew that many other al-Qaeda members such as Wa’el Julaidan and Ihab
Ali began their jihad with MWL. After I’d heard that al-Hage was also involved
with MWL, I checked for the address of its United States office. Naturally, it
was 555. . .” (Idem.)
8.
As discussed in—among other programs—FTR#’s 356, 357 Jamal Barzinji is linked to the milieu of Green Quest,
and Grover Norquist’s Islamic Institute, closely associated with the GOP’s
ethnic outreach organization. Barzinji, in turn, is connected to the WAMY and
the milieu of Osama Bin Laden’s brother Abdullah. “At that point in my investigation, two
critical questions remained unsolved about the SAAR network. One was how did
the men heading the SAAR network, none of whom were Saudi, end up controlling a
multibillion-dollar Saudi-funded empire? Many of the directors of the SAAR
network live in a fancy neighborhood of Herndon, Virginia, on a street and a
court named ‘Safa.’ Their group is now believed by the government to be a
close-knit and secretive organization. I found the answer to that in IIIT’s
corporate records. The records stated the following names of founders and board
members: Taha Jaber al-Alwani, WAMY, Saudi Arabia. Jamal Barzinji, WAMY, Saudi
Arabia . . .” (Ibid.; pp. 295-296.)
9.
“Oh my God, I thought. IIT was but a
different name for WAMY. WAMY—the World Assembly of Muslim Youth—was for youth.
IIIT was WAMY for the youth who came of age. Batterjee, who has been named Bin
Laden’s financier by the government, headed WAMY in the early 1990’s. WAMY
published Batterjee’s biography of Bin Laden, where the ‘river of Jihad’ is
glorified. WAMY published manuals found in the possession of Ahmed Ajaj, one of
the conspirators in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, where the hijacking of
buses and murder of civilians were glorified and where poisonous hate
statements were made against Americans, Christians, and Jews. WAMY’s director
in the United States since the day it was founded was Abdallah Bin Laden,
Usama’s half brother. For these reasons and others, the FBI considers WAMY a
suspected terrorist organization. Above all, WAMY was a Saudi organization, a
fact over which it took great pride; it even received funding from the
government of Saudi Arabia. Barzinji, al-Alwani, al-Talib and Ahmed Totonji,
the four Iraqis who in time would establish the SAAR empire, somehow found
their way to Saudi Arabia. . .” (Ibid.; p. 296.)
10.
In addition, Barzinji is intimately connected to the Al Taqwa network
and Youssef Nada. (For more about Al Taqwa, see—in addition to programs named
above, FTR#’s 342, 352, 354, 371.) “ . . . In 1976,
Hisham al-Talib, Muhammad M. Shamma, and Jamal Barzinji, the founders of the
SAAR network founded a bank in the small kingdom of Liechtenstein, in the city
of Vaduz. They named it Nada International after its director, Youssef M. Nada.
Nada, an Egyptian-born naturalized Italian citizen in his seventies, a good
friend of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, was one of the most prominent leaders of the
Muslim Brotherhood. . . After he was
set free, he left for Europe, where he established the Muslim Brotherhood’s
major financial organizations—and those of al-Qaeda. Nada also became director
of two banks founded in the Bahamas: Bank al-Taqwa—‘fear of Allah’—and Akida
Bank Private. . .” (Ibid.; p. 310)
11.
A very significant detail concerns the fact that Nada employed Sulaiman Abdul Aziz al-Rajhi.
In turn, Nada and his associates Barzinji and al-Talib worked for the SAAR
foundation. “
. . . Other clients of al-Taqwa included several members of the Bin Laden
family, including brothers and sisters of Usama. As Akida Bank’s director, Nada
rather amazingly employed one Sulaiman
Abdul Aziz al-Rajhi: one of the Saudi brothers behind SAAR. So Al-Rajhi, with
his legendary riches, worked for nada. Yet Nada worked for Barzinji and
al-Talib, who in turn worked for al-Rajhi’s charity, the SAAR Foundation. Are
you good and confused? That’s the general idea.” (Ibid.; p. 311.)
12.
As noted in—among other broadcasts—FTR#’s
356, 357, 376, 390, 415, 423, the milieu of SAAR and the other objects of
the Green Quest raids significantly overlaps the GOP’s ethnic outreach
organization and the Bush administration. The fact that elements of the Al
Qaeda milieu appear to have been involved in Western intelligence covert
operations in the Balkans, as well as the GOP ethnic/Green Quest connection may
well explain the hostile interest in the investigators
of Operation Green Quest, including Rita Katz, A.K.A. “Anonymous.” “The CIA was
investigating me and the SAAR investigators from Green Quest and Customs. The
CIA and the FBI investigated everyone who had anything to do with the SAAR
investigation. White vans and SUV’s with dark windows appeared near all the
homes of the SAAR investigators. All agents, some of whom were very experienced
with surveillance, knew they were being followed. So was I. I felt that I was
being followed everywhere and watched at home, in the supermarket, on the way
to work . . . and for what? . . .” (Ibid.; p. 328.)
13.
“ . . . The
Customs agents were questioned. So were their supervisors. So was the U.S.
attorney on the SAAR case. One of the questions they were all asked was whether
they’d leaked material to me. They all kept saying that this was the most
preposterous idea; they all said that before I came, none of them had the
slightest clue about SAAR and 555. They said that there was nothing of value
they could give me that I didn’t have already. That it was I who gave them the
material, not the other way around. None of the investigated parties has the
slightest clue as to the real reason they were being investigated.” (Ibid.; p. 329.)
14.
“Risking
criticism for being unfoundedly paranoid, I must convey my theory about the
investigation and CIA’s involvement in it, I don’t know for certain what’s the
deal with the CIA investigating the SAAR investigators, but it sure feels as if
someone up in that agency doesn’t like the idea that the Saudi Arabian boat is
rocked. The raids on 555 had taken place already—the CIA couldn’t change
that—but investigating and giving the people behind the raids a hard time is a
most efficient way of making sure the SAAR investigation stops there. Which,
come to think of it, may be the reason the government looks so unfavorably on
the lawsuit filed by 9-11 victims’ families against several Saudi entities and
individuals, accusing them of funding terrorism and seeking damages.” (Idem.)
15.
Adding further significance to the appearance of Abdullah Bin Laden in
the milieu targeted by the Operation Green Quest raids is the fact that the
White House flew Abdullah and other members of the Bin Laden family out of the
country in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Abdullah and Khalil Bin
Laden were the two members of the Al Qaeda-linked family alluded to by Senator
Schumer. The program reviews material from the description of FTR#423. “The young bin Ladens and members of the House
of Saud who were living in the United States in September 2001 were mostly
students attending high school or college and young professionals. Several bin
Ladens had attended Tufts University near Boston. Sana bin Laden had graduated
from Wheelock College, in Boston. Abdullah bin Laden, a younger brother of
Osama’s, was a 1994 graduate of Harvard Law School and had offices in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. . . .” (“Saving the Saudis” by Craig
Unger; Vanity Fair; October/2003; p.
165.)
16.
“ . . .But half-brother
Khalil Binladin decided to go back to Jidda. Khalil, who has a Brazilian wife,
had been appointed Brazil’s honorary consul in Jidda, though he also owns a
sprawling 20-acre estate in Winter Garden, Florida, near Orlando.” (Idem.)
17.
Abdullah Bin Laden is linked to the WAMY, which in turn overlaps both
Al Qaeda, the GOP’s Republican ethnic outreach organization and the Al Taqwa
milieu. (For more about this connection, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 356, 357.) “In fact, the F.B.I. had been keeping an eye
on some of the bin Ladens. A classified F.B.I. file examined by Vanity Fair and marked ‘Secret’ shows
that as early as 1996, the bureau had spent nearly nine months investigating
Abdullah and Omar bin Laden, who were involved with the American branch of the
World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), a charity that has published writings by
Islamic scholar Sayyid Qutb, one of Osama bin Laden’s intellectual influences.”
(Ibid.; p. 175.)
18.
In addition, Khalil bin Laden has interests in the tri-border area discussed
in—among other programs--FTR#402. “Khalil bin Laden,
who boarded a plane in Orlando that eventually took him back to Saudi Arabia,
won the attention of Brazilian investigators for possible terrorist
connections. According to a Brazilian paper, he had business connections in the
Brazilian province of Minas Gerais, not far from the tri-border region, an
alleged center for training terrorists. . . .” (Ibid.; p. 176.)
19.
“F.B.I. officials
declined to comment on the investigation, which was reported in Britain’s The Guardian, but the documents show
that the file on Abdullah and Omar was reopened on September, 19, 2001, while
the Saudi repatriation was still under way. ‘These documents show there was an
open F.B.I. investigation into these guys at the time of their departure,’ says
David Armstrong, an investigator for the Public Education Center, the
Washington, D.C., foundation that obtained the documents.” (Idem.)
20.
As discussed in FTR#’s 356, 386,
405, institutions associated with the targets of the Operation Green Quest
raids (specifically the GSISS) are involved with vetting Muslim chaplains in
the U.S. armed forces. Some of those individuals have become the focal point of
investigations of possible terrorist activities. “An Islamic chaplain in the U.S. Army who
ministered to detainees at the camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the military
holds captured militants and terrorism suspects is now himself under arrest
while the Army investigates his activities, according to military and law
enforcement officials. The chaplain, Capt. James Yee, also known as Youssef
Yee, has not been charged either by the military or by civilian authorities,
the officials said. His case is being investigated by the Army and if he is
charged, it will be most likely be under the military justice code, they said.
. . . Upon his return to the United States, Yee rejoined the military as a
Muslim chaplain and ministered to soldiers at Fort Lewis in Washington state,
serving as chaplain of the 700-member 29th Signal Battalion, which included
about a dozen Muslims in its ranks.” (“Islamic Chaplain in Army
Arrested” by Eric Lichtblau [New York
Times]; San Mercury News;
9/21/2003; p. 3A.)
21.
In FTR#386, we examined
information indicating the possibility
that the accused D.C. sniper was associated with the milieux of Yaqub Mirza,
the SAAR network and Al Qaeda. There is an evidentiary tributary running
between the D.C. sniper investigation and the kidnapping and slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel
Pearl. Pearl’s executioner, Omar Sheikh was close to Sheikh Gilani, who had
John Allen Muhammad in one of his networks. “ . . . So in January of 2002, Omar set about
setting up Daniel Pearl. He manipulates Pearl’s eagerness to get to Sheikh
Gilani--an eagerness not misplaced, Mr. Levy persuades us, revealing that
Gilani’s connections range from Osama bin Laden to D.C. sniper John Allen
Muhammad (who spent time in one of Gilani’s network of Muslim communities in
America.) . . .” (“In Danny Pearl Book, Levy Says Next 9/11 Brewing
in Pakistan” by Ron Rosenbaum; New York
Observer; 9/15/2003; accessed at www.nyobserver.com .)
22.
Pearl kidnapper and killer Omar Sheikh appears to have been heavily
influenced by Nazi influence while waging jihad in the Balkans. (For more about
the Nazi/Islamofascist influence in the Balkans, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 330, 400, 414.) “ . . . Mr. Levy
captures this divide in his book when he reports that Omar ‘played chess and
read Mein Kampf.’ At one point during the “C-Span” interview, I asked him about
Omar and Mein Kampf: ‘There are those who say ‘Hitler is dead,’ but among
people like Omar—terrorists, jihadists like him—Hitler is spoken of with
affection, right?’ True, Mr. Levy said: According to the testimony of one of the
men he kidnapped in India, Omar ‘was able to recite entire pages of Mein Kampf
by heart.’ Mr. Levy gave a world-weary, Gallic shrug: ‘Everybody has the poetry
he deserves.’ And he went on to add that Omar was not alone in seeking to
finish what Hitler started: ‘You have today, in Damascus, in Syria, in Libya,
some people who think that the anti-Semitic message of the Nazis was a good
message—and has to be completed’ . . .” (Idem.)
23.
A terrifying possibility concerns an allegation that Daniel Pearl may
have discovered links between Al Qaeda and Pakistani intelligence elements
sympathetic to the possibility of getting nuclear weapons to the Bin Laden
organization. “
. . . Through a series of intermediaries, he finds himself meeting, in a shady
place called the Hotel Akbar in Rawalpindi, with Omar, the jihadist who has
links to many of the radical Islamist forces in Pakistani intelligence who are
seeking to undermine the fragile Musharraf government, to end Pakistan’s
alliance with the U.S. in favor of a pro-Al Qaeda ‘Islamist’ foreign policy,
and most of all to place control of Pakistan’s alliance with the U.S. in favor
of a pro-Al Qaeda ‘Islamist’ foreign policy, and most of all to place control
of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons—the so-called ‘Islamic bomb’—at the disposal of
the worldwide Islamic crusade against the infidels of the West.” (Idem.)
24.
French author Henry Bernard-Levy has speculated that elements of
Pakistani intelligence themselves may have been behind the Pearl kidnapping. “ . . . It is that
experience [staying at the Hotel Akbar in which Pearl stayed], that stay, and
the sense he got from his observation of the other inhabitants of the hotel,
that convinces him that he—and Danny before him—has stumbled onto a safe house
for jihadists maintained by Pakistani intelligence. Which leads him to
concludes that Pearl kidnapping operation was itself masterminded—or at least
supervised—by elements within Pakistani intelligence. That it was what he calls
‘a crime of state.’” (Idem.)