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US slow to tackle illicit terror f unding - GermanyReuters, 06.17.03, 1:12 PM ET

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By David GrasslandBERL IN, Jun e 17 (Reuters) - The United States and B ritain have failed so far to block a key route forfinancing terror - so-called "underground banks" operated in Internet cafes, travel agents and restaurants,German officials said on Tuesday.As international experts on combating mon ey laund ering gather in Berlin this week for a conference, theofficials said U.S. and British authorities lagged behind Germany, France and the Netherlands in clampingdown on such underground banks.The United States made fighting terror a priority after the September 11 attacks in 2001 but regulators therean d in Britain have balked at the cost of supervising their large informal mon ey transfer markets, said thegovernment officials, who declined to be named.U.S. authorities no w realised action n eeded to be taken, they said. "If they dont, they will not be able tolive up to this highest national priority," a senior German official said.A crackdown in continental Europe on informal m oney transfers via export/import companies, travel agentsan d other outlets, often aided by the Internet, has created a major hub in Lon don for such transactions, theofficials said.Underground ban king is based on trust. Few, if any , records are kept. Ou tlets taking p art, which often see alarge nu mb er of oversees v isitors or migrants passing throu gh, form a network that moves cash witho ut atrace.The customer pays mon ey to one un dergroun d banker and trusts him to arrange with another that theintended recipient will receive the agreed sum .

FREEZING ACCOUNTS


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***FULL-TEXT***1) Al Qaeda in America: The Enemy WithinBy Daniel Klaidman, Mark Hosenball, Michael Isikoff and Evan ThomasNewsweekKhalid Shaikh Mohammed looked more like a loser in a T shirt than a modern-dayMephistopheles. But "KSM," as he is always referred to in FBI documents, held the keyto unlock the biggest mystery of the war on terror: is Al Qaeda operating insideAmerica?THE ANSWER, ACCORDING TO KSM's confessions and the intense U.S. investigationthat followed, is yes. It is not known where the authorities took KSM after he wascaptured, looking paunchy and pouty, in a 3 a.m. raid in Pakistan on March 1. As AlQaeda's director of global operations, KSM was by far the most valuable prize yetcaptured by American intelligence and its various allies in the post-9-11 manhunt. Heprobably now resides in an exceedingly spartan jail cell in some friendly Arab country,perhaps Jordan.He has probably not been tortured, at least in the traditional sense. Interrogationmethods, usually involving sleep deprivation, have become much more refined. Heprobably did not tell all he knew. Qaeda chieftains are schooled in resistinginterrogation, and informed sources said that at first KSM offered up nothing butevasions and disinformation. But confronted by the contents of his computer and hiscell-phone records, he began speaking more truthfully. According to intelligencedocuments obtained by NEWSWEEK, many of the names, places and plots he revealedhave checked out. After 9-11, Osama bin Laden's terror network Svas clearly here," atop U.S. law-enforcement official told NEWSWEEK. "It was organized, it was beingdirected by the leaders of Al Qaeda." Though rumors of sleeper cells have floated aboutfor months, it is a startling revelation that Al Qaeda's chief of operations was directlyrunning operatives inside the United States. Thanks to some real breakthroughs by theFeds, the Qaeda plots do not appear to have made it past the planning stage. Theinside story of the war at home on Al Qaeda, reconstructed by NEWSWEEK reportersfrom intelligence documents and interviews with top officials, has been marked by goodluck and good work. Still, no one in the intelligence community is declaring victory.RECRUITING TECHNIQUESKSM revealed an overhaul of Al Qaeda's approach to penetrating America. The 9-11hijackers were all foreign nationals-mostly Saudis, led by an Egyptian~who infiltratedthe United States by obtaining student or tourist visas. To foil the heightened securityafter 9-11, Al Qaeda began to rely on operatives who would be harder to detect. Theyrecruited U.S. citizens or people with legitimate Western passports who could movefreely in the United States. They used women and family members as "supportpersonnel." And they made an effort to find African-American Muslims who would besympathetic to Islamic extremism. Using "mosques, prisons and universities throughoutthe United States," according to the documents, KSM reached deep into the heartland,lining up agents in Baltimore, Columbus, Ohio, and Peoria, III. Th'e'Feds haveuncovered at least one KSM-run cell that could have done grave damage to the UnitedStates.


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2 of 26 DOCUMENTSCopyright 2002 Chicago Tribune Company

Chicago TribuneNovember 3, 2002 Sunday, CHICAGOLAND FINAL EDITION

SECTION: News; Pg . 1; ZONE: CLENGTH: 2665 wo rdsHEADLINE: Charity founders tied to Hamburg terror suspectsBYLINE: By John Crewdson and Laurie Cohen, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune senior correspondent Jo hn Crewdsonreported from Hamburg, and Tribune staff reporter Laurie Cohen reported from Chicago. Tribune staff reportersStephen Franklin in Jiddah and Noreen Ahmed-Ullah in Chicago co ntributed to this report.DATELINE: HAMB URG, GermanyBODY:Two wealthy Saudi founde rs of a Chicago-area Islamic charity accused of supporting Al Qaeda are among theowners of a German firm whose managing director is a suspected terrorist financier with ties to the Sept. 11 hijackers,according to public records an d investigative sources here.

The overlap between the Ham burg firm and Benevolence International Foundation surfaced during an investigationof wha t one source termed "the second layer" o f terrorism in Hamburg, the suspected financ ial and logistical support ofradical Islamic organizations by a handful of little-known com panies that populate the fringes of the city's thrivingexport industry.More than a year after Sept. 11, 2001, the surface layer is well-known: Moham ed A tta, the Hamburg universitygraduate who headed the hijacking plot that claimed more than 3,000 lives in New York, the Washington area andPennsylvania, and seven other former Hamburg students-some dead, some in jail, some on the run-who took part inthe hijackings or stand accused of helping the hijackers in various ways.Investigators probing beneath that surface for what they believe may be a deeper and broader terrorist infrastructureare encountering entities such as Triple-B Trading GmbH , a self-described import-export concern that does no apparentbusiness and is headquartered in the tiny village of Rethwisch, about 60 miles from Hamburg's bustling port.Despite its local obscurity, two of Triple-B's three registered ow ners are fam iliar names to federal prosecutors inChicago, who last mo nth charged Enaam Arnaout, executive director of the Benevolence International Fo undation ofPalos Hills, 111., with having funneled money and other support to Al Qaeda for mo re than a decade.One is Shahir Abdulraouf Batterjee, the scion of a wealthy Saudi family who was an officer and director ofBenevolence when it established its Palos Hills office nearly a decade ago. Another Triple-B owner, Mazin Mohamm adBahareth, a top executive o f the Bahareth Organization, a S audi construction conglomerate, was listed as thefoundation's treasurer.U.S. prosecutors say they have "an archive of incriminating docum ents" linking Benevolence International directlyto Osama bin Laden and his terrorist organization, Al Qaeda, which was responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks. Accordingto Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, among the foundation's "wealthy sponsors from Saudi Arabia" is another Batterjee familymember, Adel Abdul Jalil Batterjee, Benevolence's original president.An FB I affidavit filed in the Benevolence case describes Adel Batterjee, believed to be a first cousin of Shahir's, as"a wealthy Saudi Arabian national" who w as "involved with the mujahedeen in Afgha nistan" and is a personal associate


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9 of 26 DOCUMENTSCopyright 2002 Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Deutsche Presse-AgenturSeptember 14, 2002, Saturday09:40 Central European Time

SECTION: PoliticsLENGTH: 394 wordsHEADLINE: Spiegel: Syrian intelligence connection to Sept 11 terroristsDATELINE: HamburgBODY:

German investigators believe there may have been a Syrian link to the Hamburg terrorist cell behind the September11 attacks in the United States, it is reported Saturday.Spiegel news magazine says in its latest edition that Syrian intelligence may have been monitoring the activities ofMohammed Atta and his fellow terrorists in Hamburg.The report, released in advance and to appear on the newsstands on Monday, said the German anti-terroristinvestigation could lead to diplomatic problems with Syria.German prosecutors hav e searched the northern German company Tatex T rading Gm bH, whose partner is a former

head of Syrian intelligence, Moham med Majid Said, now a member of Syria's National Security Council.Investigators believe the firm in Schleswig-Holstein state may have been used by Syrian intelligence to monitorthe activities of radical exiled Syrians and also the Hamburg group led by Atta.Family members of company chief Abdul-Matin Tatari had close contact with members of the Hamburg terroristgroup, the report said.Tatari's 27-year-old son often visited the apartment used by the terrorist in the district of Harburg.He knew the hijacker who piloted United Airlines Flight 175 - the second plane to crash into the World TradeCenter - and was a witness at the wedding of Mounir El Motassadek, a Moroccan who has been charged in Germanywith 1,316 cou nts of being an accomplice to murder in connection with the September 11 attacks.German investigators say a further indication that Syrian intelligence ha d information on the Hamburg terroristswa s the arrest early this year of a German-Syrian, Mohammed Haydar Zammar.Zammar, 41 , who worked at Tatex and is regarded as a key figure in the investigations in Germany, has been heldin Syria since early this year following his arrest shortly after he arrived in the country from Germany.Tatex boss Tatari said the speculation was "nonsense". He denied any links with Syrian intelligence or terrorists,and said he employed Zammar because he was a friend of his father.Spiegel said the investigation into Tatex caused G erman governmen t concern that it could lead to a diplomatic rowwith Syria which is regarded as an ally in the anti-terror coalition. A delegation of German security officials visitedDamascus three weeks ago. dpa bw sc


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20 of 26 DOCUMENTSCopyright 2002 The New York Times C ompanyThe New York Times

September 11, 2002, Wednesday, Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section A; Page 22; Column 1; Foreign DeskLENGTH: 870 wordsHEADLINE: THREATS AND RESPONSES: GERMANY;Hamburg Police Raid 2 Import-Export FirmsBYLINE: By STEVEN ERLANGERDATELINE: HAMBURG, Germany, Sept. 10BODY:The police raided two export-import firms today that are owned by a Syrian-born G erman w ho is suspected of tiesto the Sept. 11 plotters who once lived in this northern port city.

The owner of the firms, Abdul Matin Tatari, and his wife and their two sons are suspected of membership in acriminal organization and of using the textile-trading companies to smuggle Islamic fundame ntalists into Germany, thefederal prosecutor, Kay Nehm, said in a statement.Th e four are being detained fo r questioning on suspicion of using false documents and laundering money tosmuggle Islamic militants to Hamburg an d "thereby contribute to the Holy War' of violent fundam ental Islamists," thestatement said, bu t they have no t been formally arrested.

The police are investigating ties between M r. Tatari and the H amburg cell, three of w hose m embers died whileapparently piloting the planes that hit the World Trade Center and crashed in Pennsylvania. At least three of the keymembers of the Ham burg cell, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Said Bahaji and Zakariya Essabar, are wanted by Germanauthorities.Another member, Mounir el-Motassadeq, 28, has been in prison since N ovember and was recently charged withbeing an accessory to the 3,000 deaths caused on Sept. 11.According to the prosecutor's statement, the Tatari family is suspected of links to "relevant Islamic circles, inparticular to people who are being investigated in connection with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks."Prosecutors said the police were alerted by the "atypical business activities" of Mr. Tatari, which they said "pointtoward organized sm uggling activity on the part of the accused."Television pictures showed police officers climbing over the roof and entering the offices of two related companies,Tatari Design, and Tatex Trading G.m.b.H., in Fitzbek, a village 35 miles from Hamburg. There were also searches oftwo warehouses owned by the firms in Schleswig-Holstein State and the office of the firms* tax adviser in Hamburg.The companies have been in business fo r more than 20 years.Another Syrian-born German, Marmo un D arkazanli, a Ham burg businessman, has been accused of ties to Al Qaedaand the Ham burg cell, w hich was led by Mohamed Atta. M r. Darkazanli was a prominent member of the wedding partyof Mr. Bahaji, and American officials have regularly pressed the Germans to arrest him .M r. Darkazanli professes innocence and said in a telephone interview that the police had not spoken to him in thecontext of the raids today.


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CNN.com - Profile: Mounir el Motassadeq - Feb. 19, 2003 Page 1 of 4

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Profile: Mounir el MotassadeqHAMBURG, Germany -Mounir el Motassadeq was arrested in November 2001 on suspicion that he hadlinks to Mohamed A tta, who flew one of the two planes that brought down the World Trade Center towers hiNew York.

His lawyers portrayed Motassadeq as an innocent student who befriended fellow Muslims. H e told aHamburg court that he was a man of peace who studied hard and enjoyed playing football.He adm itted kno wing Atta and other mem bers of the alleged al Qaeda terror cell in H am burgbelieved to h ave led the September 11, 2001, attack on the United States but he said h e did not knowof their plans until he saw the events of September 11 unfo ld.The court rejected Motassadeq's defence and agreed with prosecutors that he was an accessory to themurder of more than 3,000 people in New York and W ashington. (Full story)Judges also convicted him of being a member of an outlawed terror group and sentenced him to 15years in prison.Motassadeq, a 28-year-old M oroccan citizen, arrived in Germ any in 1993 in Muenster to learn thelocal language. He later moved to Ham burg, Germany's second city w ith 1.7 million people,including 200,000 Muslims.A member of a middle-class family, he was an electrical engineering student at Hamburg's TechnicalUniversity from 1995 until his arrest at his Hamburg apartment.Between 1996 and 1998, he worked as a cleaner at Ham burg airport and had access to secure areasand aircraft. He also worked at a camping store in the city.In addition to his wages, Motassadeq received 3,000 euros ($3,200) each year from his father, amedical technician. M otassadeq is one o f six children.In 1999, Motassadeq married a woman from St. Petersburg, Russia, who converted to Islam andmoved to Ham burg to w ork at the technical university. They have an infant son and daughter.During his trial, Motassadeq told the court of a modest life, how he saved money by sharing flats,and how he discussed religion and po litics at a local m osqu e.

http://cnn.worldnews.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&expire=-l&urlID=546187... 6/11/03

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