Posted on 09/18/2001 12:59:29 AM PDT by HAL9000
Hours after hijackers crashed commercial jets into targets in New York and Washington, D.C., last Tuesday, FBI agents swept into the Charlestown condominium complex where relatives of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden live, the Herald has learned.The FBI's investigation into the extended family of bin Laden living in the Hub is continuing, sources confirmed, as agents recently began combing Boston's trendy nightclubs and collecting credit card receipts left behind by the bin Laden clan.
Bin Laden's siblings in Boston have strongly disavowed their 44-year-old brother, who is now the chief suspect in last week's brutal terror attack, which killed thousands of Americans and wiped out the World Trade Center.
Word of the probe into bin Laden relatives follows the arrest of an unidentified man on Friday at John F. Kennedy Airport who reportedly knows one of Osama bin Laden's brothers. The man also reportedly gave authorities a Boston address linked to the hijackers.
Members of the massive FBI and police task force scouring the country for clues to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack have also spoken to people in Boston about a Newbury Street hotel and restaurant owner who sources said is close to certain bin Laden family members here.
About 10 p.m. on Sept. 11, two FBI agents arrived at the Flagship Wharf condominium complex on 8th St. and conducted a series of interviews with unit owners, according to Sherry Grancey, a longtime resident of the complex.
Grancey said she did not know who was interviewed, but records show at least two bin Laden relatives currently own units in the complex. Mohammed bin Laden owns four units and Nawaf bin Laden owns one, records show. ``We are doing everything possible to assist the local, state and federal authorities in their investigation of this American tragedy,'' Grancey said. In the week since the terror attack, residents of the 201-unit complex have been besieged by the media and many are fearful of possible reprisals aimed at their neighbors, the bin Ladens, Grancey said.
On Wednesday, Grancey contacted the Boston Police Department and asked for police protection for the residents. Uniformed officers have been patrolling the property ever since.
Attempts to reach bin Laden family members were unsuccessful yesterday.
``They're wonderful neighbors,'' said Grancey, a real estate broker who has lived at Flagship Wharf since 1995. ``They are very concerned with family and they are professional, educated, nice people.''
The two nightclubs visited by FBI agents last week were Venue, on Warrenton Street in the Theater District and Trio, on Lincoln Street in the Leather District. These are just two of the many local clubs and restaurants frequented by the younger bin Ladens, sources said.
Authorities in Boston have been aware for years of the extended bin Laden family living in the Boston area, and in 1998, after terrorists bombed U.S. embassies in Africa, they began monitoring the activities of several bin Laden relatives, according to one source familiar with that investigation.
Mohammed M. bin Laden, believed to be a younger brother of the terrorist leader, owns several properties in and around Boston, including luxury condos at Flagship Wharf. Sources said he moved back to Saudi Arabia with his wife and children several years ago.
Abdullah M. bin Laden, another younger brother, is a 1994 graduate of Harvard Law School and has offices in Cambridge.
Meanwhile, two sources confirmed that Mouldi Sayeh, owner of the Jewel of Newbury Hotel and restaurant at 254 Newbury St., is being scrutinized by the FBI.
Sayeh, 47, is a wealthy Algerian who several years ago opened the pricey boutique hotel located in a five-story brownstone near the corner of Newbury and Fairfield streets. The basement and courtyard house a restaurant by the same name.
Several merchants in that section of Newbury Street said it appears that very few people stay at the high-priced hotel, and the restaurant does not draw many patrons. A night in the hotel costs up to $2,000.
After the terrorist attack, Mouldi removed his menu display from the courtyard in front of the restaurant and closed for business, according to one merchant. More recently, the restaurant has opened sporadically.
One source who is familiar with the Jewel of Newbury said he discussed Sayeh and his involvement with the bin Laden family with an FBI agent on Friday.
That source described Sayeh as a ``broker'' for bin Laden family members in Boston.
On Sunday, two Herald reporters rang the buzzer next to the locked front door of the hotel and a man answered who identified himself as ``Mouldi.'' When asked if he would discuss the bin Laden family, he said, ``I don't know them,'' and closed and locked the door.
Public records, however, show that Sayeh has owned expensive condominiums in two complexes in which bin Laden relatives also owned units. Records also show he owns a Rolls Royce and a small fleet of Mercedes Benz vehicles.
In the mid-1990s, Mohammed bin Laden acquired four units at Flagship Wharf. Around the same time, other bin Laden relatives began moving in and out of nearby units.
Sayeh also bought a unit at Flagship Wharf in the mid-1990s valued at approximately $400,000. This year, in May, he sold it for more than $1 million.
Also in the 1990s, Mohammed bin Laden and Sayeh bought and sold units at Cambridge's ritzy Esplanade condominium project overlooking the Charles River. Sayeh bought an eighth-floor unit in 1995 which he sold for $1.3 million in May of last year.
In May 1997, Mohammed bin Laden sold a unit in the Esplanade for $830,000.
Both men own residences in Wayland. Mohammed bin Laden owns a 17-room, 10-bedroom mansion on Old Connecticut Road. Previously, he owned another home in the town, on Rice Road, which he sold for $575,000 in 1996. Sayeh bought a home on Glezen Street for $340,000 in 1993.
Mohammed bin Laden's holdings at Flagship Wharf are substantial. He bought a ninth-floor penthouse unit in 1995, which is now valued at $877,000, and he owns three other units with values that range from just under $300,000 to more than $750,000.
Other relatives have also owned apartments at Flagship Wharf.
Saad and Ahmed bin Laden each bought condos - both in the $500,000 range - there in the mid-1990s and later sold them. Nawaf bin Laden also bought into the luxury complex and is still listed there, according to city property records.
Many of the bin Ladens selected Boston as their American residence in part because of the large Middle Eastern population and the quality of its many colleges and universities. A family-owned corporation in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, funded two separate $1 million gifts to Harvard University. One was made to Harvard Law School to promote the study of Islamic law, and the other was given to the Harvard Graduate School of Design to endow students and professors to pursue the study of Islamic architecture and art.
The bin Laden family derives its billions from its Saudi Arabian construction company, which was favored by Saudi kings over the last 50 years and built most of the nation's airports and roadways, among other projects.
When the family patriarch and construction company founder, Sheik Mohammed bin Laden, died in 1968, the family fortune was divided among the more than 50 children he left behind - the offspring of multiple marriages to women in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. A group of the eldest bin Laden brothers now run the construction business.
Shooting Stars
`Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without success,' Winston Churchill once famously said. Perhaps. But the Japanese might have a different take, having now had North Korea fire a missile over their heads. In a world where Pathan tribesmen with rifles have been replaced by rogue states with ballistic missiles, Churchill would have been the first to argue that the leader of the free world needs more going for him then the other guy's bad aim. To wit, a missile defense.
If the events of the past few weeks have taught us anything, it is that the bad guys out there--Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong II, Osama bin Laden and the like--are not kidding when they threaten to blow up Americans. What we don't yet know is just how many of them have the capability to follow through on their threats, though recent tests by both North Korea and Iran confirm that some are not that far away. We shouldn't have to wait until a missile lands in Times Square to find out.
Unfortunately that is precisely what Democratic Senators have been doing. Back in March, GOP Senator Thad Cochran introduced a bill calling for the U.S. `to deploy as soon as is technologically possible an effective National Missile Defense System capable of defending the territory of the United States against limited ballistic missile attack.' When the motion to move it to the floor for debate and amendments came up, it fell just one vote shy of the 60 needed. All 41 opposed were Democrats. While bin Laden bombs, the Democrats filibuster.
They have a chance to redeem themselves when the reintroduced petition comes up for a vote tomorrow. Events since the March 13 filibuster have tragically underscored just how irresponsible a move it was: India and Pakistan have exploded nuclear bombs; Iran and North Korea have tested ballistic missiles; Saddam Hussein has forced U.N. inspectors to a standstill; and bin Laden blew up two American embassies in Africa.
Indeed, it has lent a prophetic tone to the findings of the Rumsfeld Commission, a team of defense experts which in July warned that America's enemies could deliver a ballistic missile threat to the U.S. within five years of any decision to acquire such a capability. More ominously, the Rumsfeld report warns that `during several of those years, the U.S. might not be aware that such a decision has been made.'
In face of these tangible threats, the continued Democratic preference for arms control agreements in the bush over real defense capabilities in the hand is baffling. And our guess is that an American public that has now watched North Korea and seen for itself some of bin Laden's handiwork also would be a hard sell. We wouldn't be surprised, then, if these developments, coupled with a President suffering from a severe loss of moral authority, might lead some of these Democrats to consider whether they want to continue to block debate about ways to protect Americans--especially the 13 Democratic Senators up for re-election which follow:
UP FOR RE-ELECTION
Democratic senators who voted against closure on the American Missile Protection Act of 1998.
Barbara Boxer, California.
John Breaux, Louisiana.
Thomas A. Daschle, S. Dakota.
Christopher J. Dodd, Connecticut.
Byron L. Dorgan, N. Dakota.
Russell D. Feingold, Wisconsin.
Bob Graham, Florida.
Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont.
Barbara A. Mikulski, Maryland.
Carol Moseley-Braun, Illinois.
Patty Murray, Washington.
Harry Reid, Nevada.
Ron Wyden, Oregon.
Source: Coalition to Defend America.
Bill Clinton might have his own second thoughts. It is worth asking whether Mr. Clinton could even have taken the limited action he did against sites in Afghanistan and the Sudan had bin Laden somehow managed to buy a missile of his own--or pay the North Koreans or Iranians to shoot one off for him.
Likewise, could George Bush have prosecuted the Gulf War if Saddam Hussein had had a missile capability? As Mr. Clinton has had impressed on him, just four or five warheads in hands like Kim Jong II's pose a far more immediate and practical threat to American lives and interests than the 2,000 or so in the Russian arsenal. Especially given North Korea's willingness to sell its missiles to anyone with cash.
Providing an American President with the wherewithal to shoot down a ballistic missile on its way to an American city shouldn't be a partisan issue. But if the Democrats decide again to make it one in the coming vote, that would be a persuasive Republican argument for a filibuster-proof Republican Senate. If we ever get a missile defense system this country needs, we may owe more to Monica Lewinsky and Osama bin Laden than we do to our Democratic Senators.
Is Boston near Cambridge?
A bin Laden with the first name of Yahia M.A. of 2 rue Charles Bonnet 1206 Geneva, Switzerland owns 13.52 % of a Cambridge company known as Hybridon.
It messes around with things like DNA,AIDS,HPV and viruses!
As in front company for biological warfare?
Camille Chebeir,President of Sedco Services,Inc which manages the investments of the Bin Mahfouz family of Saudi,is on the Board of Directors.
Mahfouz is one of the funders of our boy Osama!
Nicris Limited of Geneva owns 13.44 %.
Intercity Holdings of Hamilton, Bermuda owns 13.27 %
General Motors Domestic Group Trust has a 19.01 % share.
Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America has a 16.63 % stake.
How utterly delicious to find a bunch of bin Ladens so near their house of biologicals!
Is Kennebunkport close?
Is Kennebunkport close?
About an hour, hour and a half drive up the coast, through New Hampshire (*) and into Maine.
* Where we charge Massholes vacationing in Maine a $1.00 toll for using a ten mile stretch of I-95. What a great revenue source! It reminds me a bit of a Monty Python episode where some guy says "I think we should tax all foreigners living abroad."
I also hope the FEC is following every stock short order outstanding as of 9/11. This bin Laden was cunning enough to try to profit from his filthy business (I thought they HATED captitalism!?).
This would be counter-terrorism at it's BEST!
I remember reading about the sucesses of a particular unit of the the French Foreign Legion in Viet Nam. It was made up largely of ex-nazi's and SS men. They'de raid a village and strap the locals on their trucks and tanks before moving their convoys. If they thought a road was mined, they'd cut a few loose, and make them go clear it. As long as they had local hostages, it kept the ambushes from being sprung.
Unfortunately the French (and us) didn't have the stomach to fight terror with terror.
If they complain, execute them. They should be thankful to get out alive.
I just read a number of articles on WorldNetDaily.com about attacks on by blacks on Whites in South Africa, attacks on Whites in America, Black on White Crime Statistics in America, Muslim and Asian immigrants flooding into France, Germany, England and America.
I am starting to see things in a racial perspective. I have never done this before. This is new territory for me. I am a Christian. I know that God loves all mankind and that I am to have love in my heart for all races... but I can feel a change taking place in my heart and in my thinking.
I am starting to think about the White Race and our survival. I am staring to wonder why it is supposedly racist for me to think about White Pride and preserving the White Race. I am starting to wonder why you can have a TV talk show named "Black Forum" but you could never have a TV show named "White Forum."
I am staring to think that there is a double standard that is harmful to Whites. I am starting to think that I want to see America preserved as a White Nation and I am starting to think that there is nothing wrong with thinking like that.
Is there anyone else out there who is starting to think like this too?
Bobfrommichigan74@hotmail.com
http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=23871
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