Posted on 12/19/2001 9:17:37 AM PST by Wallaby
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
Court papers cite al-Hawsawi in funding of Sept. 11 attacks Kevin McCoy USA TODAY; MONEY; Pg. 5B December 19, 2001, Wednesday, FIRST EDITION
Who is the elusive paymaster behind the Sept. 11 attacks? Investigators, court records and other documents sketch an incomplete and sometimes conflicting picture of the man authorities say is a key link between the 19 suicide hijackers and Osama bin Laden.
In papers filed last week to support the first U.S. indictment in the probe, authorities identified the paymaster as Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, an international fugitive. The six-count indictment, which charged a French-Moroccan with being part of a conspiracy by the al-Qaeda terrorism network to kill Americans, named al-Hawsawi as an unindicted co-conspirator.
On Sept. 11, just hours before the attacks, al-Hawsawi emptied Ahmed's Dubai account.
The indictment reflected both the progress and difficulties that investigators have experienced in mapping the money trail between the hijackers and various charities, businesses and people worldwide. Al-Hawsawi's name -- and those of possible aliases -- appears frequently along that trail, officials say. But it has been tough for them to find al-Hawsawi and determine whether he is the lone figure behind various names that have been used to move terrorist money. The indictment filed last week says al-Hawsawi was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Aug. 5, 1968.
The name Mustafa Ahmed, an alias that may be used by al-Hawsawi, appeared on a list of people and organizations with suspected terrorist ties that U.S. investigators forwarded to European authorities in the weeks after the attacks. But that list identified Ahmed's birthplace as India, and it included three possible birth dates, one of them three days later than the date listed in the indictment for al-Hawsawi.
The Sept. 24 roster of those whose financial assets were ordered frozen by President Bush listed Mustafa Ahmed as an alias of a man known as Shaykh Sai'id, a suspected financial lieutenant for bin Laden. But Sai'id is an Egyptian who helped fund bin Laden when the terrorist leader was based in Sudan during the 1990s, investigators say.
Separately, references to al-Hawsawi turned up in the Dublin, Ireland, office of the Islamic Relief Agency, a Saudi-backed charity suspected of having links to bin Laden. His name was found on papers seized during a raid by Irish authorities after the attacks. Saudi officials in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.
Al-Hawsawi is the target of an international manhunt led by U.S. agents who are probing the funding of bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. Last Friday, FBI agents raided the Illinois office of two large Muslim charities, the Global Relief Foundation and the Benevolence International Foundation. U.S. Treasury officials froze the assets of both groups, which have denied having any ties to terrorism.
One former intelligence official says that last week's indictment of Zacarias Moussaoui, a French-Moroccan who received money from al-Qaeda operatives for flight training in the USA, provided "a good picture of how a local terrorist cell works, as far as financing goes." The indictment outlines numerous transactions involving al-Hawsawi in the months before the attacks:
* On June 25, he used cash to open a checking account in a Dubai, United Arab Emirates, branch of Standard Chartered Bank. Hijacker Fayez Ahmed used cash to open a savings account at the same branch on the same day.
Ahmed gave al-Hawsawi power of attorney over his savings account on July 18. The move enabled al-Hawsawi to pick up Ahmed's Visa and ATM cards at the bank. Al-Hawsawi sent them to Ahmed in Florida, where several hijackers took flight courses.
* On Aug. 22, Ahmed used the Visa card in Florida to obtain about $ 4,900 that had been deposited in the Dubai bank the previous day. The withdrawal was just below the $ 5,000 threshold that could have triggered the filing of a transaction report to the U.S. government. By Aug. 27, Ahmed had used $ 4,500 to pay for a first-class seat on United Airlines Flight 175, one of two jets the hijackers crashed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.
* On Sept. 6, Ahmed wired about $ 8,055 from a Florida SunTrust bank branch to the Dubai account controlled by al-Hawsawi. Over the next four days, other hijackers wired $ 18,260 to United Arab Emirates accounts whose holders' names apparently were aliases for al-Hawsawi, agents say.
Separately, Mohamed Atta, a leader of the hijacking crew, sent a package from Hollywood, Fla., to Dubai on Sept. 4. An Arab man picked it up four days later. Agents theorize that the man, who was taped by a security camera, either was al-Hawsawi or an associate.
* On Sept. 11, just hours before the attacks, al-Hawsawi emptied Ahmed's Dubai account. He then deposited more than $ 22,000 into his own account and prepaid $ 40,871 to a Visa card linked to the account. Then he left Dubai for Pakistan. Two days later, al-Hawsawi's Visa card was used to make six withdrawals at an ATM in Karachi. Since then, officials say, there has been no sign of him.
to view the video.
Could this have been the signal that bin Laden said he received that the operation was on on the Thursday before 9/11? That Thursday was 9/6. 9/6, by the way, was also the day the suspicious trading in airline put options began.
Here's a link to the Moussaoui indictment.
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