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15. The U.S. Provides Details Of Terror-Financing Web; Defunct Investment Firm In NewJersey Is the Hub; Suspect to Stay in CustodyBy GLENN R.SIMPSONWALL STREET JOURNALALEXANDRIA, Va. -- U.S. prosecutors, seeking to keep a central terrorism suspect behind bars,painstakingly outlined an alleged terror-financing network stretching from New Jersey toSwitzerland to Saudi Arabia.The case of Soliman Biheiri has become the spearhead of a two-year investigation into whetherIslamic activists and their wealthy Saudi backers assembled an empire of dozens of well-fundedbusinesses and ch arities in this coun try to support terrorists or their causes. The JusticeDepartment say s those elements converged around M r. Biheiri, head of a now -defunct NewJersey investment firm who has been charged with immigration fraud and held in U.S. custodysince mid-June.Prosecutors last week marshaled bank statements, canceled checks, tax records, wire transfersand incorporation filings to docum ent their contentions about Muslim charities and terro ristsworking in concert. In a four-hou r detention hearing, they described Mr. Biheiri as the U.S. bankerfor the Muslim B rotherhood, a banned Egyptian move ment that seeks to build a global Islamictheocracy and U.S. authorities say spawned both al Qaeda and Hamas."Basically, the defendant came here as the Muslim Brotherhood's financial toehold in the U.S.,"prosecutor Steven Ward said in federal court here, the primary venue for the government's legalwar on suspected terrorists. He urged that Mr. Biheiri remain in custody as a flight risk anddanger to the community.Lawyers for those under investigation have derided the probe as a dangerous prosecutorialfantasy that has impinged on their clients' civil rights.Mr. Biheiri's lawyer, James Clark, while not disputing most specifics of the government's claims,said there is "not a shred of evidence" that h is client supported terrorism . Judge T.E. Ellis IIIordered Mr. Biheiri held, saying there was ample evidence he did business with terrorists.Mr. Biheiri, an Egyptian immigrant active in Muslim politics in the U.S., was on the advisory boardof a prominent national Islamic lobby called the American MuslirryQouncil. He also ran aSecaucus, N.J., investment firm called BMI Inc., w hich stands fo^Beit ul MaHor Treasury House.The firm foundered in 1999 after about $2.3 million went missing. Prosecutors are seeking tocharge him "with respect to providing mon ey to designated [terrorist] individuals," Mr. Ward said.Investors in BMI, the subject of a Page-One article3 in The Wall Street Journal last November,included Saudi businessman YassinQadi and Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook, both of whomthe U.S. Treasury has listed as "specially designated global terrorists."Prosecutors identified a third B MI investor as Abdullah Aw ad bin Laden, who BM I partnershiprecords and bank statements show put in more than $500,000. He is a nephew of Osama binLaden, head of al Qaeda and the alleged mas termind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Duringthe 1990s, Abdullah Awad bin Laden ran the U.S. branch of a Saudi charity called the WorldAssembly of Muslim Youth. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and private analys ts labeled it asuspected terrorist organization; the group says it doesn't support terrorism.Mr. Qadi also says he has no involvement in terrorism. His lawyers say he had only passinginvolvement with BMI and liquidated his investment in it in 1996. But another company operatingfrom the same office, Kadi International Inc., listed its president in its incorporation papers asYassin A. Qadi. TheSaudi businessman was also a major investor in Ptech, a Boston computer


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14 of 38 DOCUMENTSCopyright 2002 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.

ABC News TranscriptsSHOW: PRIMETIME LIVE (10:00 PM ET) - ABC

December 19,2002 Thursday

LENGTH: 1692 wordsHEADLINE: PRIMETIME INVESTIGATION FBI TERRORIST COVER UPBODY:

CHARLES GIBSON, ABC NEWS(Off Camera) See if this gets your attention. A rich, Saudi businessman, suspected of funnelling money to OsamaBin Laden, who is also a suspected owner of a company that creates highly sensitive software for the FBI. Or howabout this, a Muslim FBI Agent accused of refusing orders to secretly record another Muslim suspected of terroristconnections. Well tonight, twoFBIAgents come forward to say if all of that worries you, it should. They puteverything at risk to give Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross a disturbing account that the FBI has tried tokeep secret.graphics: Primetime InvestigationBRIAN ROSS, ABC NEWS(Voice Over) 10:00 last Monday morning in Chicago. This was the day. This was the hour.BRIAN ROSS (CONTINUED)(Voice Over) This was the interviewFBI headquarters in Washington feared was coming. Two of the FBI's own.Special Agents Robert Wright(PH) and John Vincent,(PH) breaking ranks.ROBERT WRIGHT, FBIAGENTYou can't know the things I know and not go public.BRIAN ROSS(Voice Over) Finally telling the story they say the FBI has tried to keep secret from Congress and the Americanpublic.ROBERT WRIGHTSeptember 11th is a direct result of the incompetence of the FBI's International Terrorism Unit. No doubt about

that. Absolutely no doubt about that.BRIAN ROSS(Off Camera) You're an FBI agent and you're saying that about the FBI?ROBERT WRIGHTI know that. Yes.BRIAN ROSS


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1 of 38 DOCUMENTSCopyright 2003 News World Communications, Inc.

Insight on the NewsAugust 4, 2003, Monday

SECTION: THE NATION; Pg. 27LENGTH: 2484 wordsHEADLINE: FBI Polarized by 'Wahhabi Lobby';Critics contend that the FBI's politically correct policy of embracing self-proclaimed "mainstream" Muslim groups iscompromising its counterterrorism efforts.BYLINE: By J. Michael Waller, INSIGHTBODY:

AsFBI agents in the field moved in on a dozen suspected terrorists running recruitment operations in NorthernVirginia, a senior FB I official appeared June 26 before a Senate Homeland Security panel and avoided testifying aboutwhat senators had called him to discuss. The issues were sponsorship of pro-terrorist ideology, extremist political actionand terrorist recruitment financed from Saudi Arabia, supposedly a U.S. ally.Well into the war on terrorism, the FBI is a house divided. On one side, agents are wrapping up terrorist-supportnetworks coast to coast that include radicalized American Muslims bent on unleashing a murderous jihad against theirown country. On the other side, in Washington, a culture of political correctness seems to have settled in the bureau'supper management, which some insiders describe as a Clintonlike pandering to the latest favored victim group.Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, a favorite self-proclaimed victim has been anaggressive band of Washington-based groups that purport to represent the nation's Muslims andhyphenated Arabs. Thatconstituency is known as the "Wahhabi lobby" for many of its members' alleged ties to Saudi Arabia, whose statereligion is considered by many to be an extremist and violent Wahhabi sect of Islam [see '"Wahhabi Lobby' Takes theOffensive," Aug. 5, 2002].Sources say the FBI has silenced a senior counterterrorism agent, Robert Wright of the Chicago field office, forexposing how senior figures in the bureau blocked investigations of al-Qaeda terror networks inside the United Statesprior to Sept. 11, and for complaining that a Muslim special agent, Gamel Abdel-Hafiz, refused to wear a wire whenquestioning terror suspects, allegedly saying, "AMuslim doesn't record another Muslim." Wright's FBI colleague, JohnVincent, says he also was called off pre-9/11 cases, and has been speaking hi Wright's stead. Wright is receiving legalcounsel from David Schippers, the Chicago attorney who led the House commission to impeach president Bill Clinton[see picture profile, Jan. 1, 2001]. Schippers tells Insight that the Wright case is symptomatic of out-of-control politicalcorrectness at the FBI.Meanwhile, senior administration officials tell Insight that FBI Director Robert Mueller was under orders from anunnamed senior White House campaign strategist to appease Muslim and Arab-American groups that have beencomplaining noisily that federal counterterrorism efforts are impinging on their civil rights. Mueller was widelycriticized both inside the bureau and out for addressing the June 2002 national convention of the American MuslimCouncil [AMC]. An FBI spokesman defended Mueller's appearance on grounds that the AMC w as one of the most

"mainstream" organizations in Washington. This proved especially embarrassing to the director when, at the very timeof the Mueller speech, AMC spokesman Eric Vickers appeared on Fox News and MSNBC and refused, underquestioning, to denounce by name terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and al-Qaeda.


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26 of 38 DOCUMENTSCopyright 2002 National Public Radio (R). All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may beused in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript may not be reproduced in whole or inpart without prior written permission. For further information, please contact NPR's Permissions Coordinator at (202)513-2000.National Public Radio (NPR)

SHOW: All Things Considered (8:00 PM ET) - NPRMay 29,2002 Wednesday

LENGTH: 1067 wordsHEADLINE: Chicago FBI agent accuses theFBI of shutting down his investigation into the financial ties betweenMiddle Eastern charity groups in the US and terrorism a year before 9/11 attacksANCHORS: JOHN YDSTIE; LIANE HANSENREPORTERS: BARBARA BRADLEYBODY:

JOHN YDSTIE, host:From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm John Ydstie.LIANE HANSEN, host:And I'm Liane Hansen.Th e FBI has announced plans to shift hundreds of agents from traditional crime fighting to counterterrorismactivities. The reorganization comes amid mounting external and internal criticism from an agent in Phoenix and, morerecently, an agent who investigated Zacarias Moussaoui. Now an FBI agent in the Chicago field office is accusing the

FBI of shutting down an investigation that could have led to some of al-Qaeda's money sources. Observers say itwould not have stopped 9/11, but it does demonstrate the conflict between tracking terrorists and making prosecutions.NPR's Barbara Bradley reports.BARBARA BRADLEY reporting:A few years ago, Robert Wright began to suspect there were connections between Islamic charities in the US andterrorist attacks abroad. So Wright, who's considered a smart, bu t bull-headed special agent in the FBI's Chicago office,began to investigate. He started with Hamas, then included other groups. For example, according to two sources, hew as running down evidence that a Middle Eastern company in the United States had funnelled money to finance the US

Embassy bombings in East Africa. Wright declined to speak on tape, but his lawyer, David Schipper, says his client wason the right path.Mr. DAVID SCHIPPER (Attorney): The key to the terrorism is money. The key to the terrorist activity is thefinancing of that activity. Bo b Wright had established exactly how it was done, and he had the knowledge and theability to stop it at its source. And that's what he wasn't permitted to do.BRADLEY: Initially, Wright claims, he was on his own. Wright is suing the FBI on another matter, and he says ina court filing that he had to buy his own computer and other equipment because the FBI wouldn't. Bu t eventually, thecase drew support from the bureau and from prosecutors.


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Rational Review Online (http://ww w.nationalreview.com ) Page 1 of 3

Guest Co m m e nt E-mail AuthorSend to a FriendOnNRO . . . Print Version

M ay 2 1 , 2 0 0 3 , 8:45 a.m.Trails Lead to SaudisA Virginia terror probe continues.By Matthew Epstein

I n March 2002, Federal terrorism investigators descended upon a group ofSaudi-backed executives operating out of northern Virginia. The governmenthauled away truckloads of files and computer hard drives from the "SAARNetwork," a web of dozens of related companies w ith interlocking officers,directors, and corporate headquarters.The Treasury Department suspected the group was laundering m oney for alQaeda and other terrorist organizations.Now over a year after the raids, many are asking whether the JusticeDepartment will hand down indictments or clear the targets' names. While thegovernment has revealed very little about the lengthy probe, documentsrecently m ade pub lic in terrorism trials across the nation shed new light on thesubjects of this ongoing terrorism investigation.At the center is SAAR Executive Yaqub M irza. Mirza has been publicly linkedto the alleged financing of the Palestinian Islam ic Jihad through hisorganizations In ternational Institute of Islamic Thought and Safa Trust. He wasalso a director o f Ptech, the Boston-based software company raided by aterrorism task force last year for its connections w ith designated al Qaedafinancier Yasin Kadi. M irza has denied wrongdoing.In light of the new docum ents, investigators are revisiting the financialactivities of two SAAR affiliated Islamic charities, the International IslamicRelief Organization (IIRO), and its sister organ ization Sana-Bell, Inc.IIRO, SANA-BELL & THE GOLDEN CHAINRed flags have been raised by the fact that Sana-Bell's Washington, D.C.branch was founded by two known al Qaeda financiers, Saleh Kamel andIbrahim Afandi. Yaqub M irza is also listed as a founding trustee.Kamel and Afandi are members of the Golden Chain, a group of wealthy Gulfpatrons that donated millions of dollars to Osama bin Laden. Former al Qaedaoperatives have exp lained ho w Golden Chain financiers would donate fundsearmarked for bin Laden by w ay of the Saudi evangelical charity the Mus limWorld League. Both Sana-Bell and IIRO are operational arms of the MuslimWorld League.The G olden Chain was established at the time of al Qaeda's formation in 1988;

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