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US slow to tackle illicit terror funding - Germany Reuters, 06.17.03, 1:12 PM ET ADVERTISEMENT E-Mail Alerts Topics International Relations Domestic Politics Banking Law Enforcement Enter E-Mail Address: FAQ I Privacy Policy

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By David Grassland BERLIN, June 17 (Reuters) - The United States and Britain have failed so far to block a key route for financing terror - so-called "underground banks" operated in Internet cafes, travel agents and restaurants, German officials said on Tuesday. As international experts on combating money laundering gather in Berlin this week for a conference, the officials said U.S. and British authorities lagged behind Germany, France and the Netherlands in clamping down on such underground banks. The United States made fighting terror a priority after the September 11 attacks in 2001 but regulators there and in Britain have balked at the cost of supervising their large informal money transfer markets, said the government officials, who declined to be named. U.S. authorities now realised action needed to be taken, they said. "If they dont, they will not be able to live up to this highest national priority," a senior German official said. A crackdown in continental Europe on informal money transfers via export/import companies, travel agents and other outlets, often aided by the Internet, has created a major hub in London for such transactions, the officials said. Underground banking is based on trust. Few, if any, records are kept. Outlets taking part, which often see a large number of oversees visitors or migrants passing through, form a network that moves cash without a trace. The customer pays money to one underground banker and trusts him to arrange with another that the intended recipient will receive the agreed sum.

FREEZING ACCOUNTS

***FULL-TEXT*** 1) Al Qaeda in America: The Enemy Within By Daniel Klaidman, Mark Hosenball, Michael Isikoff and Evan Thomas Newsweek Khalid Shaikh Mohammed looked more like a loser in a T shirt than a modern-day Mephistopheles. But "KSM," as he is always referred to in FBI documents, held the key to unlock the biggest mystery of the war on terror: is Al Qaeda operating inside America? THE ANSWER, ACCORDING TO KSM's confessions and the intense U.S. investigation that followed, is yes. It is not known where the authorities took KSM after he was captured, looking paunchy and pouty, in a 3 a.m. raid in Pakistan on March 1. As Al Qaeda's director of global operations, KSM was by far the most valuable prize yet captured by American intelligence and its various allies in the post-9-11 manhunt. He probably 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. Interrogation methods, usually involving sleep deprivation, have become much more refined. He probably did not tell all he knew. Qaeda chieftains are schooled in resisting interrogation, and informed sources said that at first KSM offered up nothing but evasions and disinformation. But confronted by the contents of his computer and his cell-phone records, he began speaking more truthfully. According to intelligence documents obtained by NEWSWEEK, many of the names, places and plots he revealed have checked out. After 9-11, Osama bin Laden's terror network Svas clearly here," a top U.S. law-enforcement official told NEWSWEEK. "It was organized, it was being directed by the leaders of Al Qaeda." Though rumors of sleeper cells have floated about for months, it is a startling revelation that Al Qaeda's chief of operations was directly running operatives inside the United States. Thanks to some real breakthroughs by the Feds, the Qaeda plots do not appear to have made it past the planning stage. The inside story of the war at home on Al Qaeda, reconstructed by NEWSWEEK reporters from intelligence documents and interviews with top officials, has been marked by good luck and good work. Still, no one in the intelligence community is declaring victory. RECRUITING TECHNIQUES KSM revealed an overhaul of Al Qaeda's approach to penetrating America. The 9-11 hijackers were all foreign nationals-mostly Saudis, led by an Egyptian~who infiltrated the United States by obtaining student or tourist visas. To foil the heightened security after 9-11, Al Qaeda began to rely on operatives who would be harder to detect. They recruited U.S. citizens or people with legitimate Western passports who could move freely in the United States. They used women and family members as "support personnel." And they made an effort to find African-American Muslims who would be sympathetic to Islamic extremism. Using "mosques, prisons and universities throughout the 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 have uncovered at least one KSM-run cell that could have done grave damage to the United States.

2 of 26 DOCUMENTS Copyright 2002 Chicago Tribune Company Chicago Tribune November 3, 2002 Sunday, CHICAGOLAND FINAL EDITION

SECTION: News; Pg. 1; ZONE: C LENGTH: 2665 words HEADLINE: Charity founders tied to Hamburg terror suspects BYLINE: By John Crewdson and Laurie Cohen, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune senior correspondent John Crewdson reported from Hamburg, and Tribune staff reporter Laurie Cohen reported from Chicago. Tribune staff reporters Stephen Franklin in Jiddah and Noreen Ahmed-Ullah in Chicago contributed to this report. DATELINE: HAMBURG, Germany BODY: Two wealthy Saudi founders of a Chicago-area Islamic charity accused of supporting Al Qaeda are among the owners of a German firm whose managing director is a suspected terrorist financier with ties to the Sept. 11 hijackers, according to public records and investigative sources here. The overlap between the Hamburg firm and Benevolence International Foundation surfaced during an investigation of what one source termed "the second layer" of terrorism in Hamburg, the suspected financial and logistical support of radical Islamic organizations by a handful of little-known companies that populate the fringes of the city's thriving export industry. More than a year after Sept. 11, 2001, the surface layer is well-known: Mohamed Atta, the Hamburg university graduate who headed the hijacking plot that claimed more than 3,000 lives in New York, the Washington area and Pennsylvania, and seven other former Hamburg students-some dead, some in jail, some on the run-who took part in the 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 infrastructure are encountering entities such as Triple-B Trading GmbH, a self-described import-export concern that does no apparent business 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 owners are familiar names to federal prosecutors in Chicago, who last month charged Enaam Arnaout, executive director of the Benevolence International Foundation of Palos Hills, 111., with having funneled money and other support to Al Qaeda for more than a decade. One is Shahir Abdulraouf Batterjee, the scion of a wealthy Saudi family who was an officer and director of Benevolence when it established its Palos Hills office nearly a decade ago. Another Triple-B owner, Mazin Mohammad Bahareth, a top executive of the Bahareth Organization, a Saudi construction conglomerate, was listed as the foundation's treasurer. U.S. prosecutors say they have "an archive of incriminating documents" linking Benevolence International directly to Osama bin Laden and his terrorist organization, Al Qaeda, which was responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks. According to Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, among the foundation's "wealthy sponsors from Saudi Arabia" is another Batterjee family member, Adel Abdul Jalil Batterjee, Benevolence's original president. An FBI 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 was "involved with the mujahedeen in Afghanistan" and is a personal associate

9 of 26 DOCUMENTS Copyright 2002 Deutsche Presse-Agentur Deutsche Presse-Agentur September 14, 2002, Saturday 09:40 Central European Time

SECTION: Politics LENGTH: 394 words HEADLINE: Spiegel: Syrian intelligence connection to Sept 11 terrorists DATELINE: Hamburg BODY: German investigators believe there may have been a Syrian link to the Hamburg terrorist cell behind the September 11 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 of Mohammed Atta and his fellow terrorists in Hamburg. The report, released in advance and to appear on the newsstands on Monday, said the German anti-terrorist investigation could lead to diplomatic problems with Syria. German prosecutors have searched the northern German company Tatex Trading GmbH, whose partner is a former head of Syrian intelligence, Mohammed 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 monitor the 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 terrorist group, 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 Trade Center - and was a witness at the wedding of Mounir El Motassadek, a Moroccan who has been charged in Germany with 1,316 counts of being an accomplice to murder in connection with the September 11 attacks. German investigators say a further indication that Syrian intelligence had information on the Hamburg terrorists was 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 held in 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 German government concern that it could lead to a diplomatic row with Syria which is regarded as an ally in the anti-terror coalition. A delegation of German security officials visited Damascus three weeks ago. dpa bw sc

20 of 26 DOCUMENTS Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company The New York Times September 11, 2002, Wednesday, Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section A; Page 22; Column 1; Foreign Desk LENGTH: 870 words HEADLINE: THREATS AND RESPONSES: GERMANY; Hamburg Police Raid 2 Import-Export Firms BYLINE: By STEVEN ERLANGER DATELINE: HAMBURG, Germany, Sept. 10 BODY: The police raided two export-import firms today that are owned by a Syrian-born German who is suspected of ties to 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 a criminal organization and of using the textile-trading companies to smuggle Islamic fundamentalists into Germany, the federal prosecutor, Kay Nehm, said in a statement. The four are being detained for questioning on suspicion of using false documents and laundering money to smuggle Islamic militants to Hamburg and "thereby contribute to the Holy War' of violent fundamental Islamists," the statement said, but they have not been formally arrested. The police are investigating ties between Mr. Tatari and the Hamburg cell, three of whose members died while apparently piloting the planes that hit the World Trade Center and crashed in Pennsylvania. At least three of the key members of the Hamburg cell, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Said Bahaji and Zakariya Essabar, are wanted by German authorities. Another member, Mounir el-Motassadeq, 28, has been in prison since November and was recently charged with being 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, in particular 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 "point toward organized smuggling 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 of two 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 for more than 20 years. Another Syrian-born German, Marmoun Darkazanli, a Hamburg businessman, has been accused of ties to Al Qaeda and the Hamburg cell, which was led by Mohamed Atta. Mr. Darkazanli was a prominent member of the wedding party of Mr. Bahaji, and American officials have regularly pressed the Germans to arrest him. Mr. Darkazanli professes innocence and said in a telephone interview that the police had not spoken to him in the context of the raids today.

CNN.com - 15 years for 9/11 conspirator - Feb. 20, 2003

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15 years for 9/11 conspirator HAMBURG, Germany —A German court has jailed a Moroccan man for 15 years after convicting him of aiding the September 11 suicide hijackers in the first trial anywhere of a suspected attack conspirator.

Mounir el Motassadeq, a 28-year-old electrical engineering student, was found guilty of being an accessory to more than 3,000 murders in New York and Washington and being a member of a terrorist organisation. CNN's Matthew Chance said the 15-year sentence is the maximum the court could impose under German law for being an accomplice to murder — even if those murdered are numbered in the thousands. Much of the evidence against Motassadeq was circumstantial, and he was convicted by association with other al Qaeda members and not by direct evidence, Chance said. In addition to the 3,000-plus counts of accessory to murder, he was convicted of five counts of attempted murder and bodily injury. Prosecutors alleged he provided logistical support for the Hamburg al Qaeda cell that included lead hijacker Mohamed Atta, who piloted one of the two airliners that crashed into the World Trade Center. Police blocked off the street in front of the Hamburg courthouse on Wednesday morning as dozens of journalists queued for tight security screening to enter the building. •Vi 1 Motassadeq consistently denied the charges during his 3 1/2-month trial and his lawyers were seeking an acquittal from the five-judge panel. But Judge Albrecht Mentz sided with prosecutors' argument that a complex mosaic of evidence proved the defendant was "a cog that kept the machinery going." "The accused belonged to this group since its inception," Mentz said in reading the verdict. "He knew and approved the key elements of the planned attacks." German Interior Minister Otto Schily called the verdict a success in the fight against terrorism but questioned whether it would serve as a deterrent.

http://cnn.worldnews.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&expire=-l&urlID=546044... 6/11/03

CNN.com - Profile: Mounir el Motassadeq - Feb. 19, 2003

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Profile: Mounir el Motassadeq HAMBURG, Germany -Mounir el Motassadeq was arrested in November 2001 on suspicion that he had links to Mohamed Atta, who flew one of the two planes that brought down the World Trade Center towers hi New York.

His lawyers portrayed Motassadeq as an innocent student who befriended fellow Muslims. He told a Hamburg court that he was a man of peace who studied hard and enjoyed playing football. He admitted knowing Atta and other members of the alleged al Qaeda terror cell in Hamburg believed to have led the September 11, 2001, attack on the United States but he said he did not know of their plans until he saw the events of September 11 unfold. The court rejected Motassadeq's defence and agreed with prosecutors that he was an accessory to the murder of more than 3,000 people in New York and Washington. (Full story) Judges also convicted him of being a member of an outlawed terror group and sentenced him to 15 years in prison. Motassadeq, a 28-year-old Moroccan citizen, arrived in Germany in 1993 in Muenster to learn the local language. He later moved to Hamburg, Germany's second city with 1.7 million people, including 200,000 Muslims. A member of a middle-class family, he was an electrical engineering student at Hamburg's Technical University from 1995 until his arrest at his Hamburg apartment. Between 1996 and 1998, he worked as a cleaner at Hamburg airport and had access to secure areas and 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, a medical technician. Motassadeq is one of six children. In 1999, Motassadeq married a woman from St. Petersburg, Russia, who converted to Islam and moved to Hamburg to work 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 politics at a local mosque.

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