Al Qaeda connection prompts company to tighten protocols(Australia)

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Australian communications supplier Codan says it has tightened its customer protocols after it unwittingly supplied equipment to Al Qaeda. The ABC's AM program has documents showing an Al Qaeda operative, by the name of Mohamedou Slahi, ordered radio communications equipment from the Adelaide-based company in 2001. While Codan will not confirm Slahi was a customer, the company says it does try to ensure its equipment does not fall into the wrong hands. One of Australia's leading intelligence experts says it is difficult and impractical for companies to carry out their own thorough investigations.

Slahi is suspected to have been deeply involved in the September 11 attacks.It has also been reported that Slahi ran an Internet cafe in Mauritania and used a number of aliases, operating under the trading name BITS. It has been claimed that through BITS he sourced radio communications equipment that could be used in remote areas. Codan manufactures and supplies such equipment. It advertises the effectiveness of its equipment in harsh climates. Documents show Slahi made a payment to Codan in May 2001 for unspecified goods and shipment was organised.

Then a detailed quote was prepared for more than $32,000 worth of equipment. It appears from the correspondence that there may have been other transactions. Codan managing director Mike Heard will not talk about specific customers, so he will not confirm whether Slahi was one of them. "Codan's policy is to never knowingly supply any product to any person or organisation we have reason to believe is engaged in terrorism or for that matter any other criminal activity," he said. "Particularly since September 11, Codan routinely checks the US Department of State and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs website lists of known terrorist organisations."

Mr Heard says Codan takes other steps to ensure its equipment is not being handed over to the wrong people. "We regularly visit the countries where we do business and make our own judgments about our dealers and customers," he said. "We attempt to build relationships, of course, particularly with our dealers and other channels, but also we attempt to work through them to end users and that allows us to make certain judgments about who they are and what they do. "We've never ever had what I would call first-hand knowledge that a customer or a potential customer was a terrorist and I guess you'll appreciate that unless we were a specialist security organisation it would be very hard for us to accurately form that view." Neil Fergus from Intelligent Risks says companies cannot be expected to carry out extensive background checks. But he says security organisations should develop stronger links with companies like Codan.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1448892.htm