9/11 Funds Traced to Pakistan Accounts

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=716&e=3&u=/ap/20030801/ap_on_re_mi_ea/attacks_intelligence

WASHINGTON - Investigators have traced the funding for the Sept. 11 attacks to al-Qaida accounts in Pakistan, a top FBI (news - web sites) counterterrorism official told a Senate panel Thursday. Officials did little to clarify the Saudi role in the funding.

John S. Pistole, deputy assistant director of the FBI's counterterrorism division, said that investigators have "traced the origin of the funding of 9/11 back to financial accounts in Pakistan, where high-ranking and well-known al-Qaida operatives played a major role in moving the money forward, eventually into the hands of the hijackers located in the U.S."

Pistole did not specify in his testimony to the Senate Governmental Affairs committee (news - web sites) how those accounts in Pakistan were funded.

The FBI has estimated the Sept. 11 attacks cost between $175,000 and $250,000. That money, which paid for flight training, travel and other expenses, flowed to the hijackers through associates in Germany and the United Arab Emirates. Those associates reported to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who managed much of the planning for the attacks from Pakistan, U.S. officials said.

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[pretzel4gore]

1. gotta bridge in brooklyn....

and i'll throw in some fresh bush shit...... better deal then them liars give you (just bush shit).

[SpiralHawk]

2. Our trusted allies

A coalition of the corrupt.

[dansolo]

13. The axis of evil

I've been saying for a long time, the real axis of evil is Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Kuwait.

[NNN0LHI]

3. That brings Saudi Arabia and Pakistan into 9/11 so far. There are others

I feel it in my bones.

Don

[indictrichardperle]

4. it took them nearly two years to come to this conclusion ?

:eyes:

Now how about the stock market shorts placed on 9/10 ? That story seems to have "disappeared" :eyes:

[AntiCoup2K4]

37. Ask yourself "Who benefits??"

Who benefits the most from a PNAC invasion, which eventually controls the entire Arab Middle East?

The oil corporations? Yeah, that's one answer.....

[paulthompson]

5. Finally .. Pakistan!

Some people may say this is BS, a diversion from Saudi Arabia, but this is the first halfway honest thing the Bush Administration has said about 9/11. In my extensive research for the 9/11 Timeline, Pakistan has kept coming up over and over again.

Check out this article I've written for the full scoop on the 9/11 money trail leading back to Pakistan:

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/essaysaeed.html

I would be very amazed if they get any more specific than "associates reporting to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed," because the number one candidate would be Saeed Sheikh, killer of reporter Daniel Pearl. And Saeed Sheikh is clearly an agent of Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI. His close connection to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (for instance, he took part in the Pearl killing under Mohammed's orders) make Mohammed's connection to the ISI more obvious as well. See this essay for more on KSM's ties to the ISI, especially near the end:

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/essayksmcapture.html

The conclusion is inescapable: the ISI was much more the masterminds of 9/11 than bin Laden ever was. That in turn raises very uncomfortable questions, because the ISI has been extremely close to the CIA and other parts of the US gvmt. The head of the ISI, Mahmood Ahmed, was even meeting with some US senators in Washington at the moment the 9/11 attacks began. The Wall Street Journal and others later reported that Mahmood Ahmed ordered Saeed Sheikh to give $100,000 to hijacker Mohammed Atta.

The Pakistan money link also doesn't get Saudi Arabia off the hook, either. At the time of 9/11, there were three governments that recognized the Taliban in Afghanistan: Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates. Links between these four governments were very close. For instance, the Asia Times has reported that ISI head Mahmood Ahmed had a secret meeting with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah in the summer before 9/11 to discuss bin Laden, and they had another secret meeting a few days after 9/11.

All three countries were closely tied in to the whole BCCI banking scandal, and all kinds of other scandals. For instance, there appears to be a massive drug running and illegal weapons running scheme involving elements from all four countries, and with ties to the Russian mafia. None of the players involved in that have been sent to prison or have even been brought up on charges anywhere.

So this Pakistan stuff doesn't clear the Saudis - it just makes things worse for them, since their ties to the ISI are deep. For instance, the Saudis basically bankrolled the Taliban for years, funnelling the money through the ISI.

EDITED BY ADMIN FOR COPYRIGHT REASONS

[KoKo]

9. Yes, agree Pakistan was involved....along with Saudi's and others

that was a nice read your post. Thanks.

[paulthompson]

10. More links

Here are some more links for anyone interested in learning more about the Pakistani connection to 9/11. Little facts slip out here and there, but there hasn't been a single article in the mainstream so far to consider the overall idea seriously, since Pakistan is a close US ally and also has nuclear weapons. I don't think even Bush would be insane enough to attack Pakistan!

Interestingly, Pakistan's role in 9/11 can be traced to at least July, 1999. That month, an FBI informant named Randy Glass recorded an ISI agent who pointed to the World Trade Center and said, "Those towers are coming down." This agent said this on two other occasions, and the informant warned US Senators and others about this BEFORE 9/11, but the warning was ignored. This informant testified before the Congressional inquiry that just released their report, but clearly his testimony has fallen into the top secret, classified sections.

But Bob Graham, as a member of that commission, must have seen it, which is probably why he has been claiming that there was more than one foreign government with direct involvement in 9/11 (in fact, Graham was even given the Randy Glass warning BEFORE 9/11!).

Here's a page about the Randy Glass case:

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/randyglass.html

Here's more on the ISI and 9/11:

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/AAisidrugs.html

And more on the Saudis:

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/AAsaudi.html

[newyawker99]

20. paulthompson

Per DU copyright rules
please post only 4
paragraphs from the
news source.

Thank you.

NYer99
DU Moderator

[paulthompson]

21. Hello moderator!

This keeps happening to me with DU moderators. For one, I posted zero copied paragraphs - those were my own comments I just wrote. Secondly, the links are all to things I myself have written from my 9/11 Timeline website. So there are no copyright issues there, if I had been quoting.

Please look more carefully in the future before you chastise someone for violating DU rules.

[varun]

32. you hit it on the nail, Paulthompson

the lies and deception is sickening


....Further evidence that the Bush Administration is manipulating the public through the war on terror can be seen in how Mohammed's arrest has been reported. Obviously it makes sense that news of the arrest should have been delayed to give investigators time to follow leads and capture others. The raid, taking place in the middle of the night with no loud shoot-out, was an ideal situation to keep secret. But it became public shortly after Bush first heard about it. US officials blamed Pakistan for releasing the news right away. ...

[paulthompson]

38. Speak of the devil...

Funny you mention the arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, because that stinks to high heaven so badly that I wrote a big essay about it:

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/essayksmcapture.html

And after I finished that, the ISI held a bizarre press conference that only helped confirm the whole arrest was bogus:

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20030311_109.html

But of course, even though virtually every detail of the arrest was laughable, it soon became accepted fact by the unthinking media.

I don't know if Mohammed is alive, dead, captured earlier, or what. But the false arrest to me shows how the ISI and the US continue to play shenanigans together for their mutual benefit. There's way more going on here than meets the eye.

[PaDUer]

36. POPS involvment

thus sonny boy acting as puppet..the "game"/"blackmail" continued on from # 41 time..same actors running the show..election big time plotted/paid off...US>bankrupt>"owned" by those countries..

[Nlighten1]

6. Surprise?

All those terrorist training camps in Pakistan might be a good place to take the war on terror.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[hippiechick]

7. Anyone remember the sheik's wife ?

It was a sheik, right ? - or was it a diplomat - whose wife was traced last year as giving 'financial gifts' to some of the eventual hijackers ? (Sorry my details are fuzzy - this fell off the radar SO fast ...)

Is there a connection ?



:hippie:

[teryang]

17. She was the ambassador's wife

And they are family to the Saudi MOD, as I recall.

[Malikshah]

8. Well, duh...:)

OK--it's not a "duh" situation totally but...

Let's answer these questions:
When and how did Musharraf come to power?
Why was he about to be fired prior to his military coup?
What and where is the Durand line?
Are national borders natural or artificial (i.e. legal entities)?
Where were most of the Taliban trained?

And the ultimate question...

Why in the bluebottlebooglegblazing Hell did we just give Pakistan
3 billion dollars....? (!!!)

Hmmm--it looks as if it would have been an "embarassment" issue after all--just not for the Saudis as much....

[NNN0LHI]

12. General Pervez Musharraf appears to be a long time CIA asset

http://www.pakistan-facts.com/staticpages/index.php/20021121101525217

The Strange Case of Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll: General Pervez Musharraf

<snip>1966: Musharraf most likely volunteered for a transfer to a formation known then as the 19th Baluch Regiment. In those days this formation comprised the core of the Pakistan Army’s irregular warfare unit, the Special Services Group (SSG). It is here that he learns how to parachute; the training was done at Cherat in NWFP. It is in this period that Musharraf first came into contact with Americans in the CIA. Among those he probably met here are Robert Buckley, Chuck Lord, and Robert Dunn. It is alleged that the Pakistan army patronized Sheikh Mubarak Ali Shah Gilani, a radical Islamist preacher to setup the `Climbers Club of Pakistan ’. Some of this club’s facilities were used to train SSG people in mountain climbing. If this were true then Pervez Musharraf would most probably have come into contact with Sheikh Gilani at this time. It is estimated that Pervez Musharraf served in the SSG for approximately 7 years. It may also be noted that Shiekh Gilani is seen as a sort of father figure to many Pakistani terrorists presently active in the Kashmir region.

<snip>Musharraf became closely involved in the job of preparing the `Mujaheddin' for the Anti-Soviet Jihad in Afghanistan. In this effort he worked closely with Mahmud Ali Durrani, Mohammed Aziz Khan, and officers of the CIA. At the Pakistani end the process involved identifying madrassahs for indoctrination, military training, and planning the logistics of the covert war. It is in this period that the Binori Madrassa (Karachi), the Darul Uloom Haqqania (Akora Khattak), and the Jamiya Ashrafiya (Lahore) began their meteoric rise. It is during this time that Musharraf came into contact with the Harakat ul Mujaheedin (HuM). The HuM developed as nodal body in the Afghan Jihad. There are also reports of contact with narcotics smugglers.

<snip>On the cards at the summit is a proposal to install surveillance equipment on the LoC with a scheme for cooperative monitoring. This oddly enough appears very similar to an American proposal that first made its appearance during Dr. Robert M. Gates’ (Dy. NSA to President George W. Bush) visit to the region in 1991. Robert M. Gates was in the CIA during the Afghan War and later went to head the CIA.

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[paulthompson]

14. Interesting about Gilani!

I take it he's the same chap mentioned in the below timeline entry. Not a lot of people would believe that even now there are a series of rural compounds strewn across the US inhabited by radical Muslims known to have taken part in terrorist activities, and that neither the media nor the US gvmt seems very interested in this. But that appears to be the case. Gilani is behind these compounds, and many other things.

It's because of things like this the ties between the ISI and the CIA are such a dangerously hot topic. Daniel Pearl was killed for trying to investigate the Gilani story further (amongst other things), and no one appears to have had the guts to touch it since.


January 6, 2002: The Boston Globe reports that shoe bomber Richard Reid (see December 22, 2001 (B)) may have had ties with an obscure Pakistani group called Al-Fuqra. Reid apparently visited the Lahore, Pakistan home of Ali Gilani, the leader of Al-Fuqra. (Boston Globe, 1/6/02) Reporter Daniel Pearl reads the Globe article, and decides to investigate (see also December 24, 2001-January 23, 2002). (Vanity Fair, 8/02) Pearl believes he is on his way to interview Gilani when he is kidnapped (see January 23, 2002). (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 3/3/02) A 1995 State Department report said Al-Fuqra's main goal is "purifying Islam through violence." (Vanity Fair, 8/02) Intelligence experts say it is a splinter group of Jaish-e-Mohammad, and has ties to al-Qaeda. (UPI, 1/29/02) Al-Fuqra claims close ties with the Muslims of the Americas, a US tax-exempt group claiming about 3,000 members living in rural compounds in 19 states, the Caribbean and Europe. Members of Al-Fuqra are suspected of at least 13 fire bombings and 17 murders, as well as theft and credit-card fraud. Gilani had links to people involved in the 1993 WTC bombing, and he fled the US after the bombing. Gilani admits he works with the ISI and lives freely in Pakistan. (Boston Globe, 1/6/02, The News, 2/15/02, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 3/3/02, Vanity Fair, 8/02) Saeed Sheikh "has long had close contacts" with the group, and praises Gilani for his "unexplained services to Pakistan and Islam." (The News, 2/18/02, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 3/3/02) There has been surprisingly little media coverage of Al-Fuqra, given their US presence and al-Qaeda connection (see also (Knight Ridder, 12/25/01, New York Times, 1/3/02, New York Post, 2/10/02, Rocky Mountain News, 2/12/02)).

[PaDUer]

35. Blackmail?

eom

[pinniped]

15. BuShit has finally found WMD!

Question is, what is W gonna do about it?

[paulthompson]

16. bump

This is the original thread

[Malikshah]

18. OK Folks HEADS UP!!

I know this is a bump--but damn-- why aren't folks connecting the dots....

Is there just so much anti-Saudi feeling out there that it doesn't even occur to folks that maybe, just maybe a country that we just gave 3billion to might have something to do w/ 9/11???

[catzies]

19. Link to good thread in GD forum...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=112453&mesg_id=112453

:thumbsup:

[Chesapeake]

22. saudis and pakis off limits

Not on the NEOCON agenda......yet

[paulthompson]

23. Times of India makes the right connections

A nice follow up story today in India's most respected newspaper:

9/11 funding traced to Pakistan

John S Pistole, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counter-terrorism division, however, did not specify how those accounts in Pakistan were funded, or the role of Pakistani elements. The Times of India first reported on October 10, 2001 that India told the US that some $100,000 had been wired to the leader of the hijackers, Mahmud Atta, by British-born terrorist Ahmad Saeed Umar Sheikh.

Indian authorities also told the US that the trail led back from Sheikh to the then chief of ISI, Lt Gen Mahmud Ahmad who was subsequently forced to retire by Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf. The FBI had been provided with the details, including Sheikh’s mobile numbers. But Pistole’s testimony is silent on these issues. The FBI has estimated the September 11 attacks cost between $175,000 and $250,000. That money — which paid for flight training, travel and other expenses — flowed to the hijackers through associates in Germany and the United Arab Emirates.


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=107432

Of course India is horribly biased about Pakistan, but it's still nice to see they're not forgetting the true funding channels behind 9/11. This information has plenty of corroboration from outside India.

[TacticalPeek]

24. It is almost certain US helicoptered dark hat ISI

from Tora Bora vicinity back to Pakistan.

It is likely US helicoptered some al Queda similarly.

google tora bora etc.

[proud patriot]

25. Mohamed atta chummy with Assa former Head of the ISI

Assa of ISI meeting in D.C. with officials on Sept 10th 2001 .

if the media is starting to dig where we have dug, well
it is indeed dark , but we must bring light and truth
to secure ourselves . I sure hope they keep at it .

CIA assets my ass ....

[htuttle]

31. Hey, that reminds me of a song!

http://www.delcanton.com/cds/kaneandsalem.asp

Buddy, Buddy
Ahmed is buddy-buddy with George Tenet,
He's buddy-buddy with Mohammed Atta

Ahmed is buddy-buddy with George Tenet,
He's buddy-buddy with Mohammed Atta

Ahmed is buddy-buddy with George Tenet,
He's buddy-buddy with Mohammed Atta

Ahmed is buddy-buddy with George Tenet,
He's buddy-buddy with Mohammed Atta


At 8:28 A.M. Flight 11 makes an unplanned 100 degree turn to the south
At 9:04 our commander & chief is told "A second plane has hit, America is under attack."
He is in an elementary school and continues to read about goats for the next 20 minutes or so
meanwhile
Secret Service whisk Dick Cheney into an underground presidential bunker.

(snip)
Chairman of (Congressional) Intelligence Committees are having breakfast with Mahmoud Ahmed, head of the Pakistani ISI who had authorized a $100,000 wire transfer to Mohammed Atta, the alleged ringleader of the 9-11 attacks

There must have been a military order...
There must have been a military order...

(lots more in the song...)

http://www.delcanton.com/Assets/music/kaneandsalem/buddybuddy1013.mp3

[proud patriot]

33. oops I got the name wrong ..It's Ahmed not assa

yeah that's the song I was thinking of when I posted .

[DrBB]

34. Assa was here on 9/10/01, as you say, and there was a payment

...of some 100s of thousands of dolllars to him from the US, at that time. Ain't that interestin? What a nifty little circle.

[jamesinca]

26. Ok, it is simple.

The Suaudis raised the money, sent it to Pakistan. It was then taken out of Pakistani banks and put into the hand os the hijackers. This helps cover the money trail a little bit. Most of the hijackers were Saudi and when the al-Queda fled Afghanastan they went to Pakistan. These two countries were all to willing to help fight the war on terrorism with us. Do you remember right about Dec of '01 there were the commercials put together by the Saudi govt. that said some thing along the lines that the Saudis were our long time friends etc..? They knew what happened, Bush blamed Iraq and those commercials quite running here.

These new facts that have come to light about the Pakistanis and the money make me think these few things.
1) the U.S. was fooled by Pakistan. I wonder if the U.S. gave them money to aid in the fight against terrorism? Pakistan was in it for the money and they took the biggest fool of them all, GW Bush.
2)Pakistan and Saudi Arabia really are not our allies, they are just playing us for the fools we are.
3) The last thing I think it could be is there is really a big, deep, massive, lie that is beyond comprehension even by those that are in the middle of it.

[paulthompson]

27. Close

I have a slightly different take. The Saudis gave lots of money to al-Qaeda generally, but probably not the money for 9/11 per se. Keep in mind that al-Qaeda spends millions a year on terrorism, and the 9/11 operation only cost a couple hundred thousands dollars. Most of those millions came from rich Saudis every year or else bin Laden's personal fortune would have been all spent long before 9/11.

Some Saudi money may have gone to the two San Diego hijackers (Alhazmi and Almihdhar) through an obscure trail involving two guys named al-Bayoumi and Basnan who are in the news a lot now. For instance:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/02/national/02SAUD.html

But the rest appears to have actually come from money the ISI and Pakistani mafia figures who raised it by kidnapping rich Indians in India. The advantage of doing it this way was that the money was virtually untracable. Just a wad of cash arising from the murky world of organized crime. Then Saeed Sheikh, who was both an ISI agent and al-Qaeda agent (the two groups working closely together anyways) repeatedly wired the money to Mohamed Atta from the United Arab Emirates, where money laundering and lax finances are openly tolerated. Here are some links to that:

http://www.unansweredquestions.net/timeline/2002/indiatoday021402.html

Shorter version, but Western source:

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/2002/independent012402.html

You can see why the FBI doesn't go into any details on exactly where the money came from in Pakistan, because it opens up an amazing can of worms.

I think your point 3 is most likely. Namely, that elements in the US gvmt allowed 9/11 to happen on purpose and that the job was essentially "farmed out" to the ISI for a variety of reasons and convergence of interests, including plausible deniability. Little known fact: a similar thing happened under Nixon with the Iranian intelligence agency, Savak. Savak performed some of Nixon's more dirty dirty tricks, and in return was given a green light to assassinate opponents of the Iranian Shah in the US. About 300 such opponents were killed during the Nixon era compared to virtually none before and after.

[cmd]

28. Thank you, paulthompson

I appreciate your easy to read, well thought our comments. I'll be watching for your posts. cmd

[Malikshah]

30. I concur

The Saudi Govt most definitely needs to clean house -- but the issue is amazingly complex. The simplistic attacks against them by the public and the politicos do not even begin to address the difficulty of the situation.

Pakistan's role is much more simple, and easy to deal with--and yet...we've got it wrong again-- we spend all our time spewing bile at the Saudis while giving the Pakistan govt 3 billion...

Not defending the Saudis here-- as someone who's got to teach about the Saudis, their historical links to Wahhabism, and the gulf states in general--it's clear that they royal govt has been living on borrowed time--most Arabs in the region tend to view Gulf Arabs w/ disdain--due mainly to the fact that many Gulf Arabs, in their view, have invested $ from oil outside of the region, and when treat others in the region rather rudely.

In any case-- Pakistan's role needs to be studied more closely

[varun]

29. exactly

Musharraf has fooled GWB (whats new)...so have Saudis..

What did we expect from *?