War on Terrorism - 2064+: Re: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed & Mustafa Ahmed Al-Hawsawi
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» Jen_ - Re: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed & Mustafa Ahmed Al-Hawsawi
.WOW! - more good news - the other guy captured with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi - 9/11 money handler
from 1/7/02 post above...
U.S. Probe Of Sept. 11 Financing Wraps Up
(excerpt)
The probe has confirmed investigators' early belief that the financing of the hijackings was remarkably disciplined and well organized, officials said. It relied largely on a steady influx of money through wire transfers from foreign bank accounts tied to bin Laden associates. The central financial figure has been identified by U.S. prosecutors as Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, a fugitive who many investigators believe is al Qaeda's finance chief. Al-Hawsawi, who uses numerous aliases and is believed to have disappeared in Karachi, Pakistan, just before the attacks, allegedly transferred most of the money used to pay for the hijackers' pilot training, living expenses and airline tickets in the United States, law enforcement officials said.
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this from 3/3 MSNBC.com....
Top figure arrested with Mohammed
Al-Hawsawi handled money for Sept. 11 attacks, officials say
MSNBC AND NBC NEWS
March 3 — Senior U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials Monday identified one of the two men arrested over the weekend with al-Qaida terrorist planner Khalid Shaikh Mohammed as the chief money handler for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, saying they believed the two men could clear up many unanswered questions about the operation that killed about 3,000 people.
AUTHORITIES OFFICIALLY identified only one of the two men arrested with Mohammed: Ahmed Abdul Qadus, 42, a member of one of Pakistan’s main religious parties, Jamaat-e-Islami. Qadus had been under Pakistani surveillance after U.S. communications experts helped Pakistani authorities trace an e-mail message to him; that was what led authorities to Mohammed.
The law enforcement sources, speaking to NBC News on condition of anonymity, identified the third man late Monday as Mustafa Ahmed Al-Hawsawi, 34, a native of Saudi Arabia. The intelligence sources subsequently confirmed NBC’s report.
U.S. officials are hopeful that Mohammed and Al-Hawsawi will be able to detail how Sept. 11 was put together, answering long-standing questions about the origins of the plot: Who chose the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as targets? Who picked Sept. 11? How was it paid for?
The two men are likely to be interrogated by the same CIA officers who have been talking with other top al-Qaida operatives already captured by the United States, according to a senior U.S. official.
Their information could be cross-checked with that provided by Ramzi Binalshibh, Mohammed’s former aide, who was captured in September. Binalshibh was a part of the cell that included Mohamed Atta, chief among the Sept. 11 hijackers.
VITAL INFORMATION
Al-Hawsawi in particular could provide key operational details that could aid in defending against future attacks like those of Sept. 11.
Al-Hawsawi is described as a “supporting conspirator” in the indictment of Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 attacks, who is awaiting trial in Alexandria, Va.
In the indictment, federal prosecutors lay out a money trail involving tens of thousands of dollars that they allege can be traced back to Al-Hawsawi through bank accounts in the United Arab Emirates.
The indictment alleges that Al-Hawsawi opened bank accounts in the UAE three months before four hijacked jetliners crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. He then shipped Visa credit cards to Florida that were used by the hijackers, it says.
Beginning Sept. 6, 2001, Atta and at least two other hijackers wired five or more cash transfers ranging from $2,860 to $8,055 in “excess money” from Florida to Al-Hawsawi in the UAE, the indictment states.
All told, more than $100,000 moved through accounts in the UAE controlled by Al-Hawsawi in the days before the attacks, FBI Director Robert Mueller said last September in testimony before the Senate intelligence committee.
On Sept. 11, 2001, the day of the attacks, $16,348 of that money was deposited into Al-Hawsawi’s account with Standard Chartered Bank in Dubai in the UAE, the indictment says. Later in the day, $40,871 was prepaid to a Visa card connected to the account.
Al-Hawsawi fled the UAE for Pakistan the same day. Two days later, according to the indictment, the same Visa card was used to make six withdrawals from automated teller machines in Karachi, Pakistan.
Mueller explicitly identified Al-Hawsawi as the Sept. 11 paymaster in his Senate testimony late last year, saying Al-Hawsawi was in the United Arab Emirates “each time the hijackers were transiting” through the country on their way to the United States to carry out the attacks.
The indictment does not suggest who supplied Al-Hawsawi with the money that he allegedly controlled for the hijacking operation, but intelligence officials have said al-Qaida raised the money through credit card fraud, diamond trafficking and the sale of honey.
By MSNBC.com’s Alex Johnson and NBC News’ Jim Popkin and Robert Windrem.
....Jen
-- posted by Jen_
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