Security Risk? (Chertoff has links to 9-11 financiers-Homeland Sec)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.universitystar.com/main/article.php?aid=1236

Federal Appeals Court Judge Michael Chertoff’s ties to the financiers of the Sept. 11 attacks may prevent his confirmation as Homeland Security Chief.

According to a June 20, 2000 article in the The Record of Bergen County, New Jersey, Chertoff defended accused terrorist financier Dr. Magdy Elamir.

Elamir’s HMO was sued by the State of New Jersey to recoup $16.7 million in losses. At least $5.7 million went “to unknown parties... by means of wire transfers to bank accounts where the beneficial owner of the account is unknown,” according to the article.

Foreign intelligence reports given to then chairman of the House International Relations Committee Ben Gilman,
R-New York, in 1998 accused Magdy Elamir of having “had financial ties with Osama bin Laden for years,” according to an Aug. 2, 2002 Dateline NBC broadcast.

[ixion]

1. oh, I thought that was a prerequisite to working for BushCo

Because Chimpy has financial ties to not only the bin Laden family, but he House of Saud as well.

[WCGreen]

2. All right then...

Maybe he knows where OBL really is?

Or maybe no one really cares anymore about anything the Bush people do or say......

Just hope a few Dem's have the balls to bring this up in committee

[seemslikeadream]

3. Michael Chertoff and the sabotage of the Ptech investigation

from

Minstrel Boy
Michael Chertoff and the sabotage of the Ptech investigation

Posted to my blog here.

Michael Chertoff and the sabotage of the Ptech investigation

Remember Ptech? That's the Boston software firm financed by Saudi businessman Yassin Al-Qadi, who also happens to be an al Qaeda bagman, whose clients happened to include numerous sensitive US federal branches and agencies, including the FAA, the FBI, the military and the White House.

A little background, from the mainstream, even, thanks to WBZ-TV:

Joe Bergantino, a reporter for WBZ-TV's investigative team, was torn. He could risk breaking a story based on months of work investigating a software firm linked to terrorism, or heed the government's demand to hold the story for national security reasons. In mid-June, Bergantino received a tip from a woman in New York who suspected that Ptech, a computer software company in Quincy, Mass., had ties to terrorists. Ptech specialized in developing software that manages information contained in computer networks.

Bergantino's investigation revealed that Ptech's clients included many federal governmental agencies, including the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Naval Air Command, Congress, the Department of Energy, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, NATO, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service and even the White House.

"Ptech was doing business with every federal government in defense and had access to key government data," Bergantino said.

...

Bergantino was ready to air the story by September, but the government had different plans. Federal authorities told Bergantino not to air the story because it would jeopardize their investigation and would threaten national security. According to federal authorities, documents would be shredded and people would flee if we ran the story, Bergantino said. But Bergantino claims the government's demand to hold off on the story was merely a pretext.

In October 2001, President George W. Bush signed an executive order freezing the assets of individuals linked to terrorism. According to Bergantino, the list identified Saudi Arabian businessman Yassin Al-Qadi as a key financial backer of Osama Bin Laden. As it turns out, Bergantino said, Al-Qadi also is the chief financier of Ptech. The government failed to investigate Ptech in October 2001 and didn't start it's investigation until August 2002 when WBZ-TV's investigation called attention to Ptech.

Bergatino's tipster was Indira Singh, who has said she recognizes the separate command and control communications system Mike Ruppert describes Dick Cheney to have been running on September 11th as having "the exact same functionality I was looking to utilize for Ptech."

Now, how does Chertoff figure in the Ptech story? It goes back to the turf war of two years ago over Operation Greenquest, "the high-profile federal task force set up to target the financiers of Al Qaeda and other international terrorist groups." The aggressive, Customs-led task force was folded into Homeland Security, sending both the FBI and its minders at the Department of Justice into a tizzy. They "demanded that the White House instead give the FBI total control over Greenquest."

Now, consider this, also from Newsweek:

The FBI-Justice move, pushed by DOJ Criminal Division chief Michael Chertoff and Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, has enraged Homeland Security officials, however. They accuse the bureau of sabotaging Greenquest investigations — by failing to turn over critical information to their agents—and trying to obscure a decade-long record of lethargy in which FBI offices failed to aggressively pursue terror-finance cases.

...

One prime example of the tension is the investigation into Ptech, the Boston-area computer software firm that had millions of dollars in sensitive government contracts with the Air Force, the Energy Department and, ironically enough, the FBI. In what turned into a minor embarrassment for the bureau, the firm’s main investors included Yasin Al-Qadi, a wealthy Saudi businessman whom the Bush administration had formally designated a terrorist financier under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Al-Qadi has vigorously denied any connection to terrorism.

The Ptech case turned into an ugly dispute last year when company whistleblowers told Greenquest agents about their own suspicions about the firm’s owners. Sources close to the case say those same whistleblowers had first approached FBI agents, but the bureau apparently did little or nothing in response. With backing from the National Security Council, Greenquest agents then mounted a full-scale investigation that culminated in a raid on the company’s office last December. After getting wind of the Greenquest probe, the FBI stepped in and unsuccessfully tried to take control of the case.

The result, sources say, has been something of a train wreck. Privately, FBI officials say Greenquest agents botched the probe and jeopardized other more promising inquiries into Al-Qadi. Greenquest agents dismiss the charges and say the problem is that the bureau was slow to respond to legitimate allegations that an outside contractor with terrorist ties may have infiltrated government computers.

(And still, there are no charges or indictments against Al-Qadi or Ptech.)

The turf war was won on May 13, 2003, when John Ashcroft and Tom Ridge signed a "Memorandum of Agreement between the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, giving the FBI "unprecedented unilateral control of all terrorist-financing investigations and operations."

Several seasoned government agents fear for the nation’s security should the FBI be tackling most terrorism cases, as their ineptitude in preventing terrorism has been established time and time again. Yet, the memorandum between Ashcroft and Ridge places the FBI in an incredibly powerful position over Homeland Security. According to the memorandum, "all appropriate DHS leads relating to money laundering and financial crimes will be checked with the FBI."

Well, no reason to fear now, now that Michael Chertoff is heading up Homeland Security. Right?

more
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2951935

[seemslikeadream]

4. Indira Singh/PTech deep moles in FAA help accomplish 9/11! WTF??

from

buycitgo
Indira Singh/PTech deep moles in FAA help accomplish 9/11! WTF??


I just heard about this story on the radio the other night, and it's mindboggling, at least as much from the standpoint that it's probably WORSE than the Sible Edmonds tale, AND that it's not being discussed much here

I can't believe I haven't seen it discussed here, or am I just going senile?

LOOK at this, from two friking years ago, almost!

Mr. JOE BERGANTINO (Reporter, WBZ-TV): The worst-case scenario is that this is a situation where this was planned for a very long time to establish a company in this country and in the computer software business that would target federal agencies and gain access to key government data to essentially help terrorists launch another attack.

ARNOLD: Part of what concerns experts is the nature of Ptech's software. They say it's used to broadly assess strengths and weaknesses across organizations.

Ms. INDIRA SINGH (Risk Management and Computer Systems Consultant): The Ptech consultants and employees come into contact with the most sensitive information in an organization.

ARNOLD: Indira Singh was one of the first people to raise alarm about Ptech. She's a risk management and computer systems consultant. Singh was working with a major Wall Street bank and was thinking of using Ptech's software and consulting services. While checking on the company, she talked to an ex-employee. She says that person told her that some people at Ptech were concerned that one of its central investors was Yasin al-Qadi, who the FBI suspects of financing terrorist groups. Singh says she was told that at least several other employees and executives had ties to organizations suspected by the US government of funding terrorism. Singh says given that Ptech was doing work for the FBI, the Air Force, Navy and a host of other agencies, she became very concerned.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2002/021208-secu...

there's is a TON of material on this

it involves, again FBI malfeasance/collusion, ties to Saudi financing of terrorism........you know, the USUAL. but I have NEVER heard this story, though I'm sure it's been discussed here....I just missed it, I guess

Daniel Hopsicker, who's one of those who blew the lid on that plane out of Florida, and the CIA connections to Atta's flight school (also ignored by mainstream hoes), has some interesting material on the whistleblower Singh, who, incidentally, lives near the WTC, helped during the week after, and is now ILL from breathing that air Christie Whitman assured all was perfectly safe. Now that I think of it, I HEARD her on the radio.....Sirius Left
http://www.madcowprod.com/index45.html

please follow up on this, or put some earlier threads up on this

thx


more
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2203166

[Hard Attack]

5. Excellent Report ! - PTech had that back door into US Govt Netowrks

Excellent Report ! - PTech had that back door into US Govt Netowrks if I remember correctly.

[DulceDecorum]

8. In other news....

The scheme unfolded while Cummings worked from mid-1999 through August 2000 as a help-desk worker at Teledata Communications Inc., a Long Island computer software company that provides banks with computerized access to credit information databases.

The government said Cummings agreed to sell to an unidentified co-conspirator the passwords and codes for downloading consumer credit reports. Tens of thousands of credit reports were stolen using passwords from companies, prosecutors said.

According to court documents, Cummings was paid roughly $30 for each stolen report. The information was passed on to at least 20 individuals who then set out to make money from the information, feeding a network of criminals nationwide.
http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/business/technology/10619326.htm

AN UNIDENTIFIED CO-CONSPIRATOR ....

[seemslikeadream]

10. Sibel Edmonds: Turkey, drugs and 9/11

from
Minstrel Boy
Sibel Edmonds: Turkey, drugs and 9/11

Interesting analysis by John Stanton of the link of international drug trafficking to the 9/11 conspiracy, which pays attention to the Turkish link alluded to by Sibel Edmonds. (Remember, while an FBI translator, she was courted by a Turkish spy ring which appears to have operated with the agency's sanction.)

Here's a memorable quote: "50 billion dollars worth of foreign debt is nothing, it is two lorry loads of heroin."

Turkey, Drugs, Faustian Alliances & Sibel Edmonds
by John Stanton
www.dissidentvoice.org
June 29, 2004


Taking Turkey as the focal point and with a start date of 1998, it is easy to speculate why Sibel Edmonds indicated that there was a convergence of US and foreign counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism and US national security and economic interests all of which were too preoccupied to surface critical information warning Americans of the attacks of September 11, 2001. After all, who would have believed drug runners operating in Central Asia? And besides, President Clinton was promoting Turkey, one of the world’s top drug transit points, as a model for Muslim-Western cooperation and a country necessary to reshape the Middle East.

The FBI’s Office of International Operations, in conjunction with the CIA and the US State Department counter-narcotics section, the United Kingdom’s MI6, Israel’s Mossad, Pakistan’s ISI, the US DEA, Turkey’s MIT, and the governments and intelligence agencies of dozens of nations, were in one way or another involved in the illicit drug trade either trying to stop it or benefit from it. What can be surmised from the public record is that from 1998 to September 10, 2001, the War on Drugs kept bumping into the nascent War on Terror and new directions in US foreign policy.

...

In 1998, the US Department of State (DOS) was finally forced to admit that Turkey was a major refining and transit point for the flow of heroin from Southwest Asia to Western Europe, with small quantities of the stuff finding its way to the streets of the USA. In that same year, Kendal Nezan, writing for Le Monde Diplomatique, reported that MIT, and the Turkish National Police force were actively supporting the trade in illicit drugs not only for fun and profit, but out of desperation.

"After the Gulf War in 1991, Turkey found itself deprived of the all-important Iraqi market and, since it lacked significant oil reserves of its own, it decided to make up for the loss by turning more massively to drugs. The trafficking increased in intensity with the arrival of the hawks in power, after the death in suspicious circumstances of President Turgut Özal in April 1993. According to the minister of interior, the war in Kurdistan had cost the Turkish exchequer upwards of $12.5 billion. According to the daily Hürriyet, Turkey’s heroin trafficking brought in $25 billion in 1995 and $37.5 billion in 1996...Only criminal networks working in close cooperation with the police and the army could possibly organize trafficking on such a scale. Drug barons have stated publicly, on Turkish television and in the West, that they have been working under the protection of the Turkish government and to its financial benefit. The traffickers themselves travel on diplomatic passports... the drugs are even transported by military helicopter from the Iranian border."
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/June04/Stanton0629.htm


more
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1894035

[TacticalPeek]

6. Another take, same drift.

Did Bush's New Homeland Chief
Shield Terror Ring in New Jersey?


January 12, 2005 - Venice, FL

Michael Chertoff, appointed by President Bush to head the Homeland Security Department, may have shielded from criminal prosecution a former client suspected by law enforcement of having funneled millions of dollars directly to Osama Bin Laden while in charge of the U.S. Government’s 9.11 investigation.

Egyptian-born Dr. Magdy el-Amir, a prominent New Jersey neurologist, was at the center of terrorist intrigue in Jersey City.

* El-Amir gave money to a conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman.

* His brother in Cairo was caught on tape attempting to buy weapons from an American undercover agent for Islamic militant groups.

more
http://www.madcowprod.com/01122004.html

[fooj]

7. Things are starting to get interesting...

I can feel the wind shifting direction...

[DeepModem Mom]

9. kick

[JohnOneillsMemory]

11. Terrorism, drugs, money laundering. All paths lead to White House+CIA.

It's like a B-movie where the only help in town is the sheriff but...he's the head of the gang.

Sibel Edmunds is only one of many outraged whistleblowers who run into The Sheriff's buzzsaw.

Even liberals and Democrats can't deal with this and some turn on each other with accusations of being 'knee-jerk marxists' or 'more-lefty-than-thou.'

I'm still convinced that the Big Lie is the only one to expose that integrates all the little lies that people can accept emotionally.

Coherent narratives are digestable.

[clem_c_rock]

12. Yeah - but despite all this - cave dwellers perpetrated 911

and anyone who says otherwise is a conspiracy freak.

[Massachusetts]

13. IMPEACH BU$H!

[jazzjunkysue]

14. Oh, how much do I love this?!!

[BeFree]

15. That's good...

It makes me sick... The guy appointed to be HS Chief is a strange bedfellow of a bedfellow of hijackers?

Unbelievable the balls it takes to appoint someone like that to a superior position in my governemnt.

But what really makes me sick is that I get to read about on a board such as this... it should have been seen on AP, Rueters, WP, NYTimes first. The M$M is so shallow, so weak, so slacking, that they couldn't dig up this little piece of info own their own?

Thank gawd for DU.

[54anickel]

16. And again, where's the MSM on this? n/t