US Finds Bin Laden Links Both Offshore And On

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

09 November 2001

As part of a co-ordinated effort between US authorities and the offshore financial centres of Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the Bahamas, the assets of two organisations suspected of supplying financing for Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda group have been frozen, and raids have been carried out on businesses across the US and overseas.

The two organisations, which were the subject of long-running investigations but came under increased scrutiny in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks, have been named in reports as the Al-Barakaat financial network which operated in the US and Somalia, and the Al-Taqwa ('Fear of God') network, which had companies based in Switzerland, the Bahamas, and the alpine principality of Liechtenstein.

According to US intelligence, Al-Barakaat's operation in the states specialised in the repatriation to Somalia of money earned in the US by Somali expatriates. The organisation was linked to bin Laden's operations as some of the money transferred is thought to go to a Somali-based militant Islamic operation, which in turn funnels a portion of its funds to the Al Qaeda network.

Although the Al-Taqwa organisation, which was established in the 1980s by prominent members of the ostensibly peaceful Muslim Brotherhood, was provided with a clean bill of health by the Swiss authorities recently, new information led the Swiss Federal Prosecutor's office to suggest that there were in fact 'possible links between Al-Taqwa and the bin Laden network', and at the request of the US authorities, the organisation's assets were frozen, and raids were conducted on the homes of Youssef Mustafa Nada and Ali Ghaleb Himmat, the network's chief financiers.

It was revealed that as part of a tough new money laundering drive, authorities in the Bahamas had revoked the banking arm of the organisation's license earlier this year.

The heads of both organisations have denied any terrorist associations, and Nada has stated in correspondence with MSNBC's Newsweek that the Muslim Brotherhood has in fact been criticised by Osama bin Laden for being too moderate and peace-loving. However, President George Bush seems in little doubt that US intelligence has tracked down the right men, and said earlier this week that: 'By shutting these networks down, we disrupt the murderer's work.'

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