BIN LADEN - Link to US banks

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NYPost

BIN LADEN LINK TO U.S. BANKS

By BRIAN BLOMQUIST and DEBORAH ORIN

September 27, 2001 -- WASHINGTON - Osama bin Laden's bank in Sudan was doing business until just this week with a major U.S. bank - American Express Bank - whose headquarters were wrecked in the World Trade Center, The Post has learned.

Citibank, one of the country's largest banks, acknowledged that it, too, held an account for Al Shamal Islamic Bank until recently, and there's still a balance in the account.

American Express Bank said it closed the U.S. account for Al Shamal Islamic Bank, which bin Laden helped establish with $50 million in 1991, after Senate investigators informed American Express the Sudanese bank was linked to bin Laden.

"We closed it this week . . . when we found out there might be linkage," said American Express Bank spokesman Lee Middleton, although he was unable to explain how the account was opened in the first place.

Citibank spokeswoman Christina Pretto said the Al Shamal account has been "dormant for the last several months," and has been blocked with a small balance in it.

Al Shamal's account with American Express Bank, whose headquarters were in 7 World Trade Center - which collapsed after the Twin Towers fell -allowed the Sudanese bank to make electronic and checking-account transactions with U.S. dollars, Middleton said.

Middleton said records of Al Shamal's transactions in the United States were destroyed in the collapse of 7 World Trade Center on Sept. 11, so it's unclear what kind of business the bank was doing here.

President Bush on Monday froze the assets of 27 organizations and people linked to bin Laden.

The State Department said in a fact sheet in 1996 that bin Laden started Al Shamal 10 years ago, and Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said yesterday there's a credible report that bin Laden was the bank's "leading shareholder" as recently as March.

Meanwhile yesterday, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) pushed Congress to crack down on the offshore banks that let terrorists keep their dirty money in secret accounts.

"It's a total, total ruse . . . The world banking system needs to be transparent," Schumer said.

-- Anonymous, September 27, 2001

Answers

Let me see if I understand this situation. Bin Laden has been on our official terrorist list for a long time. Bombing of embassies, the USS Cole, and various other targets. Yet, his banking ties have been left virtually intact everywhere here. I mean, doesn't this suggest either incompetance on our part, or deception of some sort. In either case we are in deep trouble. Those we depend on are undependable.

-- Anonymous, September 27, 2001

Interesting money brokering arrangement discussed on the radio recently. Might not work so well for really large amounts, but it would be a way of "transferring" money without any paper trail.

Say OBL wants to send $1,000 cash to someone in NY. He hands Broker1 in Afghan $1,000 plus commission. Broker1 pockets it. Broker1 contacts Broker2 in USA and gives instructions to pass money along to whomever. Broker2 takes care of that out of his own pocket.

The idea is that over a period of time, with the commissions, I guess, it has averaged out enough for all the brokers involved to be ahead of the game.

-- Anonymous, September 27, 2001


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