http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/w...ode=&contentId=A22303-2002Feb16¬Found=true Al Qaeda's Road Paved With Gold Secret Shipments Traced Through a Lax System In United Arab Emirates By Douglas Farah Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, February 17, 2002; Page A01 DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Just as the United States and its allies swept toward Afghanistan's main cities last autumn, the ruling Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network sent waves of couriers with bars of gold and bundles ofdollars across the porous border into Pakistan. In small shops and businesses along the border, the money and gold, taken from Afghanistan's banks and national coffers, were collected and moved by trusted Taliban and al Qaeda operatives to the port city of Karachi, Pakistan, according to sources familiar with the events. Then, using couriers and the virtually untraceable hawala money transfer system, they transferred millions of dollars to this desert sheikdom, where the assets were converted to gold bullion. The riches of the Taliban and al Qaeda were subsequently scattered around the world -- including some that went to the United States -- through a financial structure that has been little affected by the international efforts to seize suspected terrorist assets. This account of the flight of the Taliban and al Qaeda treasure from Afghanistan is based on dozens of interviews in Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Europe and the United States. The gold trail was described by intelligence officers, law enforcement officials, gold brokers, and sources with direct knowledge of some of al Qaeda's financial movements, but not by Taliban or al Qaeda operatives. The interviews offered a tantalizing glimpse into the critical yet mysterious role played by gold in the finances of al Qaeda, both before and after the Sept. 11 attacks. Gold has allowed the Taliban and bin Laden to largely preserve their financial resources, despite the military attack that battered their forces in Afghanistan, investigators and intelligence sources said. Al Qaeda also used diamonds purchased in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo, tanzanite from Tanzania and other commodities to make money and hide assets. But gold played a uniquely important role in the group's financial structure, investigators and intelligence sources said, because it is a global currency. "Gold is a huge factor in the moving of terrorist money because you can melt it, smelt it or deposit it on account with no questions asked," said a senior U.S. law enforcement official investigating gold transactions. "Why move it through Dubai? Because there is a willful blindness there." Exempt from international reporting requirements for financial transactions, gold is a favored commodity in laundering money from drug trafficking, organized crime and terrorist activities, U.S. officials said. In addition, Dubai, one of seven sheikdoms that make up the United Arab Emirates, has one of the world's largest and least regulated gold markets, making it an ideal place to hide. Dubai is also one of the region's most open banking centers and is the commercial capital of the United Arab Emirates, one of three countries that maintained diplomatic relations with the Taliban until shortly after Sept. 11. Sitting at a strategic crossroad of the Persian Gulf, South Asia and Africa, Dubai has long been a financial hub for Islamic militant groups. Much of the $500,000 used to fund the Sept. 11 attacks came through Dubai, investigators believe. "All roads lead to Dubai when it comes to money. Everyone did business there," said Patrick Jost, who until last year was a senior financial enforcement officer in the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
Hand-Carried by Couriers When the U.S. bombs began pounding Taliban and al Qaeda targets last autumn, the rush of gold and money out of Afghanistan intensified. Pakistani financial authorities said that $2 million to $3 million a day is usually hand-carried by couriers from Karachi, Pakistan, to Dubai, mostly to buy gold. Late last year that amount increased significantly as money was moved out of Afghanistan, they said. Pakistani and U.S. officials estimate that about $10 million from Afghanistan was taken out by courier over three weeks in late November and early December. The Taliban fled Kabul, the capital, late on Nov. 12 and abandoned Kandahar on Dec. 7. One of the couriers of cash and gold to Dubai was the Taliban consul general in Karachi, Kaka Zada, who took at least one shipment of $600,000 to Dubai in the last week of November, according to two Pakistani sources who witnessed him carrying the money. In addition, U.S. and other officials said, millions more were sent through hawalas, the informal money transfer system widely used across the Middle East, North Africa and Asia that, outside of major cities, often serves as the only money transfer system. Rather than moving money through traceable mechanisms such as wire transfers, hawala brokers take a client's money, then call or e-mail a counterpart in the area where the client wants the money delivered. The counterpart pays out the sum. When the transaction is complete, the records are destroyed. Gold is often used by hawala brokers to balance their books. Hawala dealers also routinely have gold, rather than currency, placed around the globe. "There are no traditional banking systems in Afghanistan or Somalia," said Jost. "Everything is done through hawala, and gold is the fuel hawala runs on." U.S. investigators, led by the Customs Service, have begun poring over transactions of some of Dubai's largest and most prestigious gold brokerages for possible links to the movement of al Qaeda or Taliban money, and have found unusual gold shipments into the United States after Sept. 11.
I resist the temption to play on the irony of your typo. If we wait until we KNOW something or have solid PROOF for a position we'll never initiate any discussion. Any position can be debated, no matter how much or little "proof" is behind it; there is no ultimate truth that is available to us. One has to commit to a position in order to act. I am committing to the notion that Al Qaeda attempts to influence the markets through its actions - and almost certainly attempts to profit from those actions. If they CAN do it, why on earth wouldn't they? I am practicing what I preach and will soon be switching to longer-term long on golds (from intra-day shorts); I believe that Al Qaeda will inevitably bring more of its violence to America and that the markets will react negatively, even if the general economic recovery is strong. Bin Laden has stated that his strategy is to bring down America's economic infrastructure. He has no hope of succeeding, but the mere presence - in America - of such a menace will depress the markets..and raise the price of gold.
I'm sure that you agree with me that Al Qaeda does not consist entirely of mindless fanatics and peasants; some of them are very sophisticated and would have no difficulty in setting up means of access to legitimate markets. Never underestimate the enemy - especially an enemy that appears to be so resilient.
I thank R. Metal for giving me the opportunity to prove once and for all that I'm not irretrievably stupid.
The fact that no U.S. airliners have been blown up this year is evidence of Al Quaeda's longs in AMR.