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Alqeda moved gold to sudan { September 3 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27535-2002Sep2.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27535-2002Sep2.html
Al Qaeda Gold Moved to Sudan
Iran, U.A.E. Used as Transit Points
By Douglas Farah
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 3, 2002; Page A01
Financial officers of al Qaeda and the Taliban have quietly shipped large quantities of gold out of Pakistan to Sudan in recent weeks, transiting through the United Arab Emirates and Iran, according to European, Pakistani and U.S. investigators.
The sources said several shipments of boxes of gold, usually disguised as other products, were taken by small boat from the Pakistani port of Karachi to either Iran or Dubai, and from there mixed with other goods and flown by chartered airplanes to Khartoum, the Sudanese capital.
Although it is not clear how much gold has been moved, U.S. and European officials said the quantity was significant and was an important indicator that the al Qaeda network and members of Afghanistan's deposed Taliban militia still had access to large financial reserves.
European and U.S. intelligence officials said the movement of gold also highlighted three significant developments in the war on terrorism: the growing role of Iranian intelligence units allied with the country's hard-line clerics in protecting and aiding al Qaeda; the potential reemergence of Sudan as a financial center for the organization; and the ability of the terrorist group to generate new sources of revenue despite the global crackdown on its finances.
The sources said Sudan may have been chosen because Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born al Qaeda leader, and other members of the network are familiar with the country and retain business contacts there. They said traditional havens for al Qaeda money on the Arabian peninsula such as Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates were under intense international scrutiny, while transactions in Sudan could more easily pass unnoticed.
Gold has for years been the preferred financial instrument of the Taliban and al Qaeda. Most of the Taliban treasury was kept in gold when the militia ruled Afghanistan, and taxes were often collected in gold. Just before the Taliban and al Qaeda were driven from Afghanistan last year, the two groups shipped large amounts of gold to Dubai, and from there to other safe havens, according to U.S., European and Arab officials.
Senior U.S. intelligence officials said they are investigating the information about the new gold shipments and had opened a case on the matter but had no further comment. "We know they are looking at new sources of revenue and are finding new ways to raise and move funds to where they are accessible," a U.S. official said. "The bankers are the ones that move the money and the bankers are not sitting in caves in Afghanistan."
European and U.S. sources said they became aware of the shipments after they occurred, and have asked the Sudanese government to take measures to halt the flow. A spokesman for the Sudanese Embassy in Washington said he had no official information about the shipments and found the information "hard to believe."
"Sudan is not going to allow anything like this to come in knowingly," the official said. "We are concerned about terrorism. We are on a high level of alert since September 11."
But European intelligence sources said one of the hubs of bin Laden's organization continues to be Sudan, where he lived from 1991 to 1996, when he was forced to move to Afghanistan.
Although the United States and other countries have praised Sudan for its cooperation in the war on terrorism, European and U.S. officials say that bin Laden, who invested tens of millions of dollars in the country when it harbored him, continues to have economic interests there. While living in Sudan, bin Laden operated a large construction business, bought extensive land holdings and helped found a bank.
A senior European intelligence official said there was growing evidence that Khartoum was again serving "as a sort of hub" for al Qaeda business transactions. "He has banking contacts there, he has business contacts there and he is intimately familiar with the political and intelligence structure there," the official said. "He never fully left Sudan despite moving to Afghanistan."
The gold appears to be the fruit of what one Pakistani businessman knowledgeable of Taliban financing called a "commodity for commodity exchange," with the Taliban and al Qaeda trading opium and heroin for gold. When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, according to Pakistani intelligence officials, it actively engaged in opium and heroin production, and allowed al Qaeda to raise funds through taxing the cultivation of poppy, the raw material for heroin.
The Pakistani businessman said that over the past two months Pakistani intelligence has picked up numerous reports indicating that al Qaeda and the Taliban were sending large amounts of gold out of Karachi after selling stashes of stored heroin and opium to drug traffickers in Central Asia. "This is new money, not money stashed away from before," the Pakistani source said. "The old network of moving drugs and trading it for gold, which they have done for years, is still operational."
European and Pakistani sources said some of the assets moving through Iran may be the remnants of bin Laden's personal fortune. U.S. and European officials believe bin Laden inherited about $30 million in the early 1990s when his father, a Saudi construction magnate, died.
European terrorism experts said they were particularly troubled by indications that Iranian intelligence officials were taking an active role in moving the gold. The sources said there were credible reports that some of the gold was flown on Iranian airplanes to Sudan.
"Iran is not a monolith, there are different groups, and some seem to be directly helping these transfers," one official said. "It doesn't mean it is a decision of the government, but they do not have full control over what the security agencies do."
Arab intelligence sources have reported that Iran is sheltering senior al Qaeda military and financial leaders in hotels and guest houses in the Afghan border cities of Mashhad and Zabol.
Gold has long been a favorite way of storing wealth in Southeast Asia, the Arabian peninsula and northern Africa. Smuggling gold by sea from Karachi into Iran and Dubai is also a centuries-old activity.
A draft United Nations report by a panel of experts states that al Qaeda's financial structure remains largely intact and retains access to tens of millions of dollars.
"A large portfolio of ostensibly legitimate businesses continue to be maintained and managed on behalf of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda by a number of, as yet, unidentified intermediaries and associates across North Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Asia," the report said. "Estimates put the value of this portfolio at around $30 million."
The Treasury Department said the U.N. report presented an "incomplete picture of the financial war against terrorism." In a statement, a spokesman said that while much work remained to be done, the report did not measure the impact of seizures of millions of dollars in cash or the freezing of assets of more than 200 individuals since Sept. 11.
European officials said some of the chartered planes used to transport the gold and other commodities for the Taliban and al Qaeda were linked to Victor Bout, a Russian arms merchant who maintains more than 50 aircraft in the United Arab Emirates.
U.S. officials have called Bout the largest arms merchant in the world and say he has long had dealings with the Taliban, flying in weapons and medicine for the group when it governed Afghanistan.
Despite an international arrest warrant issued in February for his arrest, Bout lives undisturbed in Moscow.
Staff writer Dana Priest contributed to this report.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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