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In a savage critique, R.T. Naylor investigates the American government's understanding of and response to 9/11, exposing the official story – and the resulting global War on Islamic Terror – as based on myth and misinformation. Satanic Purses examines how misguided notions about the structure and financing of terrorist groups have diverted attention from more useful measures, and perpetuated the "War on Terror."
The following is excerpted from the chapter "Quartermasters of Terror – Inscrutable Orientals and Underground Banks"
Then came 9/11 and accusations that Al Barakaat’s founder had “befriended” Usama bin Laden during the Afghan war (a charge that, if fairly applied, might have landed the whole Reagan administration in jail), that bin Laden had provided capital to the Juma‘ale group (which presumably would make bin Laden a financier of Somali remittances rather than of terrorism), and that the institution was a front for (according to the US Treasury actually “controlled by”) al-Ittihad al-Islamiyya, the Somali affiliate of al-Qa’idah International. Allegedly, when Somalis used it to send money home, the legitimate funds were comingled (a favorite drug-war buzzphrase) with terror-dollars, and some were siphoned off to al-Ittihad and/or al-Qa’idah to buy weapons. The estimate from Treasury was that Al Barakaat remitted to Somalia about $400 million per annum from which it skimmed for its terrorist owners 5 percent – the resulting $20 million was about five times the total profit the company reported from its remittance business. Apparently Al Barakaat sent so much money to al-Qa’idah that, when it put its cellphone network in place in Somalia, it had to borrow the money from the US company that actually set up the technical system. On top of cash came arms – intelligence was so specific that Treasury officers pinpointed one arms shipment arranged by Al Barakaat for al-Qa’idah with the contents recorded as “blankets,” a callous attempt to use humanitarian aid to hide instruments of terror and destruction.
Hence, when the Treasury moved to close Al Barakaat’s eight US offices, it stripped them to the bare walls, taking the computers, cash, records, etc. – the only thing left behind was the trash, which had, no doubt, been thoroughly searched. In Seattle the raids also hit a minimart that shared facilities with the local Al Barakaat – the feds took care to also remove the food and the cash register. The freeze on Al Barakaat’s US assets was declared by Treasury to be “the most conspicuous act” of the financial war on terrorism to date. Its deputy secretary bragged before the House Financial Services Committee that Al Barakaat was the first test case of the new Patriot Act forfeiture provisions. George Bush II, clearly delighted at events, denounced Al Barakaat as a “quartermaster of terror” and “a pariah in the civilized world”; and he reassured Americans that, “By shutting these networks down, we interrupt the murderers’ work.” Yet when US officials were asked just what proof existed, they insisted that considerations of national security precluded them revealing anything.
The good news did not stop at the US border. Many countries, particularly in Europe and the Gulf, followed the US lead, freezing tens of thousands of Somali accounts. Thus the Al Barakaat operation set the critical precedent in the financial war that, where Washington led, others would meekly follow.
Of course there was a downside. The move was a body blow to the largest functioning business group in Somalia, and it threatened the precarious livelihood of millions. At the time aid workers estimated that about 75 percent of Somalia’s families relied on remittance systems of which Al Barakaat was by far the largest. Not to fear. A senior US Treasury official helpfully suggested that Somalis could instead use Western Union. Leaving aside the question of whether the official was lining himself up for a corporate plum after he left public service, someone from an African NGO decided to check out the suggestion by calling a Western Union office. He was asked by the agent if Somalia was really the name of a country. Certainly there was no such entity on the Western Union service list.
Click here to learn more or order a copy of Satanic Purses .
* R.T. Naylor's most recent book is Crass Struggle: Greed, Glitz, and Gluttony in a Wanna-Have World.
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