Recorded March 14, 2004
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This program supplements earlier broadcasts about the Underground Reich’s use of the Muslim peoples of the “Earth Island” as proxy warriors against the United States. (For more about this concept, see—among other programs—FTRs 395–400.) In particular, the program highlights the apparent role of Underground Reich–related elements in the trafficking of nuclear technology around the world. The continuing proliferation of nuclear technology is particularly disturbing when one considers that the war on terrorist financing appears to be failing—in part from the Bush administration’s deliberate policy of going soft on the Saudis and partly because of a failure of international cooperation on the matter. Sooner or later, the continuing flow of terrorist monies and the continuing availability of nuclear technology will combine to produce a catastrophe. In addition, the program highlights evidentiary tributaries running between 9/11 and neo-Nazi elements around the world.
Program Highlights Include: Discussion of the role of the Degussa firm in the trafficking of nuclear technology around the world; review of former SS scientific officer Alfred Boettcher’s role with the Degussa firm and his position as attache for the export of nuclear material with the West German government; the role of Dubai in the trafficking of nuclear technology; the failure of the first Bush administration to take action to stem Pakistani nuclear technology and its global spread; the alleged role of Tariq Ramadan (son of Muslim Brotherhood kingpin Said Ramadan) in terrorist-related activities; the failure to interdict the operations of Youssef Nada and the associated institutions of Bank Al Taqwa; the second Bush administration’s blocking of an investigation into Pakistani nuclear smuggling; the possibility of a nuclear 9/11; Oklahoma City Bombing suspect Andreas Strassmeir’s attempts to buy a Boeing 747 from Lufthansa; a passage from The Turner Diaries that appears to foreshadow the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11.
1. The administration of the first President Bush turned a blind eye to Pakistan’s nuclear development, in order to help shield the Pakistani role in the Afghan mujahadeen war against the Soviets. “Pakistan warned the United States 14 years ago that it might give nuclear technology to Iran, but the administration of President Bush’s father did little to follow up, former Pentagon officials say. Word of the 1990 threat from Pakistan’s top general apparently was not passed along to the Clinton administration when it took office three years later, according to interviews by the Associated Press. . . .” (“Pakistan Threatened to Give Iran Nuclear Know-How in ‘90” by Matt Kelley [AP]; San Francisco Chronicle; 2/28/2004; p. A3.)
2. ” . . . But former government arms control officials and declassified documents show the United States knew about Pakistan’s nuclear procurement network since 1983 and suspected the transfers to Iran since the mid-1980’s. The United States had hints of the transfers to North Korea in the mid-1990’s, officials say. The clearest evidence of the Iran link came in January 1990, when Pakistan’s army chief of staff conveyed his threat to arm Iran to a top Pentagon official. Henry Rowen, at the time an assistant defense secretary, said Pakistani Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg had issued the warning in a face-to-face meeting in Pakistan. . . .” (Idem.)
3. ” . . . Sokolski and Rowen said former President George H.W. Bush’s administration had done little to follow up on Beg’s warning. ‘In hindsight, maybe before or after that they did make some transfers,’ Rowen said. . . .” (Idem.)
4. “While Islamabad and Washington squabbled about the evidence, the Khan network provided sophisticated technology to Libya, North Korea and Iran, three countries the United States considered among the most dangerous. A decade earlier, the Reagan administration had looked the other way on Pakistan’s nuclear program, said Stephen Cohen, a State Department expert on the region from 1985 to 1987. Back then, Washington used Pakistan as a conduit for sending weapons and money to guerillas fighting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. ‘They were covering up our involvement in Afghanistan, pretending we played no role in Afghanistan, so they expected us to cover up their role in procuring a weapons system they saw as vital to their survival,’ said Cohen, now with the Brookings Institution.” (Idem.)
5. Next, the program turns to recent disclosures of a nuclear smuggling ring, involving Pakistan’s “father of the bomb” Dr. A.Q. Khan and the elements who helped him smuggle the nuclear technology to other countries. The Bush administration blocked investigation of this operation, once again to protect the Saudis, who were helping to finance the creation of the so-called “Islamic Bomb.” “On November7, 2001, BBC TV and The Guardian of London reported that the Bush administration thwarted investigations of Dr. A.Q. Khan, who this week confessed selling atomic secrets to Libya, North Korea, and Iran. The Bush Administration has expressed shock at the disclosures that Pakistan, our ally in the war on terror, has been running a nuclear secrets bazaar. In fact, according to the British news team’s sources, Bush did not know of these facts because, shortly after his inauguration, his National Security Agency (NSA) effectively stymied the probe of Khan Research Laboratories. CIA and other agents could not investigate the spread of ‘Islamic Bombs’ through Pakistan because funding appeared to originate in Saudi Arabia.” (“Khan Job: Bush Spiked Probe of Pakistan’s Dr. Strangelove, BBC Reported in 2001” by Greg Palast; Gregpalast.com; 2/9/2004.)
6. “According to both sources and documents obtained by the BBC, the Bush Administration ‘Spike’ of the investigation of Dr. Khan’s Lab followed from a wider policy of protecting key Saudi Arabians including the bin Laden Family. Despite these tantalizing facts, Abdullah and his operations were A‑OK with the FBI chiefs, if not their working agents. Just a dumb SNAFU? Not according to a top-level CIA operative who spoke with us on condition of anonymity. After Bush took office, he said, ‘there was a major policy shift’ at the National Security Agency. Investigators were ordered to ‘back off’ from any inquiries into Saudi Arabian financing of terror networks, especially if they touched on Saudi royals and their retainers. That put the bin Ladens, a family worth a reported $12 billion and a virtual arm of the Saudi royal household, off limits for investigation. Osama was the exception; he remained a wanted man, but agents could not look too closely at how he filled his piggy bank. The key rule of any investigation, ‘follow the money,’ was now violated, and investigations—at least before September 11-began to die.” (Idem.)
7. “And there was a lot to investigate—or, in the case of the CIA and FBI under Bush—a lot to ignore. Through well-known international arms dealers (I’m sorry, but in this business, sinners are better sources than saints) our team was tipped off to a meeting of Saudi billionaires at the Hotel Royale Monceau in Paris in May 1996 with the financial representative of Osama bin Laden’s network. The Saudis, including a key Saudi prince joined by Muslim and non-Muslim gun traffickers, met to determine who would pay how much to Osama. This was not so much an act of support but of protection—a pay-off to keep the mad bomber away from Saudi Arabia.” (Idem.)
8. “The crucial question here is that, if I could learn about this meeting, how did the CIA miss it? In fact, since the first edition of this book [The Best Democracy Money Can Buy], other sources have disclosed that the meeting was monitored by French intelligence. Since U.S. intelligence was thus likely informed, the question becomes why didn’t the government immediately move against the Saudis?” (Idem.)
9. “I probed our CIA contact for specifics of investigations that were hampered by orders to back off of the Saudis. He told us that the Khan Laboratories investigation had been effectively on hold.” (Idem.)
10. Next, the program turns to the role of European elements in the Dr. A.Q. Khan network. “The Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan has been demonized in the West for selling atomic secrets and equipment around the world, but the trade began in Europe, not Islamabad, according to court documents and experts who monitor proliferation. The records show that industry scientists and Western intelligence agencies have known for decades that nuclear technology ws pouring out of Europe despite national export control efforts to contain it. Many of the names that have turned up among lists of suppliers and middlemen who fed equipment, materials and knowledge to nuclear programs in Pakistan and other aspiring nuclear nations are well-known players in Europe’s uranium enrichment industry, a critical part of many nuclear weapons programs. Some have been convicted of illegal exports before. . . . ”
11. ” . . . The problem began with the 1970 Treaty of Almelo, under which Britain, Germany and the Netherlands agreed to develop centrifuges to enrich uranium jointly, ensuring their nuclear power industry a fuel source independent of the United States. Urenco, or the Uranium Enrichment Company, was established the next year with its primary enrichment plant at Almelo, the Netherlands.” (Ibid.; pp. 1–2.)
12. “Security at Urenco was by most accounts slipshod. The consortium relied on a network of research centers and subcontractors to build its centrifuges, and top-secret blueprints were passed out to companies bidding on tenders, giving engineers across Europe an opportunity to appropriate designs. Dr. Khan, who worked for a Urenco Dutch subcontractor, Physics Dynamic Research Laboratory, was given access to the most advanced designs, even though he came from Pakistan, which has already known to harbor nuclear ambitions. A 1980 report by the Dutch government on his activities said he visited the Almelo factory in May 1972 and by late 1974 had an office there. . . .” (Ibid.; p. 2.)
13. ” . . . That same year [1987], despite American warnings to Germany that such a sale was imminent, a German firm exported to Pakistan a plant for the recovery of tritium, a volatile gas used to increase the power of nuclear bombs. The company simply called the plant something else to obtain an export license. ‘The export control office didn’t even inspect the goods,’ said Reinhard Huebner, the German prosecutor who handled the subsequent trial of the company’s chief, Rudolf Ortmayers, and Peter Finke, a German physicist who went to Pakistan to train engineers there to operate the equipment. Both men were sentenced to jail for violating export control laws.” (Idem.)
14. The program notes that designs of nuclear facilities held by the Iraqis have not been fully accounted for in the wake of the war. “David Albright, a former weapons inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he helped retrieve a full set of blueprints from Iraq after the major combat operations ended last year. United State inspectors have not found evidence that Mr. Hussein had restarted his nuclear program, but Mr. Albright said there were still drawings unaccounted for. ‘It’s an unnerving issue,’ said Mr. Albright, who is president of the Institute for Science and International Security. ‘A lot of nuclear weapons design stuff could be missing in Iraq.’ ” (Ibid.; pp. 2–3.)
15. “As recently as last year, German customs agents seized high-tensile-strength aluminum tubes made by a German company and bound for North Korea. The tubes matched the specifications for the housings of Urenco’s uranium-enriching centrifuges.” (Ibid.; p. 3.)
16. This description features a recap of information about Karl –Heinz Schaab from FTR#395. The Schaab/Urenco/Khan connection will be explored at greater length in a future program. “Stealing the Fire is an investigative film that provides staggering evidence showing how a German scientist, Karl Heinz Schaab, who helped develop the centrifuges necessary to extract weapons-grade Uranium 235, sold classified documents in the early 1990’s to Iraq.” (“Stealing the Fire;” Eye Spy; Issue 13; p. 18.)
17. It is interesting to note that the co-producer of the film discovered the “clandestine nuclear trail” while working on a PBS show about the BCCI. The BCCI scandal is inextricably linked with the subject of Saudi Arabia and the events of 9/11. (For a summary account of the significance of the BCCI scandal in the context of 9/11, see FTR#391 and the programs referenced in that program.) ” . . . The investigation started many, many years ago. In 1992, Eric Nadler an investigative journalist, began researching material on the underground trafficking of nuclear weapons. Ten years later, he and co-producer, John S. Friedman, the founder of the Documentary Center at Colombia University have released their findings. Nadler told Paperclips magazine. ‘I was working for Frontline on PBS, and I was doing a story about the BCCI scandal, which was a crooked bank based in Pakistan. I was doing a story called ‘The Arming of Saudi Arabia’ about the hidden history of United States/Saudi relations. I got very disturbed about the hidden history, especially about nuclear stories that weren’t being covered . . .” (Ibid.; pp. 18–19.)
18. According to Mr. Nadler, Saudi Arabia was heavily involved in financing Saddam Hussein’s quest for the bomb. Like the Saudis and the Bush family, Saddam Hussein’s own history is inextricably linked with that of the Third Reich. The For The Record series presents the view that Al Qaeda, the Wahhabi militants, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Iraqis and the PLO constitute “proxy warriors” for the Underground Reich, against the USA, Britain and Israel. (For discussion of the Saudi links to the Third Reich, see the discussion and references in FTR#391.) “. . . And I produced for Frontline something that aired in 1992, in which our team got classified CIA and DIA documents, which said the following: ‘We know that Saudi Arabia has given $5 billion to Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program for the express purpose of building a nuclear bomb.’ My investigative team at Frontline got the banks, we got the dates, we got the money transfers, and we put this on American television. [We showed] that America’s biggest ally in the Gulf had given $5 billion to the Hitler of the Gulf to build nuclear weapons. And though USA Today put it on their television page, it caused barely a ripple in the popular culture. I was interested in secret nuclear stories from that moment on . . .” (Ibid.; p. 19.)
19. In Stealing the Fire, the central figure in the Iraqi/German nuclear connection was one Karl Heinz Schaab. ” . . . He was fascinated by Iraq’s determined efforts to create nuclear weapons. By examining the investigation of the United Nations weapons inspectors, he came across a ‘mysterious man’-Karl Heinz Schaab. Nadler and Friedman thought that by researching Schaab, this would open other doors and reveal the companies behind the ‘covert nuclear trading deals . . .’ ” (Idem.)
20. Schaab was a protégé of Dr. Gernot Zippe, one of the principal figures involved with developing the Third Reich’s nuclear program. “Schaab was a student of Dr. Gernot Zippe, an Austrian physicist often referred to as the ‘father of the centrifuge.’ And Stealing the Fire is as much about the centrifuge as the di
rty deals done to get the technology to Iraq. Nadler says the equipment originated in the research laboratories of wartime Germany. Hence the information supplied by Schaab in 1989 to the Iraqis basically originated from the failed Nazi atomic bomb program.” (Idem.)
21. After discussing Zippe’s capture by the Soviets and his work for the U.S.S.R. on nuclear matters, the program sets forth his return to Degussa, the firm which produced the Zyklon B for the gas chambers in World War II. (For more on Degussa, see—among other programs—FTRs 87, 292, 294, 388.) “The nuclear scientist worked at the University of Virginia for a while, and de-briefed the Pentagon on the Russian centrifuge. However, he got homesick and soon returned to Germany and found work at Degussa.” (Idem.)
22. Zippe was not the only Third Reich alumnus associated with Degussa’s nuclear export operations. Boettcher was “nuclear export attache for the West German Government.” [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.] “Dr. Alfred Boettcher was an SS scientific officer who headed the precious metals division at Degussa in the postwar years. He later became nuclear export attache for the West German Government. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.]” (Ibid.; p. 21.)
23. Degussa subsidiary NUKEM was the division involved with the trafficking of nuclear material to Iraq, as well as other countries attempting to manufacture nuclear weapons. Boettcher and Zippe were joined by yet another Third Reich alumnus in Germany’s work on behalf of Iraq’s nuclear efforts—Degussa chairman Hermann Schlosser. (For more on NUKEM, see Miscellaneous Archive Show M‑8.) “Two transactions that spring heightened fears that Iraq intended to use the Osirak reactor to produce bomb-grade plutonium. An Italian company, in a semi-clandestine deal, sold Iraq six tons of depleted uranium purchased from the West German nuclear consortium NUKEM. Fearing that NUKEM might not deliver the uranium if they knew it was intended for Iraq, the Italians claimed it was for domestic use in Italy. But they needn’t have worried about NUKEM’s scruples. The consortium was a wholly owned subsidiary of the German chemicals giant Degussa, which had invented and manufactured Zyklon B, the powerful cyanide gas that streamed out of the showerheads in Hitler’s death camps, killing millions of European Jews. Degussa had also played a key role in the Nazi effort to build an atom bomb, stopped only when its Oranienburg works near Berlin were flattened by U.S. bombers in 1945. That same year, the Third Reich was going up in flames, Degussa’s chairman, Hermann Schlosser, donated 45,000 reichsmarks to Hitler’s SS. Thirty-five years later Schlosser was still on the Degussa board, and in 1987 he was awarded the German Federal Merit Cross for his services to industry. One of Schlosser’s services was shipping nuclear equipment and materials to almost every developing nation that was known to have a clandestine bomb program. Another was opening the vast Iraqi market to German firms. His readiness to supply nuclear materials to both India and Pakistan had impressed on Saddam Hussein that this was a man he could do business with.” (The Death Lobby: How the West Armed Iraq; Kenneth Timmerman; Copyright 1991 [HC]; Houghton Mifflin Company; p. 70.) (For more on the arming of Iraq, see RFA-20, FTR s 16, 24, 31, 52, 87, 287, 295.)
24. “Nadler called Degussa ‘the worst company ever.’ The investigator believes the directors of the company were ‘not prosecuted because of their international connections to several major US corporations.’ ” (Eye Spy; Issue #13; p. 20.)
25. It is significant that, according to Nadler, the Iraqis received software, not hardware. This complicates the issue considerably. As will be noted in future programs, just what happened to this software is a source for concern. In the context of the Underground Reich (heavily involved with Latin America as well as the Middle East), it is worth noting that Schaab was also involved with deals with members of the Brazilian armed forces. “Schaab’s name was actually found on documents recovered by UN weapons inspectors in Iraq. He had been selling the centrifuge secrets to Baghdad. Eye Spy asked Nadler just what exactly the Iraqis received for their money, ‘software not hardware,’ he said. He then confirmed that with this data Iraq could easily build a factory—a production line-for nuclear bombs. The investigators tracked Schaab to Brazil, where he temporarily fled to avoid prosecution. Here also was the location of further obscure deals with high ranking officials of the Brazilian armed forces.” (Ibid.; p. 20.)
26. Nadler notes the role of Germany as the greatest exporter of nuclear technology in the postwar period. Bear in mind that for part of this time, the West German attache for nuclear export was Alfred Boettcher, a “former” SS scientific officer. (The German role in the development of the Pakistani bomb is discussed in FTR#336. There is documented sympathy among some of the creators of the Pakistani bomb for the Taliban regime.) ” . . . .The investigator’s research tends to support the British intelligence brief on Iraq’s WMD, and highlights a controversial deal between a NATO country and Iraq. Nadler said that between 1945 and 1990, Germany was the ‘greatest proliferator of nuclear weapons technology in the world . . .’ ” (Idem.)
27. Schaab appears to have been operating with the blessings of the German government. (For more on the German government—and Underground Reich–connection to the Iraqi nuclear program, as well as the Brazilian and Latin American connections to the Schaab operation, see FTR#155.) ” . . . On the German Government’s light sentence for Schaab, and the suggestion other people might be involved, Nadler was diplomatic: ‘Schaab had a story and he stuck to it. He said that two other men who are now dead were involved. But it’s quite clear that all this activity had to be monitored and known by the Germans. We can safely say that the case was woefully under-investigated, and, as one person says in our film, the German government just wanted it to go away. . .’ ” (Idem.)
28. ” . . . Schaab took the secret plans of the centrifuge and sold hundreds of blueprints to the Iraqis. And on a recent television news program on Fox, Nadler said it is possible that Iraq may have sold the plans to al-Qaeda. ‘The fact remains that the classified plans for uranium enrichment technology were stolen and sold to the Iraqis; what they do with it is a mystery. . . .”’ (Idem.)
29. Next, the program focuses on the pivotal role of the nation of Dubai in nuclear exporting from Germany to Third World countries. Note the role of former Nazi Alfred Hempel in the discussion that follows. Was he one of the people working with Karl-Heinz Schaab? “. . . Why ship through Dubai? Because it may be the easiest place in the world to mask the real destination of cargo. Consider how the Malaysian government is making the case for the innocence of its manufacturing company. ‘No document was traced that proved’ the company ‘delivered or exported the said components to Libya,’ according to the country’s inspector general of police. The real destination, he said, ‘was outside the knowledge’ of the producer. One can be certain that if the Khan ring’s European suppliers are ever tracked down, they will offer a similar explanation.” (“Nukes ‘R’ Us” by Gary Milhollin and Kelly Motz; The New York Times; 3/4/2004; p. 2.)
30. “Dubai provides companies and governments a vital asset: automatic deniability. Its customs agency even brags that its policy on re-exporting ‘enables traders to transit their shipments through Dubai without any hassles.’ Next to Dubai’s main port is the Jebel Ali free trade zone, a haven for freewheeling international companies. Our organization has d
ocumented 264 firms from Iran and 44 from rogue regimes like Syria and North Korea.” (Idem.)
31. “With the laxity of the emirates’ laws, there is simply no way to know how many weapon components have passed through. But consider some incidents that our organization has tallied—based on shipping records, government investigations, court documents, intelligence reports and other sources—over the last 20 years.” (Idem.)
32. Among the “former” Nazis appearing on the Iraqi nuclear stage is Alfred Hempel. “In 1982, a German exporter and former Nazi, Alfred Hempel, sent 70 tons of heavy water, a component for nuclear reactors, from Sinochem in China to Dubai. The shipping labels were then changed to mask the transaction and 60 tons of the heavy water were forwarded to India, where it enabled the government to use its energy-producing reactors to create plutonium for its atomic weapons program. The other 10 tons went to Argentina, which was interested in atomic weapons at the time.” (Idem.)
33. “In 1983, Mr. Hempel sent 15 tons of heavy water from Norway’s Norsk Hydro, and 6.7 tons from Techsnabexport in the Soviet Union, through the emirates to India. In 1985 and 1986, Mr. Hempel sent 12 more tons of Soviet heavy water to India that were used to start the Dhruva reactor, devoted to making plutonium for atomic bombs. (The details of these transactions come from German and Norwegian government audits, but Mr. Hempel, who died in 1989, was never convicted of a crime. . . .” (Idem.)
34. Contemplating the possibilities of nuclear terrorism in the United States, the program examines a possible “nuclear 9/11”. “A 10-kiloton nuclear bomb (a pipsqueak in weapons terms) is smuggled into Manhattan and explodes at Grand Central. Some 500,000 people are killed, and the U.S. suffers $1 trillion in direct economic damage. That scenario, cited in a report last year from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, could be a glimpse of our future. We urgently need to control nuclear materials to forestall that threat, but in this war on proliferation, we’re now slipping backward. President Bush (after ignoring the issue before 9/11) now forcefully says the right things—but still doesn’t do enough. ‘We’re losing the war on proliferation,’ Andrew F. Krepinevich Jr., a military expert and executive director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, says bluntly. . . .” (“A Nuclear 9/11” by Nicholas D. Kristof; The New York Times; 3/10/2004; p. 1; accessed at: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/10/opinion/10KRIS.html?ex=1079970740&ei=1&en=4c05b779b8f61534 .)
35. The Bush administration is not succeeding at effectively combating nuclear proliferation. [See Above.] As a result, the risks of such an event are increasing. ” . . . But all in all, the risks of a nuclear 9/11 are increasing. ‘I wouldn’t be at all surprised if nuclear weapons are used over the next 15 or 20 years,’ said Bruce Blair, president of the Center for Defense Information, ‘first and foremost by a terrorist group that gets its hands on a Russian nuclear weapon or a Pakistani nuclear weapon.’ ” (Ibid.; p. 2.)
36. “One of our biggest setbacks is in North Korea. Thanks to the ineptitude of hard-liners in Mr. Bush’s administration, and their refusal to engage in meaningful negotiations, North Korea is going all-out to make warheads. It may have just made six new nuclear weapons. Then there’s Iran, which has sought nuclear weapons since the days of the shah, and whose nuclear program seems to have public support. ‘I’m not sure there is a way to get an Iranian government to give it up,’ a senior American official said.” (Idem.)
37. “Finally, there’s the real rogue nation of proliferation, Pakistan. We know that Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Islamist father of Pakistan’s bomb, peddled materials to Libya and North Korea, and we don’t know who else. ‘It may be that A.Q. Khan & Associates already have passed bomb-grade nuclear fuel to the Qaeda, and we are in for the worst,’ warns Paul Leventhal, founding president of the Nuclear Control Institute.” (Idem.)
38. “It’s mystifying that the administration hasn’t leaned on Pakistan to make Dr. Khan available for interrogation to ensure that his network is entirely closed. Several experts on Pakistan told me they believe that the administration has been so restrained because its top priority isn’t combating nuclear proliferation—it’s getting President Pervez Musharraf’s help in arresting Osama bin Laden before the November election.” (Idem.)
39. “Another puzzle is why an administration that spends hundreds of billions of dollars in Iraq doesn’t try harder to secure uranium and plutonium in Russia and elsewhere. The bipartisan program to secure weapons of mass destruction is starved for funds—but Mr. Bush is proposing a $41 million cut in ‘cooperative threat reduction’ with Russia.” (Idem.)
40. ” ‘We’re at this crucial point,’ warns Joseph Cirincione of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. ‘And how we handle these situations in the next couple of years will tell us whether the nuclear threat shrinks or explodes. Perhaps literally. . . .” (Idem.)
41. Turning to the subject of the Muslim Brotherhood, the broadcast examines reports from European intelligence agencies that Tariq Ramadan, son of key Brotherhood patriarch Said Ramadan, is not as far removed from operational terrorist elements as he claims. (For more about the Muslim Brotherhood, see—among other programs—FTRs 343, 352, 354, 356, 357, 359, 371, 377, 378, 381, 382, 425, 433, 435, 439, 4423, 447.) European intelligence sources point to an alleged familial relationship between Ramadan and Omar Abdel Rahman. It is also alleged by the same sources that Tariq is much more heavily involved with the Muslim Brotherhood than he claims. “For several weeks, a Federal judge in the state of Washington has had on his desk reports from European intelligence services implicating Tariq Ramadan in several investigations into the activities of Al Qaeda. According to our sources, these reports were obtained by lawyers acting on behalf of the families of the victims of the attack on the World Trade Center of September 11, 2001. A lawsuit is currently being brought on behalf of 5,600 plaintiffs seeking damages and interest against the persons or groups suspected of having supported Osama bin Laden’s organization. According to Jean-Charles Brisard, former member of the intelligence services and now a private investigator hired by the victims’ families, this international investigation has obtained the political and law-enforcement cooperation of thirty countries. Since the end of 2002, the Geneva Islamic Center, where Tariq Ramadan sits on the board of directors, and of which brother Hani Ramadan is the director, appears among the organizations under investigation.” (“Tariq Ramadan, Target for European Intelligence Services” by Christophe Dubois; Le Parisien; 11/14/2003; accessed at: http://watch.windsofchange.net/themes_71.htm .)
42. “Several of the newer elements of this investigation personally implicate the star preacher to young French Muslims. According to documents provided to American law-enforcement officials, Tariq Ramadan is allegedly the nephew of Omar Abdel Rahman, the planner of the first attack on the World Trade Center, sentenced to life in prison in the United States. Grand son of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al-Banna, in 1993, Ramadan was allegedly put in charge of the Daawa (preaching for Europe by that Islamist organization. Ramadan denies the charges: ‘I am not related to Omar Abdel Rahman and have no organic ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.’ ” (Idem.)
43. “Moreover, the name of the Muslim intellectual was cited in several anti-terrorist investigations. As part of an investigation into an Al-Qaeda cell in Spain, he was named as one of the ‘usual contacts’ for Ahmed
Brahim, considered to be one of al-Qaeda’s treasurers indicted in April 2003 by magistrate Garzon. In particular, his name is mentioned during a telephone conversation of April 22, 1999, of which Le Parisien has a copy, between Ahmed Brahim and an official at the Tawhid bookstore in Lyon, which published Ramadan’s books. The conversation concerns the acquisition of blank audio cassettes and the invitation extended to young French citizens in Majorca to ‘work for the path of Allah.’ The Swiss intellectual is also named in the trial in France of a group suspected of having planned an attack against the US embassy. Djamal Beghal, considered to be network leader, told the investigating magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere on October 1, 2001: ‘In 1994, I followed courses taught by Tarik Ramadan.’ The preacher’s response” ‘I do not know Ahmed Brahim. My name was simply mentioned over the course of two harmless conversations . . . . Moreover, I didn’t begin teaching in Paris until 1997.’ Another charge against him: according to the investigations conducted by the lawyers acting on behalf of the families of the World Trade Center victims, the Ramadan family address appears in a register at the Al Taqwa bank, which is on the American State department’s list of organizations accused of supporting Islamist terrorism. . . .” (Idem.)
44. It is also alleged by the same Euroopean intelligence sources that Ramadan was in operational contact with Al Qaeda’s #2 man—Ayman al-Zawahiri. “The last item recorded by the intelligence services: Tariq Ramadan and his brother allegedly organized a 1991 meeting in a Geneva hotel at which both Ayman al-Zawahiri, current al-Qaeda number 2, and Omar Abdel Rahman were present. What of these ‘liaisons dangereuses’? ‘I have never met these people.’ So many denials that do not impress Jean-Charles Brisard: ‘To-day there is a real stack of evidence pointing to Tariq Ramadan’s having had relations with several terrorists,’ he says. ‘He has renounced the Muslim Brotherhood but he shares their heritage. Under the cover of moderation, he is accumulating a radicalism that may encourage Jihad.’ ” (Idem.)
45. Numerous broadcasts have focused on the Bank Al Taqwa—the Muslim Brotherhood financial hub operated by former Third Reich intelligence operative Youssef Nada. (For more about Al Taqwa, see—among other programs.) FTRs 343, 352, 354, 356, 357, 359, 377, 378, 382, 423, 425, 432, 433, 435, 442, 447.) The broadcast sets forth the failure of the international investigation against Bank Al Taqwa. “An Egyptian-born businessman-accused more than two years ago by U.S. authorities of financing international terrorism from the heart of Europe—has evaded efforts to shut down his operations and is continuing to conduct business under new corporate identities according to European and United Nations officials.” (“ ‘Nobody’s Nagging’—Why the United States Is Losing the Battle against Financiers of International Terrorism” by Mark Hosenball and Michael Isikoff; Newsweek; 3/3/2004; p. 1; accessed at: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4441187 .)
46. “The faltering investigation of Youssef M. Nada, the notorious former head of a Swiss-and Bahamas-based Islamic financial network called Al-Taqwa, is the latest example of how the Bush administration’s much-publicized campaign to dismantle the financiers of international terrorism appears to be losing steam amid waning support from some foreign governments, the officials say.” (Idem.)
47. “Nada and several other directors of Al-Taqwa and related companies, including a mysterious Eritrean-born associate named Ahmed Idris Nasreddin, were formally designated terrorist financiers and, in November 2001, were placed on sanctions lists started by the U.S. Treasury Department after the September 11 terror attacks. Although they have never publicly disclosed much of their evidence against Nada, U.S. officials have said they acted on the basis of intelligence reports indicating that he served as the central banker for the Muslim Brotherhood, a secretive network of Islamic radicals that helped spawn Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda movement and other violent Islamic jihadi networks. Nada and his associates were also placed on similar lists maintained by the United Nations, signaling what was supposed to be a coordinated international effort to freeze his assets and close down his businesses.” (Ibid.; pp. 1–2.)
48. “But today, officials tell Newsweek, some of Nada’s various business operations appear to be very much alive. Swiss authorities, who had raided Nada’s offices and opened up a major criminal investigation, are on the verge of closing down the case-apparently unable to develop enough evidence to bring nada to court, European law-enforcement officials say.” (Ibid.; p. 2.)
49. “In the meantime, Nada has maintained business interests in Italy, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Nasreddin, his business partner, is believed to maintain his interests in luxury hotels in Milan, Italy. One way the two men have been able to continue operating is by exploiting loopholes in the international sanctions regime. Nada, for example, was supposed to have been barred from traveling outside his city of residence, a tiny enclave of Italian territory called Campione d’Italia that is surrounded on three sides by Switzerland and by a lake on the fourth. But the U.N. reported last year that Nada had traveled to Liechtenstein—a journey that he could only have made by transiting through Swiss territory, from which he had been banned. Nada’s trip was focused on starting proceedings to change the names of two of the companies designated by the U.N. and the United States as terrorist-financing entities.” (Idem.)
50. “U.N. and European law-enforcement sources said they could see no reason for Nada to seek to change the names of his companies unless they were still actively engaged in business or controlled some valuable assets and property. To try to find out what Nada was up to, authorities in Liechtenstein attempted to wrest control of one of the companies from Nada by forcibly appointing a former Liechtenstein government official as liquidator of the corporation. But law-enforcement sources tell Newsweek that Liechtenstein’s plan to take over the company failed, and Nada remains in charge of the operation.” (Idem.)
51. “The Liechtenstein effort against Nada isn’t the only one that fizzled. Swiss authorities last year served Nada with a formal notice that he can no longer enter Swiss territory, Newsweek has learned. Theoretically, because the Italian enclave where Nada lives is virtually surrounded by Switzerland, the only way he can leave is either by boat or air. But authorities acknowledge that Switzerland’s borders with Campione d’Italia are rarely if ever patrolled and that Nada has virtually carte blanche to leave when he pleases.” (Idem.)
52. “In a telephone interview from Campione d’Italia this week, Nada insisted that he had no financial ties to terrorists and defiantly seemed to mock the efforts to keep him bottled up in his hometown. ‘I never financed Osama bin Laden’s terrorist group,’ Nada said. ‘There is no way anyone ever had any evidence of that . I never broke any law in my life.’ ” (Idem.)
53. “As for the Swiss attempts to ban him from traveling through the country’s territory, Nada stated: ‘if any decision [like that] is made, there must be a way to enforce it.’ He then pointedly noted there was ‘no border control’ between Campione d’Italia and Switzerland. Nasreddin could not be located for comment, though in the past his lawyers have emphatically denied that he had any involvement in the financing of terrorism.” (Ibid.; p. 3.)
54. “Victor Comras, a former U.S. government sanctions expert and a member of a recently expired United Nations task force on international terrorism, said the Nada case is symptomatic of the loopholes and weaknesses in international ef
forts to shut down terrorist financiers. He said foreign interest in the issue appears to be fading—as does United States leadership in pushing for vigorous action. ‘This is an issue which requires constant nagging,’ said Comras, and ‘nobody’s nagging.’ ” (Idem.)
55. “But there may be other issues at play, some international experts say. Much of the evidence against Nada and other accused terrorist financiers is still based on secret intelligence that U.S. authorities have been extremely reluctant to share with foreign governments. U.S. treasury officials have pushed those governments, in Europe and the Middle East, to act on looser standards, saying it is simply unreasonable to expect judicial standards of proof when dealing with the shadowy world of terrorist financing, said one former U.S. official who was involved in the antiterror campaign. But governments in Europe and elsewhere have been reluctant to adopt the lower U.S. standards, leading to dialogue in which the communications are ‘lost in translation,’ the former official said.” (Idem.)
56. The program concludes with a look at information supplementing the examination of neo-Nazi connections to the events of 9/11. Specifically, the program develops information supplemental to FTR#443, detailing connections between the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Oklahoma City bombing, and 9/11. Andreas Strassmeir, the alleged mastermind of the OKC bombing and Timothy McVeigh’s alleged superior in the operational aspects of the attack is alleged in a 5/10/1995 FBI memorandum to have sought the purchase of a Boeing 747 from Lufthansa. The possibility that this may be an indication that neo-Nazis and Islamists were cooperatively plotting attacks like 9/11 in the mid-1990’s is not one to be too readily dismissed. ” . . . Extremists residing at Elohim City received military-style training from a number of sources. One of the trainers there was Andreas Carl Strassmeir of Germany, a neo-Nazi and the son of Guenter Strassmeir, a chief aide of disgraced former German chancellor Helmut Kohl. The elder Strassmeir is widely regarded as the architect of Kohl’s reunification plan that merged the former East Germany with the Federal Republic in 1991. And Guenter’s father was one of the original members of the Nazi Party in the early 1920’s.” (“Al Qaeda’s Neo-Nazi Connections” by William Grim; The Jewish Press; p. 3; accessed at: http://www.virtualjerusalem.com/news/infocus/?disp_feature=Ev2ztq.var .)
57. “Andreas Strassmeir is important to this story because he not only became a close friend and confidant of Timothy McVeigh, but also because he is regarded by many investigators as John Doe #2, the unknown person assisting McVeigh and Terry Nichols at the scene of the Oklahoma City bombing who was seen by a number of eyewitnesses.” (Ibid.; pp. 3–4.)
58. “In addition to training various neo-Nazi and militia groups, Strassmeir was involved in a number of very curious activities. According to an FBI report dated May 10, 1995, ‘Additional documents reveal that at one time Strassmeir was attempting to purchase a 747 aircraft from Lufthansa; however, the reason for the purchase is not reflected in the documents.’ In 1995 it would not have been unreasonable for an FBI investigator to give Strassmeir’s aborted airliner purchase gives one pause and raises the real possibility that 9/11 type attacks were being planned as far back as 1995 by insiders in the neo-Nazi/Islamic terrorist network. . . .” (Ibid.; p. 4.)
59. A German paper on the neo-Nazi/Islamist connection discusses dialogue written by Pierce in The Turner Diaries. The protagonist of this book (expressing the views of William Pierce, the book’s author) rants about his desire to see the “100 floors of the skyscraper fall.” The book also has an episode about a low-level, suicide aerial attack on the Pentagon. Note that Pierce foreshadowed the 9/11 attacks in 1998. See FTR#443.) “47 years later the Hitler worshipper William Pierce (born 1933) tells in his right-wing terrorist novel “The Turner Diaries” of a right-wing extremist Kamikaze-ing an airplane into the Pentagon. In an apocalyptic scene Pierce rejoices over the destruction of the center of the world capital-contaminated, Jewish-dominated New York. The neo-Nazi, writing under the alias Andrew MacDonald, says he desires to see the ‘100 floors of the skyscraper’ fall. Pierce’s book [The Turner Diaries] is a utopian fantasy, promoted as a neo-nazi Bible world-wide, as the publication of the diaries of the US-American right-wing extremist Earl Turner found in the years 2091 during excavations of the ruins of Washington, 100 years after the national revolution of 1991–93.” (“The Unholy Alliance Between the Swastika and the Crescent, Part I—Neo Nazis and Fundamentalist Islam” by Anton Maegerle; 12/12/2001; p. 2.)
Looking Back from 1984
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