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Financier of 9/11 attacks disappeared in Pakistan

Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, 'finance chief' of Al Qaeda has been identified by US agencies as the central figure in the September 11 terror strikes.

Senior US officials believe that al-Hawsawi funded most of the operation and "disappeared in Karachi just before the attacks," American media reports said.

The officials have accounted for over $ 325,000 spent on the US terror attacks and concluded that the money was transferred to the hijacking teams from suspected terrorist operatives in Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and a few other countries, Washington Post reported.

Al-Hawsawi, who uses different aliases, allegedly transferred most of the money used to pay for the hijackers' pilot training, living expenses and airline tickets in the United States, the paper said quoting investigators belonging to several US agencies, including treasury and justice departments and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

"The financial hub of this arrangement was the UAE where loose banking regulations and a large population of Islamic militants provided easy cover for the transfers," it said.

The US officials suggested that Mohammad Atta and three other hijackers "sent more than $ 25,000 to al-Hawsawi in Dubai shortly before the terror attacks and before he disappeared in Karachi, Pakistan."

Another person, Fayez Rashid A H Alqadi Banihammad, who died when the United Airlines flight 175 hit World Trade Centre's south tower, gave al-Hawsawi control of a bank account he had opened in Dubai last August.

Al-Hawsawi sent Banihammad ATM and credit cards connected to the account after the latter arrived in Florida. "Just before the hijacking, Banihammad transferred $ 8,000 into the same account".

The authorities have traced the money through credit card receipts, ATM withdrawals and other transactions connected with the 19 suspected hijackers. The rest of the expenditure for the operation, estimated to have cost about $ 500,000, "were made in cash," the report said.

The US investigators told the daily that the financial systems in Pakistan, Germany and other countries "were also used to funnel money to accounts controlled by suspected ringleader Atta and other hijackers."

Intelligence officials said Al Qaeda raised the money through means as varied as credit card frauds, diamond trafficking and sale of honey.

The report said the investigators were still working with foreign intelligence and police agencies to assemble a clearer picture of the early stages of the plot's financing.

The US has already frozen over $ 33 million in assets of more than 150 individuals and organisations that allegedly fund terrorism. These include Lashkar-e-Tayiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Umma Tameer-e-Nau, the last one accused of providing information on nuclear weapons to Al Qaeda.

A similar amount has been frozen in bank accounts overseas by 142 other nations cooperating with US.

PTI

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