al Qaeda-Linked Web Site: $10 Million A Month Needed For Taliban in 2001

By J.M. Berger

INTELWIRE.com



In spring 2001, a Web site allegedly linked to al Qaeda told visitors that the Taliban needed to raise $10 million a month in order to repel a chemical weapons attack on Afghanistan by the United States.



A Web page on the site advised volunteers on how to carry large amounts of cash through international airports. "Trustworthy members" of local Muslim communities were told to deliver cash monthly to Pakistan, from where it would be transported to Afghanistan.



The Web site, azzam.com, is detailed in an indictment filed by U.S. prosecutors last week against Babar Ahmad, a British Webmaster alleged to have used the site to raise funds for terrorism.



The site is no longer active, but INTELWIRE has recovered several pages of the site from the Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org). The pages were posted in early and mid-2001, just months before the September 11 attack on America. (related story)



A page labeled "How You Can Help The Taliban" (mirror) was dated "Spring 2004." According to the page, "at this moment in time, cash donations are required more than other due to an expected strike on Afghanistan by Russian and American Special Forces."



The Web page strongly urges readers to send cash to the Taliban: "Our analysis, it is a bigger priority for Muslim organisations to help the Taliban at this time than to help any other Muslim cause in the World," including the Palestinians.



The page also offers advice on moving large amounts of cash across borders and through airports. The site advises, in capital letters and bold type:



"UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES MUST ANY OF THE MONEY BE HANDED OVER TO ANY OFFICIAL OF ANY AIRPORT OR COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, EVEN FOR A FEW SECONDS. IF THERE IS A MAJOR PROBLEM, SAY THAT YOU WILL RETURN BACK TO YOUR COUNTRY WITH THE MONEY BUT THAT YOU WILL NOT HAND OVER THE MONEY TO ANYONE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, EXCEPT ITS INTENDED RECIPIENTS. IF THEY OFFER TO KEEP THE MONEY SAFELY FOR YOU UNTIL YOU DEPART, REFUSE AND INSIST TO STAY WITH THE MONEY, EVEN IF IT MEANS STAYING IN THE AIRPORT UNTIL THE NEXT FLIGHT." (Typos and capitals are from the original.)



The site also advised those carrying money to take the cash to Pakistan, where it would be transferred through the Taliban's consulate there.



According to the Web page, "There are many things the Taliban is unable to do due to the lack of funds. As a reasonable estimate, at least $10 million a month are required in donations from outside the country to be of any meaningful use."

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British Suspect's Web Site Praised Taliban, bin Laden Before 9/11

By J.M. Berger

INTELWIRE.com



According to a U.S. indictment, Webmaster Babar Ahmad deleted dozens of files from his jihadi Web site, azzam.com, in the wake of September 11. The site is no longer active at all.



But the Internet has a long memory. INTELWIRE has recovered two pages hosted on Azzam.com prior to the September 11 attack, which praised the Taliban and defended the sect's decision to protect Osama bin Laden against U.S. extradition attempts.



The pages, recovered from the Internet Archive (http://archive.org), are mirrored here for the use of news media and terrorism researchers. Both pages were live on azzam.com during 2001, prior to September 11, according to the Archive's records. Some images and links are non-functional. Links to pages hosted on archive.org may load on a second or third attempt, but some are non-functional.

UPDATE: Qaeda-Linked Site Sought $10 Million A Month For Taliban

The first page, an index of Taliban-related material, bears the headline "Taliban: Allah's Blessing on Afghanistan." It contains pictures and links to various articles about the Taliban, as well as to a page titled "What you can do to help the Taliban (01 Feb 2001)." That page could not be loaded as of this time of this update.



The second page defends the Taliban's policy of harboring Osama bin Laden, despite U.S. attempts to apprehend him for trial.



The author of the page asks: "What type of Shariah (Islamic law) is it that fails to protect the lives and well-beings of Muslim refugees from their enemies? Why did Usama bin Ladin go to Afghanistan? Because that was the only country in the World where he could be safe from the persecution he was facing for his religion."



Repeating an argument used by Ramzi Yousef, among others, to justify terrorist attacks on the United States, the author challenges the U.S. designation of bin Laden as a criminal by drawing parallels to the atomic bombing of Japan in World War II:



"And which nation is it that has labelled Usama bin Ladin a terrorist and a criminal for allegedly causing the deaths of a few dozen Americans?" the author writes. "Is it the same nation that was the only nation in history to use atomic weapons in anger, when it dropped two nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, killing over 220,000 Japanese? Weren't those people human beings as well? Or do Japanese not count as human beings like Americans do?"



Later, the author states, "It is very clear to any intelligent individual, Muslim or not, that it is not possible to plan and execute bombings of embassies and ships sitting in a barren country thousands of miles away with no telephone lines, broken highways and where most of the population gets its electricity from diesel generators."



Babar Ahmad was arrested in the U.K. and faces extradition charges related to publishing the Azzam Web site, soliciting funds for use in terrorism and conspiracy to support terrorism (external link).



U.S. authorities also said Ahmad was found in possession of classified information sent by an active U.S. Navy enlistee stationed with a carrier group in 2001. As reported previously on INTELWIRE, al Qaeda is known to have infiltrated the U.S. military both before and after the Gulf War, and the terror network actively recruited U.S. veterans during the early 1990s with the assistance of at least one active duty serviceman. (related story)

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Nearly 3,000 Pounds Of Ammonium Nitrate Stolen In N.C.; Volatile Fertilizer Often Used In al Qaeda Truck Bombs

By J.M. Berger

INTELWIRE.com





UPDATED: 8/3/2004, 2:52 p.m.



Nearly 3,000 pounds of stolen ammonium nitrate are unaccounted for in North Carolina, even as the U.S. braces itself against a possible al Qaeda truck bomb attack.



Mixed with fuel oil, ammonium nitrate is a favored ingredient used in al Qaeda truck bombs.



Two and a half tons of the volatile fertilizer were stolen from a Royster-Clark fertilizer plant in Winston-Salem, N.C. in early July, according to the Winston-Salem Police Department. Nearly a month after the theft was reported, 2,950 pounds are still unaccounted for, police said Monday. The rest was recovered.



A July 30 bulletin from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security warned of al Qaeda's frequent use of ammonium nitrate as a bomb component, also noting its use in Oklahoma City. The bulletin also cited recent instances in which al Qaeda has stockpiled ammonium nitrate abroad.



The unsolved theft from a North Carolina facility looms large as local and federal authorities responded to a Department of Homeland Security announcement that al Qaeda may be planning a truck bomb attack against U.S. financial centers in New York City and Washington, D.C.



Lt. Connie Southern of the Wintston-Salem Police told INTELWIRE Monday that police had recovered 41 of the stolen 50-pound bags of fertilizer.



According to the Winston-Salem Journal, which first reported the theft on July 9, most of the recovered bags were found in vacant houses in the area and in an area home.



The remaining 59 bags are still presumably in the hands of the thieves. Dozens of similar 50-pound bags were purchased by Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh for use in the Oklahoma City bombing.



Winston-Salem police have no leads in the case, Southern said, and there were no clues to indicate who might have stolen the material. Southern said the investigation was expanded to include the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.



But a source at the ATF who asked not to be named would say only that the bureau was aware of the theft. The ATF source could provide no information on the status of the investigation nor any details of the case.



A call to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. was referred to the FBI's Charlotte field office, which referred the call to another agent. That call had not been returned at the time of this update. A call to the Department of Homeland Security was not returned at the time of this update. As of the latest update, INTELWIRE could not confirm that any active investigation of the case currently exists at the federal level.



Winston-Salem police have not been informed of any change in the status of the investigation since Sunday's terror alert from the Department of Homeland Security, according to Southern. The management of Royster-Clark is cooperating with the investigation, she said.



Ammonium nitrate can be used to make crystal meth, a powerful illegal stimulant. While the theft in Winston-Salem could be tied to drugs, that doesn't necessarily preclude a terror risk.



The crystal meth business has itself been tied to terrorist activity on more than one occasion. The DEA said in 2002 that a nationwide methamphetamine drug ring had funneled money to Hezbollah and other Middle Eastern terrorist groups.



Timothy McVeigh is believed to have used crystal meth, but it's not clear whether he used it regularly. At McVeigh's trial, two close associates -- Michael and Lori Fortier -- admitted to being frequent users of the drug.



Crystal meth labs also use propane tanks, which have also been used in truck bombs.

Orange Alert Warns Of Truck Bombs

On Sunday, Department of Homeland Security director Tom Ridge announced an "orange alert" for specific financial institutions in New York City, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. The report said the alert was based on extremely specific intelligence, which indicated that al Qaeda may use truck or car bombs to attack specific buildings.



New intelligence obtained by the United States shows that al Qaeda has researched "the different types of materials that in fact should be brought into different types of vehicles, and to address whether or not certain materials can, if detonated, cause, in fact, buildings to collapse," a senior intelligence official said Sunday during a background briefing.



Winston-Salem is a small town in the northwestern corner of North Carolina. It's about a six-hour drive from Washington, D.C., and nine hours from New York City.



Winston-Salem is also less than 40 minutes from Greensboro, N.C., where 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed attended college during the 1980s.



Police recently discovered a half-ton cache of ammonium nitrate being stored by suspected al Qaeda terrorists in London. Several British news outlets reported today that an attack in the U.K. was indicated in the same intelligence that prompted the U.S. alert.



Ramzi Yousef used another commercial fertilizer, urea nitrate, in a truck bomb attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. Some accounts have suggested that he used ammonium nitrate as part of the detonating mechanism.



A New York City terrorist cell linked to both Yousef and al Qaeda planned to use ammonium nitrate to attack NYC landmarks with truck bombs in 1993. That attack was foiled by authorities before it could be completed.



Soon after, Timothy McVeigh destroyed the Alfred E. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City with a bomb employing four to five thousand pounds of ammonium nitrate, mixed with a volatile racing fuel. (related story)



The 2002 Bali nightclub bombing is believed to have used ammonium nitrate as its main component. The fertilizer was also used in an attack on the U.S. embassy in Karachi in 2002. al Qaeda is believed to be linked to both those attacks. Authorities have recovered large caches of the fertilizer from suspected terrorists in various southeast Asian locations since the Bali attack. Several tons of ammonium nitrate were recently reported stolen in Australia.



Other reports of explosives theft have surfaced around the country. In San Mateo County, northern California, more than 200 pounds of explosives were stolen from a government facility. The stolen explosives included "C4, grenades, grenade simulators, signal flares, detonation cord, TNT, fuses and blasting caps," according to the Tri-Valley Herald newspaper. Four suspects have been indicted, and "most" of the explosives have been recovered.



According to the Juneau Empire Online, "an unknown quantity of safety fuse and one-pound canisters of Pentex cast boosters, a high explosive," were stolen from an Alaskan company in July.

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