Firm Raided for Suspected 'Terror' Link-U.S. Air Force, NATO are some of its clients

Friday December 06, 2002 21:10

by 02+36

Boston-Area Firm Raided for Suspected 'Terror' Link

BOSTON (Reuters) - Federal agents early on Friday seized documents in a raid on a small software firm near Boston that does business with the U.S. government and is suspected of funding "terrorism," a law enforcement source said.

ABC News reported earlier on Friday that agents had raided the privately held firm, Ptech Inc. The network said the company was allegedly controlled by Qassin al-Kadi, one of 12 Saudi businessmen accused of funneling millions of dollars to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network.

But a federal law enforcement source familiar with the operation denied ABC's report that the government feared the firm may have provided al Qaeda with access to federal agency computers.

Agents had a search warrant, the source said, but it wasn't needed as the company allowed agents to come in and take whatever they wanted.

The Ptech investigation involves allegations the owners and people who run the company were involved in a charitable organization that funnels money to the Middle East, and that some of the money had been used to fund "terrorism," the source said.

"This may turn out to be a big nothing. But it's still open," the source said.

The U.S. Attorney's office in Boston said no arrests were made during the raid, but declined further comment.

The FBI and other unnamed intelligence agencies have interviewed former Ptech employees, according to people familiar with the investigation.

The FBI's Boston office referred telephone calls to the U.S. Attorney's office in Boston.

Ptech, which is based in Quincy, Massachusetts, does business with government agencies, including the FBI and the U.S. Department of Energy, according to the firm's Web site.

Ptech also lists NATO, the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Air Force as clients.

The company, incorporated in Delaware, develops architecture software, which allows companies to create a master blueprint of their operations and potential capabilities. No one appeared to be present at its Quincy offices on Friday morning after the raid, and the front door was locked, a Reuters photographer said.

According to incorporation papers filed in Massachusetts, Oussama Ziade is the co-founder of Ptech. He also has served as the firm's chief executive and chairman. Ziade was not immediately available for comment.

Boston-Area Firm Raided for Suspected 'Terror' Link
Fri December 6, 2002 11:35 AM ET

By Tim McLaughlin

In a civil lawsuit filed earlier this year against two former employees in U.S. District Court in Boston, Ptech said IBM Corp. was a major customer, accounting for about 20 percent of the firm's revenue last year. Ptech said in the March complaint that it expected to generate $3 million in revenue from IBM in 2002 and up to $10 million in total revenue.

IBM spokesman Jeff Gluck confirmed Ptech is one of IBM's 90,000 business partners.

Al Qaeda, headed by Osama bin Laden, is believed to be responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 hijack attacks in the United States that killed more than 3,000 people.

(Additional reporting by Greg Frost in Boston and James Vicini in Washington)

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Comments (4 of 4)

a link you might ponder.

by 23

Fri Dec 06, 2002 22:45

like pondering Italian cancer rates.

depleted uranium.

bad stuff.

for the lungs and fish.

it´s all bad for the fish.
no wonder the dolphins are so pissed off.

think about Yugoslavia.

koliko kosta mir?
means how much does peacfe cost.
the "s" has a little upside down triangle thing on.
like one of these { oh dear i can´t make it.
anyway Kundera (Milan) the czech writer he of Prague youth wrote at length (paid by the word :-O milan! :-)) about the beauty of Czech as a language and having little signs over the "C".
hmmm.
there´s a little "{" over the "S".
and strangely enough it´s still the same in Serbian and Croat as a language.

They got officially seperated you know, did you know? does it matter anymore, please know, ask the q

it´s a long link.

by psiphi

Fri Dec 06, 2002 22:48

it´s more a thread. just scroll down
listen to the voices.
Serbian
Croatian
English language
saying
wow
WAR
fkd us up.
&
always
does.
....................where as
............................Lovely does it.

= behave Gardaí.
...............you are Irish.
.............................no?

maybe

by profesi

Fri Dec 06, 2002 23:01

pure speculation:

the Bushies are setting up an imaginary al Qaeda-IRA connection to help the Brits justify the Iraq war?

When I read 'Boston' and Terrorism in the same sentence, I think 'IRA'.

just a thought

Sat Dec 07, 2002 12:50

the Bushies are at war or war -preparedness [their term for Prague NATO 2002 agenda{22,000 troops from the "East" at preparedness} in a week]

They desolated Afghanistan.
They are covert in South America
They are covert in Africa
They are not forgotten to have exchanged embassy and spy plane with the Chinese....ooops.

They are enforcing a no fly zone over Iraq.
THey are wondering around the globe exercising and practising.

The Bushy 2 said we are all @ WAR.

Saddam Hussein was a monster who took control of the world´s second oil richest states in the 1960s. His route to power was quick, with storng support from his tribal community he quickly became a core policy maker in the "socialist-radical-international" parties then taking control of Syria and Iraq.
He so quickly became a tyrant.
Iran fell in the late 1970s and the islamic revolution of A. Khomeini meant the birth of modern armed wing islamist "extremism".
Iraq and Iran fought a desolating war for a decade with military, political, and spiritual assistance from both Washington and Moscow.
No-one could make up thier mind who won.

Hussein was a monster of the 20th century.
The Bushies are calling his demise.
But who is there this time to take control of a very oil rich state which straddles over five distinct nations?

If this war is not about Oil.
If this war is not about religion [the ethnic cultural stream so different between Iraq and Iran that their peoples could wage unconcscripted war for five years] then it is about Politics.

Politics for us, the Western Civilisation, of which Ireland is a key part, currently means the application of anglo-american hegomony and eurocentric secure oil and gas supply for the forthcoming 30 years.

This war is a common place kind of thing.
The WAR is not.
the U.S.A. and Israel appear to be being attacked on multiple fronts by an enemy whose supporters have no fear of suicide. They call it a "holy war".
Sadam Hussein never called a "holy war".

Now if the U.S.A. thinks it wise to open two fronts in a very serious war/WAR against the international islamic terrorists proclaiming Jihad against the Western Civlisation of which Ireland is a key part...then we must think seriously fo how a war publically declared after a simultaenous arial attack on Washington and NYC last year, would escalate.

2002.
We have now seen the twin towers horns of the beast capitalism burn down.
We have now seen Paradise Hotel bombed and turned into inferno.
We have now felt sinking prestige of Western Cilivisation´s capabilities of fighting this enemy to peace. We begin to wonder if the freedom of capital which is what at base is sought by Western Civilisation has only returned to levels seen in 1914 [source Economist global review spring 2002] then it has done so without serious interaction with two global blocks.
Those of Islam and China.

The problems and hearts and minds of the Iraqi and other five nations that live in the state of Iraq are worlds apart from the problems, hearts and minds of those in Indonesia or Muslim Africa.

But the problems hearts and minds of those who wage high tech WAR upon them are the same.

IT seems to some of us now as always
that SALLUST roman satirist was right.

ONly by the quality of its friedships will a kingdom survive and not the strength of its enemies.

For the enemies appear to be beginning to see what they have in common.
& I for one find the idea of the soldiers of the Earth facing each other somewhat troublesome.
PEACE
SALEEM
SHALOM

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Firm Raided for Suspected 'Terror' Link-U.S. Air Force, NATO are some of its clients

Comments (4 of 4)