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Ceremonies of 9/11 Airbrush Out Bailed-Out Banks' Money Laundering Role

By Matthew Russell Lee

PENNSYLVANIA, September 11 -- What a difference a year makes. On the tenth anniversary of 9/11/01, Barrack Obama came to Shanksville here in Western Pennsylvania, held a photo-op reflecting on the rock marking where Flight 93 crashed.

  Today, despite extensive citation of killing Osama bin Laden in the campaign, Vice President Joe Biden is given the task. The Democrats are said to "own" the Osama bin Laden and wider 9/11 issues.

  Or do they?

  Largely forgotten is the role in 2001 of US banks in moving money for the planners and planning of the attacks. Click here for longer report by Inner City Press.

  On February 6, 2001, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, government witness Jamal Ahmed al-Fadl, the former chief financial officer (or "paymaster") of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization, was questioned under oath during a trial related to the bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

  He was asked: "do you know if anyone else had accounts for al Qaeda outside of Sudan?" He replied that "Abu Fadhl al Makkee Madana al Tayyab, he got an account in London."

Q: "You said he had an account where?"

A: "In Barclays Bank in London."

Q: "Any other place you are aware of from your work where al Qaeda had accounts?"

A: "I don't know the name of the bank, but I know they got account in Malaysia and in Hong Kong... Khalifa al Omani, he got an account in Dubai."

   Barclays, of course, has been back in the news in 2012 for its murky dealings, all the while pledging to get out of the "risky" businesses it says are unfairly tarnishing its reputation.

   A US-based bank that appears to some to be beyond shame is Citigroup. Citi's private banking clients have included Nigeria's ex-dictator Sani Abacha and Stroessner of Paraguay.

  Regarding September 11, Citigroup proffered one of its longest media-responses to date, stating that "[w]e provide typical banking services to the Saudi Binladin Group which has denounced and completely disowned Osama bin Laden. We can't comment on activity with respect to specific accounts. However we are monitoring the situation closely. In addition, we are committed to cooperating in any way possible with the government's far-reaching investigation and the on going battle against terrorism."

   Typically, Citigroup in 2001 hired the Federal Reserve's money laundering expert Richard A. Small.

 Click here to read Mr. Small's 1999 Senate testimony, blithely concluding that "[t]he banking system has a significant interest in protecting itself from being used by criminal elements. Individual banking organizations have committed substantial resources and achieved noticeable success in creating operational environments that are designed to protect their institutions from unknowingly doing business with unsavory customers...".

  The issue with Citigroup, then and now: Citi's business with unsavory customers does not appear to be "unknowing."

   Citigroup, of course, received one of the largest of the government bailouts. We are preparing a piece on Citi's dealing, including through former US Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, with the UAE: watch this site.

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