Travelers pulling suitcases full of cash started showing up at Sea-Tac Airport last year holding tickets for flights headed out of the United States.
Transporting large amounts of cash overseas isn’t illegal. But it was who was carrying the money … and where it was going that caught the attention of security officials.
“It’s not against the law. You can travel outside the United States with as much money as you choose, as long as you declare it,” said Mike Bol, who heads U.S. Customs and Border Protection operations at the airport.
The people carrying the cash didn’t hide the fact from Customs. Just the opposite, they reported it. Anyone traveling out of the United States is required to declare any amount over $10,000 and fill out a one-page federal form.These reports are what caught the attention of terrorism investigators in Seattle.
“The thing was the amount, the staggering amount,” said Glenn Kerns, who was assigned to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) at the time.The couriers were working for Seattle-area hawalas – businesses that derive their name from the Arabic word for “transfer.” Hawalas are part of a traditional system of informal banking in Muslim communities.Seattle and King County are home to tens of thousands of immigrants and refugees from East Africa, many of whom use the hawalas to send much-needed money back to loved ones in their homelands. Given the presence of active terrorist organizations in Somalia, investigators worry that some of the money shipped home by Somalis up in the hands of the Al Qaeda affiliate active there.“(They) have Al Shabaab, which has been designated a terrorist organization, and our concern is how much money is going to them?” said Kerns.Kerns said the first cash shipment rolled through Sea-Tac early last year. A man carrying $750,000 in cash told Customs officials he was transporting the money overseas. Over the next several months, couriers carrying as much as $2 million boarded commercial flights at Sea-Tac.“One hawala – Seattle hawala – sent out $20 million last year,” said Kerns.Hawalas have been under intense scrutiny by the federal government since the Sept. 11 attacks. The...
The damage done by the traitor in the White House is incalculable. The devastating effects of his disastrous administration will be felt for generations to come.
The last time the federal government designated a U.S. charity as a front for terrorist fundraising, President Barack Obama had been in office for less than a month and Osama bin Laden was still at large. On Feb. 11, 2009, the Treasury Department designated the Tamil Foundation, a Maryland-based charity allegedly raising funds for the Tamil Tigers, a Sri Lankan foreign terrorist organization that today barely exists.
Since then, the Obama administration has overseen a financial war against Iran and targeted the oil revenue of the Islamic State. The Treasury Department has pressured banks to cut ties with terrorist fronts and worked closely with Gulf states to modernize financial systems and crack down on dodgy charities and other money launderers.
But the practice of blacklisting charities inside the U.S., a key tool of President George W. Bush’s war on terrorism, has come to a standstill under Obama.
Many experts and some members of Congress are beginning to ask why. Susan Phalen, the communications director for the House Homeland Security Committee told me this week that her committee was beginning to look into the issue. Jonathan Schanzer, a former terrorism finance analyst at Treasury, told me, “My understanding, based on conversations with...
A Polite Society Is An Armed Society...
...Because They Actually Want To PREVENT Vote Fraud...
Despicable...
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This is a news article about the traitors in the White House.
TEL AVIV – A senior Iranian missile force commander claimed that U.S. officials are secretly instructing the Islamic Republic to keep its ballistic missile tests secret so as not to alarm the region, according to the Iranian Tasnim News Agency.
Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Aerospace and Missile Force, said in an address to students in Qom on May 14 that the Obama administration is anxious that the missile tests remain clandestine so as not to raise questions about whether Iran is adhering to the nuclear deal.
“At this time, the Americans are telling [us]: ‘Don’t talk about missile affairs, and if you conduct a test or maneuver, don’t mention it,’ ” Hajizadeh was quoted as saying in the speech translated by MEMRI.
“If we agree to this, they will advance another step, and say....
“The thing was the amount, the staggering amount,” said Glenn Kerns, who was assigned to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) at the time.
