Fotix Posted December 6, 2002 Share Posted December 6, 2002 (edited) BOSTON -- Customs agents raided a Boston-area software company early Friday as part of an investigation that it may have ties to terrorists, according to broadcast reports and a federal law enforcement official. The company, Ptech Inc., has clients who include the FBI, U.S. Naval air systems, the U.S. Air Force, NATO, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the Department of Energy, according to its Web site. ABC News reported that the company was raided in the middle of the night by Customs agents. According to the report, the raid was coordinated by the White House. A federal law enforcement official who spoke to the Associated Press confirmed the raid. "We're investigating whether a businessman on the list of alleged or potential terrorist financiers is a part-owner of the firm," a federal law enforcement official who requested anonymity told the AP. "The question is whether there is a potential for U.S. government computer systems being compromised. For example, does the software company have the ability to access computer systems using knowledge of the software?" The list of alleged or potential terrorist financiers is compiled by the Treasury Department. Messages left with Quincy-based Ptech weren't immediately returned, and no one could be seen at the company's office. Boston FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz said she had no immediate comment. A spokesman at U.S. Customs in Washington said information about the case was being handled by the U.S. Attorney in Massachusetts. The U.S. Attorney's Office did not have an immediate comment. Copyright 2002 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. SOURCE: Quicken Brokerage http://www.msnbc.com/news/844016.asp http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=200212...06-012417-9371r Edited December 6, 2002 by Fotix Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y2K2 Posted December 6, 2002 Share Posted December 6, 2002 all news held on msnbc is all biased.... :crazy: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fotix Posted December 6, 2002 Author Share Posted December 6, 2002 all news held on msnbc is all biased.... :crazy: Ummm, it's by the Associated Press and NBC News. MSNBC pays them a fee for their newswire. I'll edit some more links in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y2K2 Posted December 6, 2002 Share Posted December 6, 2002 its very obvious that anything that happens out of the ordinary its all blamed on the Al-qaeda...its plain stupid..any money stolen or lost ..its blamed on the taliban etc..blah blah..its all bulSh*te..anything that happend in america..its linked to middle east area..its a arab or a muslim..it just goes on..... its all a conspiracy :ninja: :alien: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makki Posted December 7, 2002 Share Posted December 7, 2002 A Massachusetts software company whose clients include the FBI (news - web sites), Air Force and Navy was searched by federal agents looking for links to a Saudi businessman who in turn is believed to be connected to al-Qaida, government officials said Friday. Agents from the Customs Service, FBI, Internal Revenue Service (news - web sites) and other agencies, armed with a search warrant, went to the offices of Ptech Inc. late Thursday to look for information on Yasin al-Qadi. He is on the Treasury Department (news - web sites)'s list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists whose assets should be immediately frozen. Al-Qadi, who is from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, heads the Saudi-based Muwafaq (Blessed Relief) Foundation, which Treasury officials allege is an al-Qaida front used to funnel millions of dollars to the terrorist organization. No arrests were made but agents did recover evidence from Ptech, which consented to the search. Officials declined to specify what was found. U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan of Boston said the search involved "an ongoing financial crime investigation" but said an affidavit supporting the warrant was sealed by court order. Federal law enforcement officials say al-Qadi once was a key investor in Ptech, located in the Boston suburb of Quincy. They want to know whether al-Qadi still has a relationship with the company and whether information obtained in the search could lead them to other entities with which he was involved, a law enforcement official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Joseph Johnson, vice president of professional services at Ptech, said al-Qadi has no ties to the company now but "may have had something to do with it nine years ago" when the company started. "There isn't anything going on here," Johnson said. "We're a small software company. What we do doesn't give us access to information that is top secret." Ptech provides sophisticated financial tracking and budgeting software to big companies and to numerous government agencies, including the FBI, Energy Department, Air Force, Navy, NATO (news - web sites) and U.S. House. The software is not involved in classified areas but does handle sensitive data. The company's software code was checked by the government to determine if outsiders could read or steal any sensitive data from the government, or embed the code with something destructive, officials said. Those checks began months ago, when the probe of Ptech started. "The material has been reviewed by the appropriate government agencies and they have detected absolutely nothing in their reports to the White House that would lead to any concern," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites). White House officials helped coordinate the search but "didn't orchestrate this," Fleischer said. "Anything that may be terrorist-related, of course, gets coordinated with the White House," he said. No one answered the door or the phone Friday at the home of the company's chairman and chief executive officer, Oussama Ziade. A man who answered the phone at the home of vice president Hussein Ibrahim said Ibrahim was unavailable. Neither Ziade nor Ibrahim appear on any government lists of suspected terrorists. Public records in Massachusetts say Ptech has ties to BMI Inc., a now-defunct Seacaucus, N.J., company that law enforcement officials also have linked to al-Qadi. Johnson said he had no knowledge of a BMI connection; the records show BMI financed Ptech computer and telephone equipment during the 1990s. Federal law enforcement officials said the Ptech connection to al-Qadi was disclosed months ago by Ptech employees themselves. The FBI has been investigating the case for months and recently was joined by the Customs Service, which obtained the search warrant. The investigation is part of a broader Customs-led program known as "Operation Green Quest," a multiagency task force that has served 114 search warrants in the past 14 months involving suspected terrorist financing networks. The effort has resulted in 50 arrests, 28 indictments and the seizure of about $27.4 million, Customs officials said. Terror Investigators Raid Mass. Company SlideShow Source Associated Press Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thingsforjason Posted December 7, 2002 Share Posted December 7, 2002 already posted. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makki Posted December 7, 2002 Share Posted December 7, 2002 showme where its posted then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thingsforjason Posted December 7, 2002 Share Posted December 7, 2002 https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?act=...=ST&f=8&t=53718 just so you know...no big deal :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keldyn Posted December 7, 2002 Share Posted December 7, 2002 Threads Merged Article Posted. Thanks guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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