By Ron Beasley
The Bush administration looks out for it's friends even when they support the terrorists. (Hat Tip to John Cole)
Indicted Saudi Gets $80 Million US Contract
The US military has awarded an $80 million contract to a prominent Saudi financier who has been indicted by the US Justice Department. The contract to supply jet fuel to American bases in Afghanistan was awarded to the Attock Refinery Ltd, a Pakistani-based refinery owned by Gaith Pharaon. Pharaon is wanted in connection with his alleged role at the failed Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), and the CenTrust savings and loan scandal, which cost US tax payers $1.7 billion.
The Saudi businessman was also named in a 2002 French parliamentary report as having links to informal money transfer networks called hawala, known to be used by traders and terrorists, including Al Qaeda.
Interestingly, Pharaon was also an investor in President George W. Bush's first business venture, Arbusto Energy.
The Bush crime family is starting to make the Cosa Nostra look like good guys.
Ok, I'm a big fan of Newshoggers, but this may be the stupidest post yet. May be. "Hawala" is an informal banking system often in use in Muslim circles. To say that a Saudi businessman has been involved in hawala is like saying an American businessman has been involved in internet money transfer. Unless there is specific evidence of having been personally involved with or covering over transfers involving terrorists, this post is guilty of cultural ignorance.
ReplyDeleteAnd this too at Cole's: This is like saying that bank transfers are used by Midwestern housewives and inner city crack dealers. The fact that he and al Qaeda both used hawala is about as loose, and useless, association you can possibly make. They are used because they avoid riba (interest or more technically �increase�) on the use of money.
ReplyDeleteKlaus
ReplyDeleteYou and the commentor at BJ may be right about hawala but the fact remains that Pharaon is wanted by the FBI. Since much of al-Qaeda's money comes from Saudi Arabia it would not be too surprising if Pharaon was involved.
The Pharoan family are hardly what one could call radicals; they jet-set, drink, throw lavish parties, go yachting around the mediteranean, etc etc etc. He may be wanted by the FBI but I'm 99.999% certain that he will be off the terrorism list as soon as they meet him. Corruption is another stoy, though.
ReplyDeleteSo you assume that, since he is a corrupt Saudi businessman, it "would not be too surprising" if he was involved with AQ money. Well. Quite a generalisation, that. Lefties evidently have no problem with prejudice when it comes to rich Muslims. Rather like the Dubai Ports idiocy.
ReplyDeleteThe more interesting aspect of this is the BCCI connection. You know who else had connections to the BCCI? Ahmed Chalabi, who was "tried and convicted in absentia on 31 charges of embezzlement, theft, misuse of depositor funds and currency speculation" for the disappearance of some $200 million in his Petra Bank collapse. Chalabi's partners in Petra Bank included the Al Nihayan family, who were major shareholders in BCCI.
ReplyDeleteIt's highly ignorant to imply that someone is a terrorist supporter just because they have 'connections' to one or more hawala networks. Hawala is a very widely used way to send money (remittances and otherwise) in and to areas and cultures not well served by formal banking structures or outfits like Western Union. The vast majority of hawala users have nothing to do with money laundering or terrorist financing.
ReplyDeleteThe notion that hawala networks are nothing but terror funding outfits originated among the islamophobe right and should stay there. I expect better of Newshoggers writers than to uncritically propagate right wing smears.
Hi Klaus and Curmudgeon,
ReplyDeleteRon has already said you're correct about hawala in general. Give him a break, eh guys? We've all committed something to writing and later thought "oh chit, that's not how I wanted to phrase it".
However, on Gaith Phaeron's own possible connections to Al Qaeda - there are various rumors and allegations of a connection with Osama binLaden via Sheik Khalid bin Mahfouz and BCCI. You can Google them. I did, before I committed myself to comment.
Regards, C
Why do we need this suspicious character to supply our jet fuel to US pilots in Afghanistan? An 80 million dollar contract. How much of that is profit for Bush's old classmate/chum Pharon?
ReplyDeleteHas Bush/Cheney done anything--anything at all--right? This is a serious and legitimate question.