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CNN Saturday Morning News

Software Company Possible Financial Ties to Terrorist

Aired December 07, 2002 - 07:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Officials with a suburban Boston software company say that they are cooperating with an investigation into alleged financial ties to a suspected terrorist money man. Federal agents raided the firm PTech more than 24 hours ago. They downloading information from all of its computers. The company officials, meanwhile, are denying any wrongdoing.
Let's talk about this case now with CNN security analyst Kelly McCann. Good morning, nice to have you with us this morning.

KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Hi, Catherine.

CALLAWAY: Tell us about PTech. This is a company that has long arms, even has some government agencies attached to it.

MCCANN: It does. Primarily what they do is, they provide financial tracking kinds of software, budgetary kinds of software. So initially what might have concerned people about operational issues, it looks like it's primarily finance related.

CALLAWAY: Suspected terrorist money man Yassan al-Qadi, is that his name? What would be, you know, his participation in this company? He could be completely innocent in his involvement. What is the fear, though, of authorities?

MCCANN: Well, as reported, al-Qadi basically was one of the initial financiers of the whole operation...

CALLAWAY: Right.

MCCANN: ... so it could be totally innocent, that mean -- it might be just an honorable business venture, even though he might have had some other interests even at that time.

Then again, I mean, it could go, and I'm sure that's what they're investigating, all the way down to, is this, does this, could this mean preferential hiring practices? In other words, if he is linked, could he have influenced the placing of people who are sympathetic to al Qaeda in order to see the way that we track funds and all of that?

So that's interesting. I mean, they're going to look at all of those things, Catherine, before they make their judgments.

CALLAWAY: And getting specific on this, really, Kelly, we mean, like, if al Qaeda decided that they needed someone in the Justice Department or whatever agency is attached to this company, he would have had influence on getting that person into the company to have access to that agency.

MCCANN: Exactly, and to know, in fact, as they know, international movement of money is key to al Qaeda.

CALLAWAY: Right.

MCCANN: If they were placed in a position in order to know how the government does track some budgetary information and finances, it would be advantageous to them. So, I mean, and that's putting your Machiavellian hat on. It's -- we're putting the cart before the horse. But it makes sense to move that way.

CALLAWAY: It seems that Hassam would have something over the federal agencies in that he would have the ability to know how to do sort of duck and cover money operations internationally.

MCCANN: Sure, but remember that also why he was of such great interest was because he was involved in a charity that was expect -- or suspected to have been involved in supporting Hamas and also supporting al Qaeda. So I think that it was a trickle-down effect, and now they're looking at everything that he was involved with.

CALLAWAY: Let's talk about the Web site that was up and running up until yesterday. There were some reports that there were new threats against the West on this al Qaeda Web site. It was actually a Byte Web site, and then shortly after it was discovered, it was shut down. Is this an operation that we've seen before with al Qaeda?

MCCANN: Absolutely, where they'll use a bulletin board system in order to communicate using some codes, et cetera, and then as soon as people are on to them, federal authorities, whatever, they'll pull that Web site down and move it to another forum or another place.

The important thing to note is that you can't make the leap that there are al Qaeda officials posting on there. It could be just sympathizers. I mean, every time you go on a bulletin board, you know that anyone who has an opinion can post it there. So it's very hard to vet the source.

CALLAWAY: All right. Threats and taking credit for action is what you've seen on this Web site before, quickly?

MCCANN: Absolutely, in fact, you know, the more terror kind of language and rhetoric that we've all grown used to, you know, No one's safe anywhere at any time, et cetera. And what you would expect in order to instill fear.

CALLAWAY: All right, Kelly, thank you, see you a little bit later. Kelly McCann.

MCCANN: OK, Catherine.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired December 7, 2002 - 07:17   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Officials with a suburban Boston software company say that they are cooperating with an investigation into alleged financial ties to a suspected terrorist money man. Federal agents raided the firm PTech more than 24 hours ago. They downloading information from all of its computers. The company officials, meanwhile, are denying any wrongdoing.
Let's talk about this case now with CNN security analyst Kelly McCann. Good morning, nice to have you with us this morning.

KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Hi, Catherine.

CALLAWAY: Tell us about PTech. This is a company that has long arms, even has some government agencies attached to it.

MCCANN: It does. Primarily what they do is, they provide financial tracking kinds of software, budgetary kinds of software. So initially what might have concerned people about operational issues, it looks like it's primarily finance related.

CALLAWAY: Suspected terrorist money man Yassan al-Qadi, is that his name? What would be, you know, his participation in this company? He could be completely innocent in his involvement. What is the fear, though, of authorities?

MCCANN: Well, as reported, al-Qadi basically was one of the initial financiers of the whole operation...

CALLAWAY: Right.

MCCANN: ... so it could be totally innocent, that mean -- it might be just an honorable business venture, even though he might have had some other interests even at that time.

Then again, I mean, it could go, and I'm sure that's what they're investigating, all the way down to, is this, does this, could this mean preferential hiring practices? In other words, if he is linked, could he have influenced the placing of people who are sympathetic to al Qaeda in order to see the way that we track funds and all of that?

So that's interesting. I mean, they're going to look at all of those things, Catherine, before they make their judgments.

CALLAWAY: And getting specific on this, really, Kelly, we mean, like, if al Qaeda decided that they needed someone in the Justice Department or whatever agency is attached to this company, he would have had influence on getting that person into the company to have access to that agency.

MCCANN: Exactly, and to know, in fact, as they know, international movement of money is key to al Qaeda.

CALLAWAY: Right.

MCCANN: If they were placed in a position in order to know how the government does track some budgetary information and finances, it would be advantageous to them. So, I mean, and that's putting your Machiavellian hat on. It's -- we're putting the cart before the horse. But it makes sense to move that way.

CALLAWAY: It seems that Hassam would have something over the federal agencies in that he would have the ability to know how to do sort of duck and cover money operations internationally.

MCCANN: Sure, but remember that also why he was of such great interest was because he was involved in a charity that was expect -- or suspected to have been involved in supporting Hamas and also supporting al Qaeda. So I think that it was a trickle-down effect, and now they're looking at everything that he was involved with.

CALLAWAY: Let's talk about the Web site that was up and running up until yesterday. There were some reports that there were new threats against the West on this al Qaeda Web site. It was actually a Byte Web site, and then shortly after it was discovered, it was shut down. Is this an operation that we've seen before with al Qaeda?

MCCANN: Absolutely, where they'll use a bulletin board system in order to communicate using some codes, et cetera, and then as soon as people are on to them, federal authorities, whatever, they'll pull that Web site down and move it to another forum or another place.

The important thing to note is that you can't make the leap that there are al Qaeda officials posting on there. It could be just sympathizers. I mean, every time you go on a bulletin board, you know that anyone who has an opinion can post it there. So it's very hard to vet the source.

CALLAWAY: All right. Threats and taking credit for action is what you've seen on this Web site before, quickly?

MCCANN: Absolutely, in fact, you know, the more terror kind of language and rhetoric that we've all grown used to, you know, No one's safe anywhere at any time, et cetera. And what you would expect in order to instill fear.

CALLAWAY: All right, Kelly, thank you, see you a little bit later. Kelly McCann.

MCCANN: OK, Catherine.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com