A court in Turkey has frozen the assets of Yasin al-Qadi [1] a one-time acquaintance of Vice President Dick Cheney [2] and reported “chief money launderer” of Osama bin Laden. [3]

Al-Qadi, prior to being publicly identified as a key al-Qaeda financer, owned a prominent U.S. technology firm and reported CIA front known as Ptech. [4] He also escorted U.S. officials around during their visits to Saudi Arabia. [5]

“Council of State Administrative Cases Bureau on Thursday decided to annul a lower court’s decision to rescind a cabinet order to freeze the assets of Saudi financier Yasin al-Qadi, who has been accused of financing terrorism,” the Turkish Daily News reported last Saturday. [6]

As the Daily News summarizes, this is part of a long and ongoing political dispute in Turkey: “The previous government in Turkey had ordered the assets of Qadi frozen after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, saying that he was suspected of channeling money to terrorist organizations . . . The Council of State 10th Bureau overturned the order in July on technical grounds and ordered that the assets be returned, after a challenge made by Qadi.

“Upon appeal by the government, the case was taken up to the Council of State Administrative Cases Bureau, which is the top court on such cases (and ultimately ruled to freeze Qadi’s assets).” [7]

Turkish investigations into al-Qaeda have been obstructed to protect conflicts of interest, financial and otherwise, among al-Qadi and high-ranking Turkish officials, according to dissenting investigators and government officials. [8]

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1808.shtml