Credit Suisse and the Secret History of the Intelligence Service | noon post

Translated and Edited by: Noon Post

During the war on terror, international strategy relied on intelligence officials from regimes accused of corruption and torture. Many of these officials and their families had accounts in Credit Suisse in which large sums of money were deposited.

In the 2008 spy movie Cluster of Lies, fictional character Hani Salam helps two CIA agents (played by Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio) in capturing terrorists. But what moviegoers did not realize is that the character of Hani Salam is based on a real character: the head of Jordanian intelligence, Saad Khair.

Saad Khair headed Jordan's General Intelligence Department from 2000 to 2005, and was a key ally of the United States in the war on terror. Although hailed as a hero helping the United States, Kher's activities in real life have been morally questionable. Besides allegations of oil smuggling, he also oversaw Jordan's role in the US rendition program, ran an agency accused of torturing prisoners, and oversaw moot courts, or "kangaroo courts."

In 2003, Saad Khair opened a personal account with Credit Suisse. Over the next seven years, the account's balance increased to 28.3 million Swiss francs ($21.5 million at the time), before it was closed months after his death in 2009.

Khair was not the only intelligence officer to have deposited large sums of money in Credit Suisse. Journalists found that at least 15 prominent intelligence figures from around the world or their close family members were clients of this bank.

These discoveries come from a massive set of Credit Suisse bank data that was leaked to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the organization against organized crime and corruption.

Most of the 15 figures are senior intelligence leaders in their countries. This data included the identities of a number of other officials whose names OCCA chose not to disclose, as their identities cannot be verified beyond a reasonable doubt. Besides Khair, three intelligence officers had joint job relationships that made them prominent: Egyptian Omar Suleiman, Pakistani General Akhtar Abdul Rahman, and Yemeni Major General Ghaleb al-Qamsh.

These four ran government intelligence agencies and controlled large black budgets that were not subject to parliamentary and executive oversight. The family members of these people, in turn, owned personal accounts in Credit Suisse with large balances without clear sources of personal income that could explain the source of their wealth.

All four played roles in major US interventions in the Middle East and Afghanistan from the CIA's initial attempts to support the anti-Soviet mujahideen in the late 1970s to the first Gulf War in 1990, and the so-called "eternal wars" unleashed in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001. .

Three of them, al-Qamsh, Suleiman and Khair, were responsible for agencies known to be involved in torture. At least eight of their family members had accounts with Credit Suisse. Since these intelligence officials are considered "politically prominent", their accounts had to be carefully checked and questions asked to Credit Suisse.

According to Swiss compliance expert Monica Roth, banks consider secret intelligence agents to be particularly sensitive. "I wouldn't have them as agents - that's too risky," Roth said, adding that intelligence chiefs are often "people with a lot of influence, questionable relationships, very opaque financial sources".

“In the case of an intelligence chief like Saad Khair, opening an account is a red flag and not many banks in Switzerland will accept it, but Credit Suisse did,” a former Credit Suisse executive told the organization fighting organized crime and corruption.

But the due diligence measures that were implemented are not clear, if any. Credit Suisse declined to comment on individual cases, citing the secrecy laws of Swiss banks prohibiting identification of currencies or providing information about them. The bank emphasized that it “runs its business in accordance with all applicable global and local laws and regulations” and that it has strengthened its “risk management framework and control systems.”

Long before Khair opened an account at Credit Suisse, the intelligence officials who helped the United States fight a proxy war against the Soviets in Afghanistan had their own connections to this banking institution.

In the late 1970s, the United States supported seven different groups of Mujahideen who were fighting the Russians in Afghanistan. Saudi Arabia's support for the jihadists matched US funding and often sent money to the CIA's Swiss bank account. The ultimate recipient of the operation was the ISI, led by Akhtar.

By the mid-1980s, Akhtar was adept at funneling CIA money to Afghan jihadists. Around this time, he opened accounts with Credit Suisse in the names of his three sons.

Muhammad Yusuf, Akhtar's colleague at the ISI who later wrote a book on the period, wrote, "The combined American and Saudi funds, worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually, were transferred by the CIA to special accounts in Pakistan belonging to the ISI."

Yousef and Steve Cole - authors of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning book Ghost Wars - claim that Akhtar was responsible for distributing the money. The CIA provided him with millions to train the Mujahideen in the use of advanced weapons. By 1984, the CIA's budget in Afghanistan alone was close to $200 million.

Censorship has always been lenient and Akhtar's role has long been questioned. According to a South Asian intelligence source familiar with the operations in Afghanistan of the Organization for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption, "at that time it was easy to open bank accounts in Swiss banks by any method of any kind to transfer public funds." The same source added that "Akhtar was doing this to mobilize his pockets. A lot of money from the Afghan war was embezzled and transferred to his bank accounts."

It is reported that one of Akhtar's accounts in Credit Suisse - shared by Akhtar's sons Akbar, Ghazi and Harun - was opened on July 1, 1985, when they were in their late twenties and early thirties. In the same year, US President Ronald Reagan raised concerns about the fate of funds allocated to the mujahideen. By 2003, this account had a balance of at least five million Swiss francs ($3.7 million at the time). The balance of the second account, opened in January 1986 in a larger name, was over 9 million Swiss francs by November 2010 ($9.2 million at that time).

Akhtar died in a plane crash in 1988 that also killed his president, Pakistani dictator Zia ul-Haq. His sons Akbar and Harun Khan declined to comment on the matter, and in a letter to the Organization for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption, Ghazi Khan said that information provided by journalists about the family's Swiss accounts was "incorrect" and was "denied", without providing further details.

While the CIA and Akhtar were cooperating in Afghanistan, Yemeni Ghaleb al-Qamsh was early in his career. In 1980, he headed the Yemeni Political Security Bureau, which was responsible for internal intelligence. Just as Akhtar was doing in Pakistan, Qamish recruited fighters for the Afghan war against the Soviets.

Al-Qamsh dominated the Yemeni security apparatus for decades and was the main hired killer of President Ali Abdullah Saleh (1978-2012). When al-Qaeda bombed the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden in 2000, Salih al-Qamsh, initially reluctant, tasked the CIA with helping identify suspects.

According to three officers who worked under al-Qamsh's command in Yemen's Political Security Organization, al-Qamsh was the country's most feared security official, and has been described as the "black box" of President Saleh. The three sources, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals, told the Organization for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption that Qamish has an "open budget in the millions of dollars" to do as he pleases.

By the time he became the head of Yemen's intelligence service and helped the Americans dismantle terrorist cells in the early 2000s, Qamish had millions of dollars deposited in a Credit Suisse bank with no apparent source.

By 2006, the value of an account he opened in 1999 - a year before the attack on the USS Destroyer - was worth about 5 million Swiss francs ($3.7 million), the same year that some of the suspects in the Cole attack escaped from a Yemeni prison. According to former intelligence officers and official guidelines of Yemen's salary law, Qamsh's monthly salary was between $4,000 and $5,000 a month, including allowances and bonuses.

After the events of 9/11, the CIA established "black sites" in allied countries around the world, which are secret prisons where terrorism suspects are held incommunicado. The Americans exported interrogation methods to repressive regimes such as Egypt, Jordan, and Yemen, where detainees were tortured to extract information in support of the war on terror.

Qamish was accused of various abuses including in the United States' Extraordinary Repatriation Program, under which millions of CIA funds were spent on officials and other aides in allied countries. Official documents show huge sums of money being paid to the countries that hosted the black sites, and those who applied torture and interrogation.

According to Ruth Blakeley of the "Rendition Project", a group of British academics who have investigated the US programme, any new information that shows intelligence figures linked to torture with hidden funds warrants close scrutiny. "If there is evidence that senior intelligence officials were making money from complicity in the CIA's rendition, detention, and interrogation program, that warrants a thorough investigation," she added.

Although Credit Suisse questioned the source of al-Qamsh's money or his suitability as a client, this did not prevent the bank from dealing with him and his accounts remained in existence long after his participation in the rendition program and the suppression of Yemeni political opponents.

One former officer said that “with the help of the Political Security Organization, Qamish was responsible for arresting all the elements believed to be opposing the Saleh regime,” while another officer added, “No one knows how the PSO money was spent.”

Relations between Qamish and Saleh soured when the president began preparing his son for his succession, and Saleh also established a new internal intelligence unit, the National Security Office in 2002 under the leadership of his nephew. cloth slowly.

In January 2011, al-Qamsh withdrew the last of his assets from Credit Suisse, estimated at 3.8 million Swiss francs ($4 million), as crowds protested in the streets of Aden in the first sparks of the Arab Spring. In 2014, after Saleh was overthrown, President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi made the decision to remove Qamish from his position as head of the Political Security Agency.

Qamish is currently based in Istanbul, and in recent years has kept a low profile while his sons have been active in business in Yemen, Bahrain, Brazil and Turkey. Qamsh refused to comment on the matter.

In a diplomatic cable leaked to WikiLeaks in January 2009, Margaret Scobey, the US ambassador to Egypt, said Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman was the right-hand man of dictator Hosni Mubarak, and added that Mubarak slept with his eyelids thanks to Suleiman's brutal methods.

Credit Suisse doesn't seem to be overly concerned about Suleiman either. Despite the fact that he was personally linked to the torture of victims of the US rendition programme, some members of the Suleiman family kept much of their fortunes in the Swiss bank.

In February 2003, while Suleiman's allies in the United States were planning an invasion of Iraq, his family members were making their own financial preparations; That month, an account was opened in Credit Suisse in their names, the balance of which later swelled into the millions. Like Akhtar, Khair and al-Qamsh, Suleiman was seen as a reliable ally of the United States.

Weeks before opening Suleiman's account, US Secretary of State Colin Powell explained in an interview to the United Nations the urgent need to overthrow the regime of President Saddam Hussein in Iraq; Where he told the United Nations that he had evidence proving that Iraq trained al-Qaeda in the use of chemical weapons, and the source he relied on was one of the victims of Solomon's intelligence regime, Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi.

Al-Libi is a Libyan citizen who was arrested in Pakistan in 2001 before the CIA extradited him to Egypt in 2003. Al-Libi had confessed to the charge against him because Egyptian officials told him that “three thousand people sat in the same chair as him,” and each one confessed. who are they. Cracked into a small cell, al-Libi later said he told the Egyptians "what they wanted to hear", since Suleiman always got what he wanted.

With the transition of the Iraq war from fierce battles to counterinsurgency; The Solomon family's fortune swelled; By 2007, four years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, the family's account in Credit Suisse was worth 63 million Swiss francs. The family did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

And the account remained in place after the fall of the Mubarak dictatorship in Egypt in 2011 under the weight of the Arab Spring, and although after Mubarak’s overthrow; The Swiss authorities said that they froze the assets of people associated with him and his government, but it seems that the campaign did not affect the Suleiman family; There is no evidence in the statements of account closure, despite multiple concerns raised elsewhere about the crimes of the chief (Solomon).

Solomon was; Besides overseeing torture, he is also involved in the agency's clandestine financial transactions; In Mubarak's trial, the judge cited the testimony of Soliman and other officials that Hussein Salem - an Egyptian businessman and well-known in the intelligence service - owned a variety of gas companies and other sectors affiliated with the spy agency. Nationalist", often with Salem's help.

Salem was also a Credit Suisse client; He had several accounts, one of which contained assets of 105 million Swiss francs ($79.3 million) in 2003, which was mentioned in legal proceedings when investigators alleged it was used to pay and receive what appeared to be corrupt kickbacks to executives at FlowTex. , a German company accused of massive fraud.

The source of their fortunes may never be known, but experts say the secret holdings of these intelligence figures raise questions about the illegal ways they have taken refuge. “Mubarak wanted his generals and intelligence chiefs to steal the money, because no one who does not benefit from this position can be trusted,” said Robert Baer, ​​a former CIA agent in the Middle East. “These are the people who do the coups.”

The character of Saad Khair Al-Urdouni topped the movie "Body of Lies", which the Washington Post writer and novelist David Ignatius described as "witty but emotionally wounded", but the interrogations conducted by the GID were Largely illegal, according to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reports.

Human Rights Watch reported that Jordan's General Intelligence Department was holding prisoners the CIA wanted to keep out of sight, just as Suleiman's Intelligence did in Egypt.

The human rights organization documented that the United States sent at least 14 prisoners to Jordanian prisons for torture - most likely - between 2001 and 2003, while Amnesty International, quoting victims' testimonies, reported that the Jordanian General Intelligence Department obtained more than 100 confessions through These cases were then referred to the Jordanian State Security Court, which issued death sentences for some of them.

Senior GID officials later denied holding US prisoners, or that torture even took place, while Saeed Khair was rumored to be involved in corruption cases including oil deals, but no formal charges were ever brought against him.

Former Jordanian intelligence chief Saad Khair has long been accused of secretly profiting from the illegal oil trade since the early 2000s, prompting some opposition MPs to demand that Khair face these charges, but he did not, and no evidence was ever presented.

OCCRB reporters searched for clues, and although they found interesting clues, it was not inevitable, with a few informed, unofficial sources suggesting that Khair and the GID oversaw a front company that traded in Oil is from sources in Iraq, but no conclusive evidence has been found.

By going through the records and classified information, the journalists came up with an oil company called Harana, run by Abd al-Rahman Abu Hassan, an old friend of Khair, who said he had long heard the same rumors - that he had become rich because of Khair and the GID - but categorically denied To be for the good of any involvement in his company.

Abu Hassan admitted that he got the oil from Iraq "almost for free", and then sold it abroad at world market prices, and said that the then Iraqi Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, sold the oil cheaply because Jordan gave him a safe haven after he was subjected to an assassination attempt by Saddam Hussein's government .

Abu Hassan said that his truckloads of oil, which amount to about 300 shipments per day, were protected by Khair's General Intelligence Department when they crossed the border, and Khair's relationship with the company did not go beyond that; Abu Hassan said that Khair had nothing to do with trade and did not make any profit from it, noting that much of his own profits were donated to Jordanian veterans' associations, even though Jordan's ministries of finance and energy reaped hundreds of millions from outside work.

The journalists did not find any evidence that Khair was involved, or that he had discussed his involvement in the oil trade with anyone before his death.

On the other hand, Abu Hassan considered that the rumors about the use of the "Harana" company as a front by the General Intelligence Department are "nonsense," saying: "Everyone accused the Jordanian intelligence because it was facilitating trade for us," adding: "But I asked them to do so." While a Jordanian politician told OCCRB, "Both Khair and then Prime Minister Abu Al-Ragheb caused great institutional corruption that still haunts Jordan today."

In May 2005, King Abdullah II dismissed Saad Khair from his position in the General Intelligence Department, then died in a luxury hotel in Vienna in December 2009, and three years before his death the value of his account in Credit Suisse amounted to 28.3 million Swiss francs (21.5 million Swiss francs). million dollars), while the value of his brother Saeed Khair’s account in Credit Suisse amounted to 13 million Swiss francs by 2011, before it was closed in 2014; أما زوجة خير، جانيش فريح، فكان لديها حسابها الخاص الذي بلغت قيمته 6 ملايين فرنك سويسري (5.9 مليون دولار) في 2010، لكن حسابها قد أُغلق أيضًا في سنة 2014.

وقال سعيد خير لـ"أو سي سي آر بي" أنه نظرًا لمنصب شقيقه الحساس فإنه "لم يشاركني أبدًا أي معلومات حول عمله في المخابرات"، وأكد أنه لا يعرف أي شيءٍ عن أي حساب تابع لشقيقه في بنك كريدي سويس، وأنه لم يقم هو نفسه بإنشاء أي حسابات، مبينًا أن كل دخله الخاضع للضريبة "تم التصريح به لمصلحة الضرائب في الأردن"، وأنه لم يشارك أخيه في أي حساب مصرفي أو تلّقى أموالًا منه.

وفي رسالة إلى "أو سي سي آر بي"؛ وصفت فريح الشائعات المتداولة حول حسابات العائلة في بنك كريدي سويس بأنها "غريبة وشائنة" واصفة خير بأنه "رجل شريف حارب الإرهاب طوال حياته حتى ينعم الناس بالأمان في هذه الحياة"، فيما نفت وجود أي حساب خاص بها في كريدي سويس، وأضافت أن ليس لديها فكرة عن أي أموال هناك، بل كانت مجرد "ربّة منزل".

ووفَّر العمل مع بنك كريدي سويس بالنسبة للشخصيات الاستخباراتية خدمة كان من الصعب العثور عليها في عالم يزداد عولمة؛ حيث قال ضابط استخبارات أوروبي؛ طلب عدم الكشف عن هويته: "إن هذه البنوك تمثل شيئًا ثمينًا للغاية بالنسبة لمجتمع الاستخبارات وهو السرية، وهذه السرية تجعل خدماتهم مفيدة جدًا للعمليات الخفية".

وصرَّح مدير مخابرات ألماني سابق - وعمل في الشرق الأوسط - لمؤسسة مكافحة الجريمة المنظمة والفساد وشركائها؛ إنه لم يفاجأ بأن موظفي مخابرات رفيعي المستوى من دول غير ديمقراطية قد فتحوا حسابات في سويسرا؛ حيث يمكن أن تكون مثل هذه الحسابات بمثابة دعم، واقترح المصدر أن يتم تجميدها في حالة الإطاحة بالأنظمة التي يخدمها هؤلاء الجواسيس، أو في حال هم أنفسهم لم يعودوا ذوي أهمية.

وردد باير هذه الفرضية، وهو العميل السابق لوكالة المخابرات المركزية الأمريكية؛ حيث قال: "قد تبقى في وظيفتك فقط لفترة طويلة في العالم العربي، ويتوجب عليك أنت وعشيرتك سرقة ما تستطيع لتكوين مدخراتك المستقبلية؛ عندها تُعد سويسرا المكان الأكثر أمانًا، بمجرد الانتهاء من إعداد حساباتك".

ويبدو أن فقدان الدعم هو أحد المخاطر الرئيسية لعالم التجسس؛ فبعد سقوط مبارك سنة 2011، أبدى عمر سليمان رغبة في قيادة مصر، لكن تم استبعاده كمرشح، ثم توفي وفاة طبيعية في "كليفلاند كلينك" بعد ذلك بأشهر في تموز/ يوليو 2012.

ويعاني الجواسيس من مشاكل عملية أيضًا إضافة إلى التنقل ضمن صراعات السلطة الداخلية للأنظمة القمعية، وربما تكون البنوك السويسرية قد أسهمت في حلها؛ حيث يقول أفنير أفراهام، ضابط الموساد السابق: "تعمل وكالات التجسس والمنظمات الإرهابية أحيانًا بالطريقة نفسها، ويواجهون نفس المشاكل؛ فينبغي عليهم تحويل الأموال من النقطة أ إلى النقطة ب، من أجل الدفع لأحد الأشخاص، ولا يريدون لأي أحد أن يعرف من هو الشخص الذي يدفع، وكيف يتم التحويل، أو من أين يأتي".

ويقول جراهام بارو، وهو خبير جرائم مالية في المملكة المتحدة، إن المبالغ الطائلة الموجودة في حسابات كريدي سويس المرتبطة بشخصيات استخباراتية كان ينبغي أن ترفع إشارات الخطر للبنك، مضيفًا: "لا يوجد سبب يمنع عميل استخبارات رفيع المستوى من فتح حساب مصرفي، لكن يجب عليهم تقديم مبرر لرغبتهم في فتح الحساب وما الغاية من استخدامه، ثم يجب استخدام الحساب بالطريقة التي أكدوا أنهم سيستخدمونه بها، ويجب على البنك أن يرفع إشارات الخطر في حال وجود أي تناقض في أي وقت كان".

وعثر الصحفيون على ما يقرب من 40 حسابًا في بيانات بنك كريدي سويس مرتبطة بمسؤولين استخباراتيين ينتمون لحوالي 12 دولة. وتشمل تلك الحسابات:

- القائد في الجيش الفنزويلي السابق كارلوس لويس أغيليرا بورجاس، المعروف باسم "الرجل الخفي"، والذي عمل كحارس شخصي لهوجو تشافيز في التسعينيات، ثم مديرًا لأجهزة المخابرات الفنزويلية لمدة عامين في أوائل العقد الأول من القرن الحادي والعشرين، ثم استقال بحدود سنة 2002، بعد أن فشل في منع محاولة انقلاب كادت أن تطيح بالرئيس؛ حيث ركَّز أغيليرا بعد ذلك جهوده على الأعمال التجارية، ويقال إنه قام بإيداع حوالي 90 مليون دولار من صفقة فاسدة مزعومة لإصلاح خط مترو كاراكاس.

وافتتح أغيليرا حسابًا واحدًا في بنك كريدي سويس في حزيران/ يونيو سنة 2011، وخلال بضعة أشهر بلغت قيمة رصيده حوالي 7.8 ملايين فرنك سويسري ما يعادل (8.6 ملايين دولار أمريكي)، وتم افتتاح حساب آخر مرتبط بكيان قانوني يسيطر عليه في تموز/ يوليو سنة 2011، حيث بلغ رصيده الأقصى حوالي 5 ملايين فرنك سويسري.

ولم يستجب أغيليرا على طلب إبداء تعليق.

- وامتلك خلف الدليمي، كبير موظفي الشؤون المالية لجهاز المخابرات العراقي في عهد صدام حسين، حساب شركة برصيد مرتفع بلغ 178 مليون فرنك سويسري، إضافة لحساب شخصي برصيد بلغت قيمته 2.5 مليون فرنك سويسري، ووصف محامي الراحل الدليمي التقرير بـأنه "خبر قديم" و"غير دقيق".

- وافتتح أشرف مروان حسابًا بنكيًّا، وهو جاسوس من مصر، وكانت ولاءاته غامضة مثل موارده المالية؛ حيث عُرفَ عن مروان تسريبه معلومات استخباراتية إلى القوات الإسرائيلية خلال حرب 1973 أثناء عمله كمستشار استخباراتي لوالد زوجته، الرئيس جمال عبد الناصر، لكن تدعي عائلته ومؤيدين آخرين أن المعلومات التي قدمها لإسرائيل كانت مزورة، وتم فتح حساب مروان في بنك كريدي سويس، المدرج ضمن كيان قانوني، في سنة 2000.

وعند ذلك الوقت، ترك مروان العمل الاستخباراتي وانتقل إلى المملكة المتحدة؛ حيث اشترى حصة في نادي تشيلسي لكرة القدم، ثم توفي بعد سبع سنوات، إثر سقوط مريب من شرفة منزله في لندن، وصرَّحت زوجته منى عبد الناصر للصحافة، في وقت لاحق، إنَّ موته كان انتقامًا لخيانته المخابرات الإسرائيلية، ولم يستجب السيدة منى عبد الناصر للأسئلة التي أرسلتها مؤسسة مكافحة الجريمة المنظمة والفساد.

- ومن ألمانيا؛ افتتح ضابط الشرطة السرية السابق يورغن تشزيلنسكي حسابًا قيمته حوالي 218 مليون فرنك سويسري ما يعادل (206 مليون دولار) اعتبارًا من كانون الثاني / يناير 2010، وكان تشزيلنسكي قد غادر ألمانيا بعد انهيار الشيوعية، واستقر في الكونغو برازافيل، حيث قيل إنه استثمر في تدوير النفايات، ولم تنجح المحاولات المتكررة للتواصل معتشزيلنسكي.

ويوجد في البيانات أيضًا حسابات تعود لشخصيات لها علاقات بأجهزة المخابرات الأوزبكية، والتي اتهمتها العديد من منظمات حقوق الإنسان بالتعذيب والإخفاء القسري والاحتجاز التعسفي؛ ففي سنة 2009، صرَّح ضابط المخابرات السابق إكرام يعقوبوف لبرنامج "بي بي سي نيوزنايت" إنه عاين هذه الانتهاكات رأي العين، وادعى أنه تم إجباره على اختلاق أدلة ضد أشخاص يوقن أنهم أبرياء.

وارتبطت حسابات أخرى بشخصيات استخباراتية من العراق والأردن والجبل الأسود ونيجيريا وباكستان واليمن. يعود أقدمها إلى فترة منتصف السبعينات.

المصدر: أو سي سي آر بي