OREGON - Bank account linked to al-Qaida

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Bank account in Oregon linked to al-Qaida

Thursday, November 15, 2001

By PAUL SHUKOVSKY SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

A Web site the Russian government says is linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida group is openly seeking donations through a bank account located in a suburban Portland strip mall.

The FBI knows about the Web site and the bank account, but there is nothing it can do.

As federal agents fan out across the country and shut down the flow of money to terrorist groups, the bank account and the Web site raise questions about what defines a terrorist.

Long before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Russians repeatedly asked the United States to close the Oregon bank account, according to U.S. government sources.

They also asked the United States to shut down the Web site, hosted by a California Internet service provider, the sources said.

But the United States has refused both requests because the U.S. State Department has not designated any Islamic separatist groups from the Russian republic of Chechnya as foreign terrorist organizations.

Russia has been the target of intense criticism from the United States, the European Community and the United Nations for its suppression of the Chechen separatists.

The State Department also says the Russia government has provided no evidence to back up its claim that Chechen separatist groups were behind a series of bombings in several Russian cities in 1999. The lack of U.S. support for Russia's fight against Chechen rebels is likely to come up this week during Russian President Vladimir Putin's summit with President Bush.

But Charles Fairbanks, director of the Central Asia-Caucuses Institute of Johns Hopkins University, believes the United States should take no chances.

"That bank account should be seized and the Web site closed down," he said. "Why do we permit money to be raised for this kind of cause in the United States?"

The account at U.S. Bank is in the name of Movladi Oudougov, a radical Islamic separatist who is considered a terrorist by the Russian government. Fairbanks said the vast majority of Chechens are secular nationalists who want to be free of Russian control as opposed to Islamic extremists such as Oudougov.

"Oudougov represents a more extreme Islamic alternative to the moderate (Chechen) president who is opposed to terrorism," Fairbanks said. "And he has the wrong friends from my point of view."

Bank tellers stunned

Oudougov is listed as the administrative, technical and billing contact for the Web site, which asks all "who want to help our struggle" to donate money through the Oregon bank account.

The Web site's registration lists an address in Orlando, Fla., but a dispatcher in the Orange County, Fla., Sheriff's Department said the address does not exist. And telephone calls to the number listed on the Web site's registration do not go through.

The bank account is being held in a small, Clackamas, Ore., branch inside an Albertson's supermarket at the Sunnyside Square strip mall. The strip mall is also home to a Hollywood Video, Godfathers Pizza and Tropic Tan stores.

Tellers at the U.S. Bank branch were astonished to learn of their customer and his Web site. They refused to reveal any information about the account.

Oudougov's account lists his address as a post office box in the nearby, affluent suburb of West Linn, Ore., but Fairbanks said he had heard that Oudougov is living in the Arabian Peninsula nation of Qatar.

Police sources said a thorough check of local databases reveals no record of Oudougov's existence.

Oudougov's account is set up to receive electronic deposits, and a company called Paycom.net makes online debits from the account. The account was originally opened in Oroville, Calif.

Oudougov did not respond to e-mail requests seeking comment for this article.

In the meantime, rhetoric on the Web site has become increasingly anti-American since Sept. 11.

After the attacks in New York and Washington, Putin began to seek more global backing for his campaign against the Chechen separatists. "What is happening in Chechnya cannot be viewed out of the context of the fight against international terrorism," Putin said shortly after Sept. 11.

A few days later, one of Putin's aides, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, said: "Those who sent kamikazes to New York and Washington worked on terrorist attacks in Chechnya, among other places."

Ties to terrorism

Oudougov has strong ties to alleged Chechen terrorist activities.

In 1997, he ran for president of Chechnya on the Islamic Order ticket, advocating the strict application of Sharia, Islamic law.

He was foreign minister of Chechnya for about a year after the election and acted as the minister of information for the rebels during the first Chechen war from 1994 to 1996.

After the 1999 terror bombings, even before Putin, then the acting president, sent military troops into Chechnya, Oudougov helped spur an expansion of the conflict by encouraging Chechen mujahedeen --Islamic "holy warriors" -- to invade neighboring Dagestan, Fairbanks said.

Oudougov "sent out many bloodcurdling decrees and Islamic manifestos in the name of the Chechen people" calling for incorporating Dagestan into an Islamic republic, Fairbanks said.

After the Chechen war resumed in 1999, the United States joined with a majority of the community of nations to condemn what former Secretary of State Madeline Albright called "credible reports of human rights violations by Russian forces in Chechnya.

Since Sept. 11, the United States, mindful of the need for cooperation from Putin, has muted its criticism of Russia's actions in Chechnya.

But since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, there have been several media reports linking Chechen mujahedeen to al-Qaida.

In a recent article in The Washington Post, Russian Interpol Chief Vladimir Gordiyenko said that bin Laden maintains "direct contacts" with two key Chechen separatist military commanders. Both have been closely associated with Oudougov.

But the Web site -- and the bank account -- remain up and running.

-- Anonymous, November 15, 2001


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