Feds probe more local businesses for terrorism ties

At least two other Seattle businesses that send money overseas for immigrants are under scrutiny by federal agents looking for financial ties to terrorist groups.

Sources said the businesses, which were not identified, operate much like the Barakat Wire Transfer service in Rainier Valley, one of several businesses in five states whose assets were frozen by the Treasury Department. President Bush called them fronts for a fund-raising operation feeding Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network.

Meanwhile, members of Seattle's Somalian community reacted angrily at Wednesday's closure of the Barakat service and the market that housed it.

No arrests have been made locally, and agents released the Barakat service's owner, identified as Hassan Farah, after questioning him yesterday. Robert Nichols, a spokesman for the Treasury Department in Washington, D.C., said the investigation was continuing.

Attempts to contact Farah yesterday for comment were unsuccessful.

"We draw a real distinction between those who used these services and those who operated them," Nichols said. "Those sending or receiving money through the operations likely did so without knowing that a sliver of that money was been funneled to a global terrorist network.

"As for those who operated these business, it is conceivable they, too, were unaware. It is equally conceivable they knew. It remains an open question."

DSHS gives information

The Barakat Wire Transfer service was affiliated with al-Barakaat, a financial network run out of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. It is a "hawala," a currency-exchange operation that allows Somalis in the U.S. to send money to relatives in Africa. Such operations are run loosely, often on little more than a handshake or a scrap of paper, and funds are extremely difficult to trace.

The Bush administration alleges that some portion of a fee charged to the sender — usually 5 percent of the amount being sent — is being skimmed off to help fund bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network. In all, tens of millions of dollars over the past several years have funneled through al-Barakaat, the administration contends.

Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said yesterday that counterterrorism investigators will examine every group and operation responsible for sending immigrants' money overseas.

One source familiar with the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Barakat Transfer Service in Seattle was making weekly transfers to Dubai of tens of thousands of dollars.

Nichols said $971,000 in al-Barakaat assets were frozen worldwide when the crackdown occurred Wednesday.

The al-Barakaat operations may also have been used to funnel illicit funds overseas, the source said. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Inspector General (OIG) in San Francisco acknowledged yesterday that investigators looking into allegations of food-stamp fraud were present during the raid in Seattle.

"We remain involved in the operation," which was instigated after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said OIG Special Agent in Charge David Dickson.

Renia Neuhauser of the state Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), which oversees the federal food-stamp program in Washington state, said her office has provided information to the OIG on several small markets with money-exchange operations on their premises. "It's more than two. That's all I can say," she said.

A source said agents questioned the owner of one of the operations Wednesday.

Yesterday, the owner denied he had been contacted by any federal agency and said he knew nothing about unusual money transfers.

The Barakat Transfer Service operated out of the Maka Mini Market on South Brandon Street in Seattle. Agents seized everything on the premises, from ledgers and computers to lettuce and tomatoes.

Agents also are investigating whether proceeds from the sale of a drug called qat, a slightly hallucinogenic plant popular among Somalis, may also have been funneled through the exchange.

And there may be other, unknown sources of money, sent from Seattle and the exchanges in Boston, Minneapolis, northern Virginia and Columbus, Ohio, to the al-Barakaat account in Dubai.

In Seattle, the source said investigators were suspicious of the size of the transfers.

"You could take every transaction by every Somali cabbie sending $100 to their family, every qat deal, every food-stamp theft, and it would be hard if not impossible to come up with those amounts," the source said.

'No evidence here'

Meantime, Somalis in the Seattle area remained stunned by the raid and allegations.

"I'm telling people to stay calm. Just do your own thing," said Koshin Mohamed, executive director of the Somali Community Services Coalition. "The government is not after everything Somalian. They might have some lead that maybe we don't know about."

The community plans to demonstrate today to denounce terrorism, but to also protest how the raid has frozen several Somalian businesses that apparently are independent of the wire service.

Authorities have shut Maka Mini Market and taken an estimated $300,000 worth of groceries, market owner Abdineser Ali said. This is usually the busiest time of the year for Ali as Somalian Muslims prepare for the holy month of Ramadan.

"I watched them take away my freezers today," said Ali, a permanent resident in the U.S. since 1988, who lives with his wife and three children in Seattle. "There is no evidence here. I don't know what I'm going to do."

Ali said he has tried to get answers from authorities as to how long the market will remain closed. But so far, he has received no information.

Amana, a clothing and gift shop, was also located inside the market. It remains sealed. Neighboring Baraka Tax Service remains closed. And a travel agency, Oowlo Travel and Service, while open, is virtually inoperable, according to manager Mahdy Maaweel.

The travel agency has become the gathering place for local Somalis, who share the latest information about the investigation and try to strategize what to do next. Yesterday, Maaweel was helping draft a letter of complaint on behalf of Ali and others, hoping for answers.

The Treasury Department says a business can petition the Office of Foreign Asset Control if it believes it has been unfairly targeted.

Nichols said there are numerous alternatives for Somalis to send money to relatives in their homeland that don't have ties to terrorism. Officials identified one, Salama Express, which has offices in Seattle, Minnesota, Ohio and Boston.

Information from The Associated Press, Gannett News Service and Seattle Times staff reporter Steve Miletich is included in this report.