‘Funds for Sept 11 hits routed via Pak, UAE’

WASHINGTON, JANUARY 7: Pakistan along with the UAE and Germany were among the ‘‘handful’’ of countries whose financial systems were used by suspected terrorist operatives there to fund the September 11 attacks on the US, according to American officials.

The officials were quoted by the Washington Post as saying that the financial systems of these countries were used to funnel money to accounts controlled by suspected ringleader Mohammad Atta and other 18 or 19 hijackers.

American investigators came to this conclusion after accounting for more than $325,000 spent on the worst ever terrorist attack in US history. The findings by investigators at the Treasury Department, Justice Department, FBI and other federal agencies mark the end of the first phase of the US government’s exhaustive effort to chronicle the financial backing for the attacks.

The central figure has been identified by US prosecutors as Mustafa Ahmed Al-Hawsawi, who uses numerous aliases and is believed to have disappeared in Karachi just before the attacks. Many investigators believe that Hawsawi is Al Qaeda’s finance chief. (PTI)