Fresh Clues Along The Money Trail

By Michael Weisskopf and Adam Zagorin

Why did Mohamed Atta, the suspected ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks, fly the day before from New York to Portland, Maine? The answer may be getting clearer in the wake of the feds' domestic shutdown last week of Al-Barakaat, a financial network based in Dubai--with at least six U.S. storefronts--accused of financing Osama bin Laden. The purported purpose of the U.S. sites was for Somali emigres to wire money back home. But two senior Bush Administration officials tell TIME that bin Laden was an Al-Barakaat founder and that Al-Barakaat's chief, Ahmed Nur Ali Jamale, steered money--possibly tens of millions of dollars a year--to a Somali affiliate of al-Qaeda known as Al-Ittihad Al-Islamiya, or AIAI. One U.S. document says bin Laden and AIAI "benefit[ed] from every transaction," with AIAI typically taking a 5% transfer fee, some of which finds its way to bin Laden groups.

So where does Atta fit in? Investigators say an official of Al-Barakaat's Boston outlet opened an account last year at a Key Bank in Portland and later sent $920,000 overseas. Now they are trying to determine whether Atta had access.

U.S. intelligence also targeted the firm Al-Taqwa, based in Switzerland. Egyptian-born owner Youssef Nada denies bin Laden ties, but U.S. officials tell TIME that Al-Taqwa manages funds for al-Qaeda. As for Blessed Relief--a Saudi charity identified as a funder of al-Qaeda--U.S. officials reject claims by one of its founders that it has been dormant for five years. Sources say intelligence shows the charity financed movements of people, money and weapons in Bosnia as recently as 1999.

--By Michael Weisskopf and Adam Zagorin