A strange story

Well, I expected more reaction to the previous post, which discusses the allegation that Osama Bin Laden visited Nevada in 1986. Just now, I stumbled across a piece published last December in the New York Times, in which a witness claims to have first met Bin Laden in Chicago in 1981.

That claim comes buried in the middle of a profile of Yassin Kadi (also spelled al-Kadi, Qadi or al Qadi) a wealthy Saudi Arabian who owns a construction firm and who headed up the Muwafaq charity. Kadi's assets have been frozen due to accusations that he funneled charity money to al Qaeda -- charges that he denies. He has even sued Dubya in an effort to prove his innocence. (I wonder how you serve papers in a case like that?)

The NYT treats Kadi with respect. He doesn't seem like a fabulist, and the "Chicago" story does not convenience him in any way. This paragraph contains the buried gold:

Mr. Kadi does not dispute his ties to Mr. bin Laden but maintains that he does not support him and has not spoken to him since the early 1990s.

They do share a common background: tall and in their early 50s, they were both born to wealthy families here in Jidda, studied engineering and, in Mr. Kadi’s telling, first met in Chicago in 1981. Mr. Kadi says he was working for the architectural firm Skidmore Owings & Merrill and that Mr. bin Laden — who is not known to have visited the United States — came to Chicago to recruit American-trained engineers for his family’s construction business. As Mr. Kadi remembers it, he put Mr. bin Laden in touch with a group of engineers, several of whom were eventually hired.

Incidentally, Kadi also counts among his partners a man called -- I kid you not -- Badkook.

Although the NYT paints a rather gentle picture of Kadi, this site mounts the case against him. The FBI says that Kadi had an ownership interest in Ptech, the American software firm which worked on classified DOD projects. Ptech's main product was -- supposedly -- an evolution of the quasi-legendary PROMIS software. (Perhaps we should break out the salt at this point. I've learned to be wary of stories about PROMIS, which has been blamed for everything this side of Nicole Simpson's murder.) Also see this credible 2002 article by Jim Crogan on former FBI Agent Robert Wright, who claims that the Bureau shut down his 1998 probe of Kadi's activities.

Since Kadi has always maintained strong ties to Chicago, you might be wondering if he has ever crossed paths with Tony Rezko -- or even Guess Who. So far, I've found nada on that front.

At any rate, I'm a surprised to discover that most people have little interest in the question of whether Osama Bin Laden spent time in the U.S. Then again, most "average Americans" I meet do not recognize the name Khaled Sheikh Muhammed -- the man accused by our government of being the operational planner of the 9/11 attacks. If those attacks were so traumatizing, why the apathy?