Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March 2003, page 49

Special Report

 

Can’t Win for Losing—or, Government And Media Paranoia Gone Wild

 

By Robert Younes, M.D.

On Friday, Dec. 6, 2002, seven federal agents, coordinated by the FBI and armed with a search warrant, raided Ptech, Inc, a small privately owned computer software firm in Quincy, Massachusetts. Ptech had been under investigation since it was learned that its owners and managers were associated with Yasin Al-Qadi, a Saudi businessman on a list of alleged terrorist financiers compiled by the Treasury Department in October 2001. According to the Treasury Department, Al-Qadi heads a Saudi-based charity suspected of funneling money to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda organization—although to date no evidence has been revealed linking funds from Al-Qadi with the terrorist group.

Although Al-Qadi helped Ptech raise initial funding in 1994, he did not invest in the company, and has not had a relationship with Ptech since 1999. As soon as Ptech discovered that Al-Qadi had been placed on the Treasury Department list, however, as a precaution it severed all relations with the financier. Ptech even offered to help FBI investigators when the company learned that the FBI was interviewing former employees. The FBI, however, did not seem interested.

Nevertheless, and despite denials, the press speculated that federal officials suspected links between Ptech executives and charitable groups sending money to the Middle East, some of which allegedly had been used to fund “terrorism.” No arrests were made, and Ptech managers freely gave investigators any documents they requested despite Ptech’schief product officer James Cerrato’s declaration that “There’s absolutely nothing there” in terms of a link to al-Qaeda. The press flogged the story until it became national news, and the story spread like wildfire. A Google search on “Ptech and FBI” produced 11,000 hits.

Lebanese-American Oussama Ziade, who co-founded Ptech in 1994 and now serves as the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, says that the real story is that two Ptech vice presidents, Jeff Goins and Rian Mey, schemed for a year to get Ptech to license its revolutionary software to them. After Sept. 11, and the press and federal agents’ subsequent linking of Al-Qadi to Ptech, the pair exploited the connection further in an attempt to force a licensing deal.

Prior to making its first sale, Ptech spent four years developing its software, which is now used by 50 organizations, including the FBI, the U.S. Department of Energy, NATO, the Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Army, the House of Representatives and the White House.

Its enterprise architecture software provides Ptech users with a visual blueprint of how processes work, to better understand how to turn strategy into practice. Government experts studied the software code to determine that it was safe and did not contain “a backdoor” that would permit unauthorized access to sensitive information, or code that was destructive to data or programs. “All the products Ptech provided to the government were of a non-classified nature,” said U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan.

 

The FBI did not seem interested in Ptech’s offer to help investigators.

Ptech’s software has gained worldwide attention as a powerful tool to produce efficiencies and streamline operations. KM World twice named the company as one of the “100 Companies that Matter,” ranking it alongside Intel, IBM and Microsoft.

Chief operating and chief financial officer George Peterson has been assigned the task of turning Ptech into a $100-million-a-year company. For 2002 Ptech expects to have earned $10 million in gross revenues.

The adverse media coverage, however, has dealt a serious blow to the company and its employees. Not only did employees receive hate mail, but Fleet Bank closed the accounts of Muslim employees without explanation, Citizens Financial Group cancelled the company’s business account, and some clients failed to close deals. As a result of the negative publicity, Ptech probably will lose more than a million dollars worth of sales.

Nor is the Ptech fiasco an isolated occurrence. In a Jan. 4 Washington Post article, Manuel Roig-Franzia reported that, on Nov. 14, 2002, Jesse Maali, 57, a wealthy Jerusalem-born Arab-American entrepreneur, was arrested in Orlando, Florida. Maali had been under investigation by federal prosecutors for his generous donations to Muslim charities—an act required by Maali’s religion and observed by most Muslims.

On the day he was arrested, federal prosecutor Cynthia Hawkins Collazo charged that Maali had “financial ties to Middle Eastern organizations that advocate violence.” Arousing prosecutors’ suspicions was the fact that Maali gave $1,000 a year to the Holy Land Foundation, and for 20 years had given $45,000 annually to the Society of In’ash el-Usra. It didn’t seem to matter that, until the federal government froze their assets after Sept. 11, these charities were considered respectable and responsible organizations. Nor did the federal government offer any evidence to support its allegation that money donated to these charities was funneled to terrorist organizations.

Maali also was alleged to have donated $30,000 to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, an organization listed by the federal government as a terrorist group. Upon closer examination of this charge, however, the charity was identified as the Palestinian Aid Society, as yet free of federal and terrorist stigma.

Maali also raised suspicion because he carries an American and Jordanian passport, a practice common among international business people, including Israelis. Further suspicions were aroused because of a letter Maali had written to a London-based Arabic newspaper in which he examined the issue of suicide bombers and concluded that such attacks were wrong. Prosecutors also alleged that he was involved in a money-laundering scheme involving illegal workers, controlled all the businesses in the neighborhood of his tourist shops on Orlando’s International Drive, and used his nephews as “enforcers.” His fellow businessmen stated on his behalf that Maali did not control International Drive.

 

“Tourism for Terrorism”

The Orlando police made a circus of his bond hearing by closing off streets and diverting traffic around the courthouse. Local TV stations placed his image next to a picture of Osama bin Laden and called the case “Tourism for Terrorism.” As in the Ptech case, the media flogged the story unmercifully. A Google search on “Maali and Federal” produced 900 hits.

Despite all the hoopla, U.S. Magistrate David A. Baker refused to order Maali held without bond, although he did require $10 million in cash and property to guarantee his next court appearance. Scolding the federal prosecutors, Judge Baker noted, “There is a great danger that connections and associations can be used to paint with a very broad brush. Simply because someone meets or knows someone…or shares the same characteristics, does not make him responsible for somebody else’s actions.”

One hopes Judge Baker’s words do not continue to fall on deaf ears.

Robert Younes, M.D., is media and public relations director for the Washington Report.

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