PTech Raid

Date: Saturday, December 07, 2002 10:50 PM

H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

Two commentaries are followed by two articles.

By Donna Cisz (subscriber to this newsletter)

Go to http://www.msnbc.com/news/844016.asp?0sl=-13 and read about Ptech, a
Quincy, MA software company with dozens of government contracts recently
raided by the FBI and US Customs.

Why the raid? Because it is partly owned by a Saudi businessman who U.S.
officials believe is a financier for Al-Qaida....a little scary when you
consider this company's clients:

"Documents obtained by NBC News show that the U.S. government paid Ptech at
least $3.3 million over four years. Its government clients have included the
FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Air Force, the Naval Air
Services Command, the Energy Department, the IRS, the Postal Service and the
House of Representatives. It also has done work for NATO."

"A senior Ptech official acknowledged Friday that Saudi businessman Yasin
al-Qadi, whom Treasury officials have designated as a terrorist financier,
was an investor in the company but said he had not been involved for a
couple of years."

Now, go to http://www.zazona.com/LCA-Data/ and do an advanced search on
Ptech. You'll find Ptech there: proof that a company suspected of terrorist
links has filed applications to bring in foreign immigrants. While, there
aren't many applications filed - 17 and all for work locations in MA - Rob
Sanchez states that his "online database is usually a subset of all data
available" and that the database was last updated March of 2002 with records
from 2001.

Do we know if any came in, and if so, how many, where they went, where they
are now...their names? No way...As Rob also states on the website:

"Remember an LCA is an application. There is no way to verify how many of
these LCAs resulted in actual visas because the DOL doesn't track what the
INS does with the LCA. The DOL and the INS don't use the same database so
the right foot doesn't know where the left foot is going. Further
complicating an accurate count is that the INS doesn't track aliens once
they are into the United States. There is nothing to stop a company or
bodyshop from moving the H-1B to a different location once the visa is
issued. Nobody knows where the H-1Bs go after they arrive into the US.

Reliable data on where H-1Bs are and how many of them are in the U.S. will
be impossible to get until our government makes the commitment to make a
database that tracks them. "

Thank God we have Rob and the www.zazaona.com website. He deserves much
credit for all he has done to educate and to serve as a widely respected,
credible source of information difficult to obtain from agencies too
incompetent to be relied on anyway.

We need and deserve a Hell of a lot more from our government and legislators
to ensure our rights as U.S. citizens as well as our safety at a time of
pending war and heightened terrorism on U.S. soil.

It's about time the right foot and the left foot walk together and be held
accountable.

By Dr. Norman Matloff

A number of people have asked me whether this firm employs H-1Bs. The
answer is definitely yes. There are about two dozen entries for the firm in
Rob Sanchez's FOIA H-1B database. The pay is low in general terms, and
particularly low for specialty software such as artificial intelligence.

For those of you who are newer readers of this e-newsletter, I should review
what I've said about security issues related to H-1B since 9/11. I would
note first that I am hesitant to put too much emphasis on the security issue
in the H-1B discussion, as I believe hysteria may lead to measures which are
both improper and, more importantly, ineffective. As many of you know, I
was on a committee which defended Wen Ho Lee a couple of years ago, against
accusations that he was a spy for China,
which appear to have been basically a witch hunt.

Nevertheless, it clearly is an important issue. Among other things, it
shows once again the outrageously disproportionate power that the industry
has over both the legislative and executive branches of our government.
(The jury is still out on the judicial branch, no pun intended.) After
9/11, the government announced that foreign nationals would not be allowed
to work on defense projects. The industry lobbyists immediately objected,
and the government pulled back, saying that this policy would only be
applied to the Navy. The industry lobbyists complained some more, and then
the government pulled back
again, saying the policy would be applied only in very special individual
cases.

And it's not just an issue of defense-related jobs. Note for example that
Dun & Bradstreet and the Bank of America have switched much of their
financial database work to a combination of H-1Bs and offshore work. Some
other financial institutions have done the same, I'm told. The potential to
wreak havoc with the U.S. economy is clear.

The industry lobbyists claim that there haven't been any incidents like this
with H-1Bs. Well, that's not quite true. There have been several
instances, for instance, of H-1Bs from China who were accused (some cases
still pending) of passing trade secrets of their U.S. employers to
government firms in China. Again, these are still allegations at this
point, as is the case in the enclosed article. But the potential for
trouble is clear.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/07/national/07RAID.html

Federal Agents Raid a Software Company Outside Boston, Seeking Links to Al
Qaeda
By PAM BELLUCK with ERIC LICHTBLAU

QUINCY, Mass., Dec. 6 - Federal agents raided a small software company in
this Boston suburb early this morning in an investigation into whether it
has ties to Al Qaeda.

The company, Ptech Inc., counts among its clients the F.B.I., the Air Force,
the Navy, the Department of Energy and NATO. Law enforcement officials in
Washington said the authorities were trying to determine whether it had
financial ties to terrorist groups or affiliates and whether it might have
been trying to use the software it produces to gain access to classified or
confidential government data.

The raid, just after midnight at the company's headquarters in a bayfront
office park, stemmed from information the government had received from
former Ptech employees suggesting that one of its investors was Yasin
al-Qadi, a Saudi millionaire who is on a Treasury Department list of
"blocked persons" because of suspicion of terrorist ties. It is illegal for
United States companies to knowingly do business with someone on that list.

Mr. Qadi once headed a Saudi-based charity called the Muwafaq Foundation,
which federal authorities consider a front for Osama bin Laden's terror
network. The government suspects that Mr. Qadi and other well-connected
Saudis have transferred millions of dollars to Mr. bin Laden through trusts
and charities like Muwafaq. Mr. Qadi denies having engaged in any such
activity.

Law enforcement officials said they were trying to determine whether Mr.
Qadi was in fact a backer of Ptech and whether the company had funneled
money to charities that might have contributed to Al Qaeda or other
terrorist groups.

"The key thing here is that al-Qadi is on the terror financing list, and
U.S. entities are prohibited by law from doing business with anyone on the
list," said a senior law enforcement official who spoke only on the
condition of anonymity.

"We're pretty sure that he is the main financier of the company," said the
official, although he would not detail evidence supporting that belief. "The
question is, Was the company aware of his being on the list, and did they
continue to deal with him despite the fact that he was on the list?"

Ptech's chief executive, Oussama Ziade, is a Lebanese native who, according
to the company's Web site, has a background in physics and a master's degree
in software engineering from Boston University. There was no response to
messages left for him today.

But the company issued a statement saying it categorically denied "having
any connection with any terrorist organization," Bloomberg News reported.
The news agency also quoted Blake Bissom, Ptech's vice president for sales
and marketing, as saying he had never heard Mr. Qadi's name before today.

The office of Michael J. Sullivan, the United States attorney in Boston,
said the raid had not resulted in any arrests but declined to say precisely
what the agents had been looking for and whether they had seized anything.
This evening, however, Mr. Sullivan issued a statement seemingly playing
down the question of whether Ptech software could have been used to access
government data.

"The search was conducted in connection with an ongoing financial crime
investigation," the statement said. "Media characterizations of this as a
terrorist investigation are premature."

Mr. Sullivan also said a review of Ptech's computer systems had found "no
reason to believe that the software has any secondary purpose or malicious
code, or that there has been a breach of any kind."

"There have been no vulnerabilities identified in connection with any of the
products provided by Ptech," he said. "There is no evidence to suggest that
the system is susceptible to compromise or poses any security risk."

Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary, echoed that account, saying
the products supplied to the government by Ptech "all fell in the
nonclassified area."

Mr. Fleischer added that government agencies that use the software had
"detected absolutely nothing, in their reports to the White House, that
would lead to any concern about any of the products purchased from this
company."

But federal agencies seemed to disagree about whether the software could be
used to infiltrate federal databases. An F.B.I. official described it as
"off the shelf," saying it posed no threat. But the Customs Service and
other law enforcement agencies, which have sometimes been at odds with the
F.B.I. over terror-financing investigations, believe that the Ptech inquiry
"has the potential to be a big deal" in the context of both financing and
the software, said the senior law enforcement official who insisted on
anonymity.

Ptech is a privately held company that was founded eight years ago. Its
software provides an organization a kind of blueprint of how that
organization operates. The software uses some aspects of artificial
intelligence, and allows users to cull and analyze information in various
databases, making changes in organization structure and strategy much easier
to adopt.

Ptech's customers include major companies like I.B.M., Aetna, Motorola and
Sprint. A profile last year in the Quincy newspaper, The Patriot Ledger,
said the clients included 11 of the Fortune 100 companies.

One of Ptech's vice presidents, Joseph Johnson, spoke briefly to reporters
outside its offices today, saying the raid was "no great surprise," given
the government agencies among the company's clientele.

"We live in different times right now," Mr. Johnson said. "We fully expected
this. I don't think it's any different than when you go to the airport today
and you have to go through additional security."

Mr. Johnson said a number of the company's executives and employees were
Muslim, adding, "They are American citizens."

Information that the company had ties to Mr. Qadi was brought to the F.B.I.
last fall by former employees who had left Ptech to form their own company,
according to several people with knowledge of the investigation.

"We had people in the company coming forward," the senior law enforcement
official said, "to say this is what this software can do, and this is who
these people are, and this is why we're concerned."

http://www.msnbc.com/news/844016.asp?0sl=-13&cp1=1

Al-Qaida link eyed in Mass. raid

Software firm has worked for dozens of U.S. agencies and corporations
Ptech Inc.'s offices in Quincy, Mass., which FBI and customs agents raided
Friday morning.

NBC, MSNBC AND NEWS SERVICES

Dec. 6 — FBI and Customs agents Friday raided a Massachusetts software
company with dozens of government and Fortune 500 clients that is partly
owned by a Saudi businessman who U.S. officials believe is a financier for
the al-Qaida terrorism network, NBC News has learned.

The company’s client list includes the FBI, NATO, the FAA, the Air Force,
the Naval Air Services Command, the Energy Department, the IRS, the Postal
Service and the House of Representatives.

SOURCES FAMILIAR with the raid told NBC News on condition of anonymity that
investigators also were trying to determine whether the company, Ptech Inc.
of Quincy, Mass., used its software to gain access to sensitive government
data.

A senior Ptech official acknowledged Friday that Saudi businessman Yasin
al-Qadi, whom Treasury officials have designated as a terrorist financier,
was an investor in the company but said he had not been involved for a
couple of years. “We’re not a terrorist company, and there’s nobody here
affiliated with terrorism,” said the official, Joseph Johnson, a Ptech vice
president.

In a statement, the company said it “categorically denies having any
connection with any terrorist organization.”

Documents obtained by NBC News show that the U.S. government paid Ptech at
least $3.3 million over four years. Its government clients have included the
FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Air Force, the Naval Air
Services Command, the Energy Department, the IRS, the Postal Service and the
House of Representatives. It also has done work for NATO.

On its Web site, Ptech, which was founded in 1994, also lists numerous
Fortune 500 companies it says it has worked for. It describes itself as “the
leading authority in enterprise architecture.”

Michael Sullivan, the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, said in a statement
that “media characterizations of this as a terrorist investigation are
premature,” but sources said the federal agents detained some employees for
questioning in the raid, which occurred in a driving snowstorm early in the
morning.

SOFTWARE DETERMINED SAFE
Agents had a search warrant, sources said, but it was not needed as Ptech
Inc. allowed the officers to come in and take whatever they wanted. The U.S.
attorney’s office in Boston said no arrests were made.

Few other details were immediately available, but sources said investigators
were trying to determine whether the Ptech software might have included
“back doors” that would have allowed company employees to remotely access
and download data from government and company computers.

But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters, “The material has
been reviewed by the appropriate government agencies, and they have detected
absolutely nothing in their reports to the White House that would lead to
any concern.”

Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said, “The software in no way
jeopardizes the security of our country.”

The White House also was satisfied that the software had never been used in
sensitive government systems, the official said on condition of anonymity.

The AP quoted an unidentified law enforcement official as saying the
investigation was focused on links between Ptech officials and certain
charitable groups. The official did not elaborate.

Meanwhile, Newsweek reported on its Web site that the FBI launched an
investigation of Ptech a month after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks
on the basis of information from company insiders.

The employees said they had been summoned to Saudi Arabia about two years
earlier for meetings with investors and had met al-Qadi, who was described
as a Ptech owner, Newsweek said, quoting unidentified sources familiar with
the investigation.

The magazine said the investigation languished until last summer, when the
White House instructed the Customs Service to conduct its own investigation.

Newsweek: High-tech terror ties?

COMPANY A HIGH FLIER
The privately held Ptech, which has about 50 employees, has been a high
flier in recent years. It has twice been named as one of the “100 Companies
That Matter” by KM World, ranking alongside Intel, IBM and Microsoft.

Ptech’s software, which provides organizations with a visual blueprint of
how internal processes work, is used to help executives turn strategy into
practice.

No one answered the door or answered the telephone Friday at the home of

the company’s chairman and chief executive, Oussama Ziade. A woman who
answered the telephone at the home of Vice President Hussein Ibrahim, the
company’s chief scientist, would not give her name said Ibrahim was not
available.

However, James Cerrato, the company’s chief product officer, said as he
walked into the office Friday morning, “There’s absolutely nothing there” in
terms of a link to al-Qaida. “I think as soon as the investigation
concludes, that will put a light on things,” he added.

Little is known about al-Qadi, whom U.S. officials describe as a
multimillionaire with personal connections to the Saudi royal family. The
Treasury Department has concluded that he has funneled “millions of dollars”
to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network.

The Saudi government announced this week that it had frozen al-Qadi’s assets
there, one of just three people it has taken such action against. In other
cases, the Saudis have said the United States failed to provide evidence to
back up assertions that individuals were financially supporting terrorists.

LIVING COMFORTABLY IN JEDDAH
But al-Qadi continues to live comfortably in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia,
apparently relying on funds he still has access to in countries that have
not frozen his bank accounts.

In an interview with NBC News last year, al-Qadi denied that he had provided
financial support to bin Laden or al-Qaida.

The Saudi government this week launched a public relations campaign aimed at
deflecting criticism of what some U.S. officials see as a reluctance to
crack down on citizens of the oil-rich kingdom who are providing financial
support for al-Qaida.

Adel al-Jubeir, a foreign policy adviser to the royal family, said at an
unusual news conference at the Saudi Embassy in Washington that Riyadh had
aggressively targeted al-Qaida and imposed financial controls to ensure that
money from the kingdom’s citizens did not flow to terrorists.

Saudis detail anti-terror actions

He also said Saudi Arabia had been “unfairly maligned” and subjected to a
campaign that “borders on hate.”

Criticism of Saudi Arabia as a possible source of terror money escalated
after the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington, in which 15 of the 19
alleged terrorists were Saudis.

Since the attacks, questions have arisen over the estimated $3 billion a
year that Saudis give to charitable causes, including at least $300 million
a year that flows out of the country and cannot easily be traced.

The questions have become more pointed in recent weeks, since it was
revealed that some money given by Princess Haifa al Faisal to the family of
a Saudi man living in Southern California may have been used to aid two of
the hijackers who participated in the Sept. 11 attacks. The princess is the
wife of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the United States.

The princess said that the money was a charitable contribution and that she
had no knowledge that some of it may have been diverted to third parties.

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