AL QAEDA, TALIBAN SAID TO STASH GOLD IN SUDAN

WASHINGTON - Financial officers of Al Qaeda and the Taliban have quietly
shipped large quantities of gold out of Pakistan to Sudan in recent weeks,
transiting the United Arab Emirates and Iran, according to European,
Pakistani, and US investigators.

The investigators said several shipments of boxes of gold, usually
disguised as other products, were taken by small boat from the Pakistani
port of Karachi to Iran or Dubai, and from there mixed with other goods and
flown by chartered airplanes to Khartoum, the Sudanese capital.

Although it is unclear how much gold has been moved, US and European
officials said the quantity was significant and was an important indicator
that the Al Qaeda network and members of Afghanistan's deposed Taliban
militia still had access to large financial reserves.

European and US intelligence officials said the movement of gold also
highlighted three significant developments in the war on terrorism: the
growing role of Iranian intelligence units allied with the country's
hard-line clerics in protecting and aiding Al Qaeda, the potential
reemergence of Sudan as a financial center for the organization, and the
ability of the terrorist group to generate new sources of revenue despite
the global crackdown on its finances.

The officials said Sudan may have been chosen because Osama bin Laden, the
Saudi-born Al Qaeda leader, and other members of the network are familiar
with the country and retain business contacts there. They said traditional
havens for Al Qaeda money on the Arabian peninsula such as Saudi Arabia and
United Arab Emirates were under intense international scrutiny, while
transactions in Sudan could more easily pass unnoticed.

Gold has for years been the preferred financial instrument of the Taliban
and Al Qaeda. Most of the Taliban treasury was kept in gold when the
militia ruled Afghanistan, and taxes were often collected in gold. Just
before the Taliban and Al Qaeda were driven from Afghanistan last year,
they shipped large amounts of gold to Dubai, and from there to other
havens, according to US, European, and Arab officials.

Senior US intelligence officials said they are investigating the
information about the new gold shipments and had opened a case on the
matter. "We know they are looking at new sources of revenue and are finding
new ways to raise and move funds to where they are accessible," a US
official said. "The bankers are the ones that move the money and the
bankers are not sitting in caves in Afghanistan."

European and US sources said they became aware of the shipments after they
occurred, and have asked the Sudanese government to take measures to halt
the flow. A spokesman for the Sudanese Embassy in Washington said he had no
official information about the shipments and found the information "hard to
believe."

"Sudan is not going to allow anything like this to come in knowingly," the
official said. "We are concerned about terrorism. We are on a high level of
alert since Sept. 11."

But European intelligence sources said one hub of bin Laden's organization
continues to be Sudan, where he lived from 1991 to 1996, when he was forced
to move to Afghanistan.

Although the United States and other countries have praised Sudan for its
cooperation in the war on terrorism, European and US officials say that bin
Laden, who invested tens of millions of dollars in the country when it
harbored him, continues to have economic interests there. While living in
Sudan, bin Laden operated a large construction business, bought extensive
land holdings, and helped found a bank.

A senior European intelligence official said evidence is growing that
Khartoum was again serving "as a sort of hub" for Al Qaeda business
transactions. "He has banking contacts there, he has business contacts
there, and he is intimately familiar with the political and intelligence
structure there," the official said. "He never fully left Sudan despite
moving to Afghanistan."

The gold appears to be the fruit of what one Pakistani businessman
knowledgeable about Taliban financing called a "commodity for commodity
exchange," with the Taliban and Al Qaeda trading opium and heroin for gold.
When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, Pakistani intelligence officials say,
it actively engaged in opium and heroin production, and allowed Al Qaeda to
raise funds through taxing the cultivation of poppy, the raw material for
heroin.

The Pakistani businessman said that over the past two months Pakistani
intelligence has picked up numerous reports indicating that Al Qaeda and
the Taliban were sending large amounts of gold out of Karachi after selling
stashes of heroin and opium to drug traffickers in Central Asia.

European terrorism specialists said they were troubled by indications that
Iranian intelligence officials were taking an active role in moving the
gold. The sources said there were credible reports that some of the gold
was flown on Iranian airplanes to Sudan.

"Iran is not a monolith. There are different groups, and some seem to be
directly helping these transfers," one official said. "It doesn't mean it
is a decision of the government, but they do not have full control over
what the security agencies do."

Arab intelligence officials have reported that Iran is sheltering senior Al
Qaeda military and financial leaders in hotels and guest houses in the
Afghan border cities of Mashhad and Zabol.

This story ran on page A11 of the Boston Globe on 9/3/2002.