Firm Raided for Suspected 'Terror' Link-U.S. Air Force, NATO are some of its clients

national | miscellaneous | news report Friday December 06, 2002 21:10 by 02+36

Boston-Area Firm Raided for Suspected 'Terror' Link

BOSTON (Reuters) - Federal agents early on Friday seized documents in a raid on a small software firm near Boston that does business with the U.S. government and is suspected of funding "terrorism," a law enforcement source said.

ABC News reported earlier on Friday that agents had raided the privately held firm, Ptech Inc. The network said the company was allegedly controlled by Qassin al-Kadi, one of 12 Saudi businessmen accused of funneling millions of dollars to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network.

But a federal law enforcement source familiar with the operation denied ABC's report that the government feared the firm may have provided al Qaeda with access to federal agency computers.

Agents had a search warrant, the source said, but it wasn't needed as the company allowed agents to come in and take whatever they wanted.

The Ptech investigation involves allegations the owners and people who run the company were involved in a charitable organization that funnels money to the Middle East, and that some of the money had been used to fund "terrorism," the source said.

"This may turn out to be a big nothing. But it's still open," the source said.

The U.S. Attorney's office in Boston said no arrests were made during the raid, but declined further comment.

The FBI and other unnamed intelligence agencies have interviewed former Ptech employees, according to people familiar with the investigation.

The FBI's Boston office referred telephone calls to the U.S. Attorney's office in Boston.

Ptech, which is based in Quincy, Massachusetts, does business with government agencies, including the FBI and the U.S. Department of Energy, according to the firm's Web site.

Ptech also lists NATO, the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Air Force as clients.

The company, incorporated in Delaware, develops architecture software, which allows companies to create a master blueprint of their operations and potential capabilities. No one appeared to be present at its Quincy offices on Friday morning after the raid, and the front door was locked, a Reuters photographer said.

According to incorporation papers filed in Massachusetts, Oussama Ziade is the co-founder of Ptech. He also has served as the firm's chief executive and chairman. Ziade was not immediately available for comment.

Boston-Area Firm Raided for Suspected 'Terror' Link
Fri December 6, 2002 11:35 AM ET

By Tim McLaughlin

In a civil lawsuit filed earlier this year against two former employees in U.S. District Court in Boston, Ptech said IBM Corp. was a major customer, accounting for about 20 percent of the firm's revenue last year. Ptech said in the March complaint that it expected to generate $3 million in revenue from IBM in 2002 and up to $10 million in total revenue.

IBM spokesman Jeff Gluck confirmed Ptech is one of IBM's 90,000 business partners.

Al Qaeda, headed by Osama bin Laden, is believed to be responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 hijack attacks in the United States that killed more than 3,000 people.

(Additional reporting by Greg Frost in Boston and James Vicini in Washington)