Editing BCCI (section)

===Intelligence-Gathering and Monitoring===
	◦	CIA Reports: A declassified 1986 CIA memo, referenced in the Kerry-Brown Report, detailed BCCI’s clandestine acquisition of First American Bankshares, money laundering, and “narco-financing.” A 1989 30-page report by the CIA’s Directorate of Operations confirmed active penetration of BCCI to gather intelligence on drug trafficking, terrorism, and arms dealing.

	◦	Terrorist Accounts: U.S. Customs Service and DEA investigations, cited in the 1991 Senate hearings, identified BCCI accounts in London linked to Libya, Syria, and the Palestine Liberation Organization, suggesting the CIA monitored these for terrorist financing intelligence.

	◦	Black Network: BCCI’s covert “black network,” responsible for arms trades and drug smuggling, collaborated with Western intelligence agencies, including the CIA. A BCCI officer, who became a U.S. witness, testified in 1991 that CIA agents oversaw specific operations, such as a 1989 arms shipment from Karachi to Czechoslovakia, though declassified CIA records do not fully corroborate this claim.