Editing Al-Qaeda (section)

==BCCI==
The BCCI, in 1972, the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI) was set up in Karachi by [[Agha Hasan Abedi]], a financier who had deep connections to Pakistan's underworld, the Turkish babas (members of Turkey's underworld), and the oil-rich sheikhs of Abu Dhabi. It represented the ideal spot for the CIA to set up a laundry within the Golden Crescent. Thanks to the Agency, the BCCI was registered in Luxembourg and soon mushroomed into a vast criminal enterprise with four hundred branches in seventyeight countries, including the First American Bank in Washington, DC, the National Bank of Georgia, and the Independence Bank of Encino, California.

Virtually free from scrutiny, it engaged not only in laundering the heroin proceeds but also arms trafficking on a grand scale-including the sale of French-made jet fighters to Chile and Chinese silkworm missiles to Saudi Arabia. By 1985, it had become the seventh-largest financial institution in the world, handling the money for Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega, Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal, al-Qaeda chieftain Osama bin Laden, Liberian president Samuel Doe, and leading members of the Medellin Cartel. Prominent spooks, including CIA director [[William Casey]], made regular visits to the BCCI's headquarters in Karachi, making the Pakistani city the new haven for covert operations. 

The bank served the Agency in a myriad of ways, by paying bribes, providing "young beauties from Lahore" (human trafficking) and funneling case for assassins...the BCCI made use of the Atlanta branch of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL), an Italian bank with ties to the IOR (Vatican Bank). Henry Kissinger sat on BNL's international advisory board, along with Brent Scowcroft, who became President [[George H. W. Bush]]'s national security advisor. (The National Security Council is where Operation Gladio operations are approved)

[[James R. Bath]], an alleged CIA operative, became one of BCCI's directors. While serving the Pakistani bank, Bath was the co-owner of [[Arbusto Energy]], a Texan oil company, with future president [[George W. Bush]]. [[Kamal Adham]], a fellow BCCI official, served, according to the Kerry Commission as "the principle liaison for the CIA in the entire Middle East from mid 1060-s through 1979."

"Realizing it would be financially advantageous to train the new recruits on American soil, Sheikh Gilani, with the help of the CIA, set up paramilitary training camps in rural areas throughout the country, including Hancock New York; Red House, Virginia; Commerce, Georgia; York, South Carolina; Dover, Tennessee; Buena Vista, Colorado; Macon, Georgia; Squaw Valley, California; Marion, Alabama; and Talihina, Oklahoma.