Raided al Qaeda-linked tech firm got Clinton clearance to work for FAA, FBI, Pentagon

The Massachusetts-based software company raided December 6 for alleged links to al Qaeda received clearance to do computer work for the Pentagon, FBI and other agencies during the Clinton Administration.

Concerned that high-tech firms tied to Arab and Islamist terrorist figures could be compromising U.S. national security, the Bush Administration at the National Security Council level began tracking some of those companies.

One of those businesses was Ptech, Inc., which specializes in developing software that helps run corporate networks.

Jerry Guidera and Glenn R. Simpson of the Wall Street Journal report that General Services Administration records show that Ptech received the U.S. government seal of approval in 1997 to market its services to “all legislative, judicial, and executive branches of the federal government” under “a Clinton Administration government-efficiency improvement effort.”

The company reportedly received U.S. security clearances to work on “sensitive projects,” helping build the Military Information Architecture Network for the Pentagon. Ptech has also provided services to the Federal Aviation Administration, FBI, Department of Energy, IRS, NATO, US Air Force, and US Navy, as well as to private contractors for top-secret national security work including the Booz Allen Hamilton and the MITRE Corporation.

Investigators say Ptech’s financial backers include two suspected terrorism financiers: Saudi businessman Yassin Qadi who allegedly funds al Qaeda, and M. Yaqub Mirza, “a Pakistani immigrant who controls a web of businesses and charities in Northern Virginia raided by antiterror investigators in March” alleged to fund the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.