FOLLOW THE MONEY: ICE Operation Green Quest 9/11 Terrorist Funding Investigation in Sarasota Shut Down by FBI in June 2003 WTF?

FOLLOW THE MONEY; ICE Operation Green Quest 9/11 Terrorist Funding Investigation in Sarasota Led by Michael Chertoff Shut Down by FBI Because it Linked to Terrorism, WTF? The ICE Operation Green Quest investigation into terrorist funding in Sarasota Fl led by Michael Chertoff was getting results in 2002 to 2003 but the FBI shut it down. In March 2003, Customs and Operation Green Quest were transferred to ICE, within the Department of Homeland Security. From July to October 2003, the FBI provided a list of individuals, businesses, and organizations to the vetting unit that it believed were related to pre-Agreement ICE Operation Green Quest investigations. Customs (ICE) expanded Operation Green Quest in January 2003 by doubling the personnel commitment to a total of approximately 300 agents and analysts nationwide to work solely on terrorist financing matters. A review of the list by the vetting unit and TFOS identified approximately 30 potential crossover subjects.  

The FBI believed that these subjects had ties to terrorism or terrorist financing-and, accordingly, per the Agreement's collaborative procedures-any related ICE investigations should be transitioned to JTTFs. According to ICE officials, in late-October 2003, TFOS demonstrated that 10 of the approximately 30 subjects had a confirmed nexus to terrorism or terrorist financing, and ICE agreed to transition the related ICE investigations to JTTFs. As a result of conflicts between the FBI and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE, in May 2003 the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff signed an agreement concerning terrorist financing investigations. 

Operation Green Quest 9/11 Investigation in Sarasota Fl was disbanded in June 2003 it had commenced in October 2001, it lasted just 20 months, WHY? DHS acknowledged that the Department of Justice, through the FBI, was the lead agency in the fight against terrorist financing, and that any terrorist financing investigations would have to be conducted under the auspices of the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force. Secret ICE Operation Green Quest Investigation of 9/11 Support Network in 2002 shut down by FBI in 2003. The FBI appears to have 'protected' the Saudi family in Prestancia Sarasota Fl. The ICE 2002 - 2003 Operation Green Quest Investigation of 9/11 Terrorist Support Network in Sarasota Fl, "follow the money," Saudi funded Ministry of Islamic Affairs linked to support of 9/11 terrorists. Wealthy Saudi Royals connected Esam Ghazzawi and his son Adel Ghazzawi and son-in-law Abdulaziz al-Hijji, who lived in Ghazzawi's Prestanci home in Sarasota, had been on the ICE terrorist funding watch list. Esam Ghazzawi's influence extends to his son. His 42-year-old son, Adel Ghazzawi (who also lived in the Sarasota Prestancia home), is a board member of the New York-based think tank 'EastWest Institute', which counts the likes of Michael Chertoff as a member of the Board of Directors, and director of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush and co-author of the Patriot Act. 

In 2011 Michael Chertoff, who led Operation Green Quest investigation, and Adel Ghazzawi, who linked to Sarasota house in Prestancia and Huffman Aviation in Venice, are Board Members of EastWest Institute New York. In the summer of 2001 Anoud al-Hijji’s 18-year-old brother, Salman Ghazzawi, also lived at the home in Prestancia. The fox, Michael Chertoff, was guarding the 9/11 hen house in Sarasota.

In October 2001, Michael Chertoff was appointed head of Operation Green Quest by Pres George Bush, a multi-agency initiative to target sources of funding for terrorist organizations, according to a U.S. Customs Service (later ICE) press release. Underground financial systems, illicit charities, and corrupt financial institutions are among the entities to be scrutinized as possible facilitators of terrorist funding. Chertoff told the Associated Press on Oct. 25, 2001 that, ‘The lifeblood of terrorism is money, and if we cut the money we cut the blood supply.’ Chertoff served in the capacity of Assistant Attorney General of the criminal division at the Department of Justice from 2001 to 2003.

“They [The FBI] won’t share anything with us,’ said a Homeland Security official. ‘Then they go to the White House and they accuse us (ICE) of not sharing . . . If they can’t take it over, they want to kill it.’ The Treasury Department agencies participating in Operation Green Quest are the Customs Service (ICE), the Internal Revenue Service, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, and the Secret Service. If nothing else, the battle over Green Quest illustrates the bureaucratic tensions that still plague the war on terror. The creation of the Homeland Security Department was supposed to put an end to such turf fights. The new department took over a diverse assortment of federal agencies that had various responsibilities for combating terrorism, including the Customs Service (ICE), the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the U.S. Border Patrol.”

The FBI closely guards its files on Ghazzawi and has steadfastly refused to release even his name – except once in an apparent oversight while processing documents for release to Florida Bulldog. The documents were a copy of a letter and a list of phone numbers received by the FBI on July 23, 2002. Details about the letter and the list were blanked out, but the “title” of the file into which they were placed – Esam Ghazzawi – was not. When “big poppy” Esam Ghazzawi left the U.S. in 2001, Adel Ghazzawi apparently took over the family’s affairs in Sarasota. It was Adel, then 30 and an American citizen, who tried to get a Prestancia lien lifted so the house could be sold. The lien came after the series of brushes with Prestancia’s community association in Sarasota Fl, they all just slipped away right under the noses of the FBI. Saudi businessman Adel Ghazzawi appears on a leaked 2015 company information form for Reflections International. The company holds personal, commercial activities funds, the document says. The FBI had investigated his sister’s family for suspected ties to the 9/11 hijackers in Sarasota.

Adel Ghazzawi son of Esam Ghazzawi living in Prestanca home in Sarasota Fl during 1999 to early 2001. April 3rd 2002 FBI report indicates that at least two people linked to the al-Hijji house in Prestancia Sarasota Fl were taking flight lessons at Huffman Aviation with the 9/11 hijackers in the year 2000. Individuals tied to Huffman Flight School and 9/11 Hijackers by FBI linked to 4224 Escondito Circle Sarasota as family members appear to be Abdulaziz al-Hijji and Adel Ghazzawi son of Esam Ghazzawi. In the year 2000, Sarasota Saudi’s Abdulaziz al-Hijji then age 27 and his brother in law Adel Ghazzawi then age 30, were contemporaries of 9/11 Hijack Pilots Ziad Jarrah then age 25, Marwan Al-Shehhi then age 22, and Monamed Atta then age 32 who all appear to have taken Flight Training in Venice Fl at Hoffman Aviation at the same time, small world, eh? It appears that Adel Ghazzawi had been staying at 4224 Escondito Circle Sarasota, he also was linked to a address in nearby Longboat Key Fl. In the summer of 2001 Anoud al-Hijji’s 18-year-old brother, Salman Ghazzawi, also lived at the home in Prestancia. 

Interestingly the flying Imam Muneer Arafat at the Sarasota Mosque who has ties to al-Qaeda members before coming to Sarasota Fl in 2000 also had taken advanced flight lessons, small world, eh? Sarasota Fl was Terror Central from the summer of 2000 and into 2001. Saudi businessman Adel Ghazzawi appears on a leaked 2015 company data form for Reflections International. The company holds personal, commercial activities funds, the document says.The FBI had investigated his sister’s family in Sarasota for suspected ties to the 9/11 hijackers. The 9/11 hijackers facilitator in San Diego CA during 2000 was Omar al-Bayoumi. Saudi spy Omar al-Bayoumi in 1993 was in Boca Raton Fl to study English, same place Al-Qaeda linked Imam Muneer Arafat shows up in 2003 at Mosque after being at Sarasota Fl Mosque for 3 years. Imam Muneer Arafat first shows up in Sarasota Fl in March 2000, just 4 months prior to Mohamed Atta and the other two 9/11 hijack pilots showing up in Sarasota County. Imam Muneer Arafats prior to coming to Sarasota was Al-Qaeda procurement agent Ziyad Khaleel's roommate who just happened to be linked to Omar al-Bayoumi, round and round we go, small world again, eh?

 

KSM denies that Saudis were chosen for the 9/11 plot to drive a wedge between the United States and Saudi Arabia, and stresses practical reasons for considering ethnic background when selecting operatives. He says that so many were Saudi because Saudis comprised the largest portion of the pool of recruits in the al Qaeda training camps. KSM estimates that in any given camp, 70 percent of the mujahideen were Saudi, 20 percent were Yemeni, and 10 percent were from elsewhere. Although Saudi and Yemeni trainees were most often willing to volunteer for suicide operations, prior to 9/11 it was easier for Saudi operatives to get into the United States. Like many other al Qaeda operatives, the Saudis who eventually became the muscle hijackers were targeted for recruitment outside Afghanistan- probably in Saudi Arabia itself. Al Qaeda recruiters, certain clerics, and-in a few cases-family members probably all played a role in spotting potential candidates. Several of the muscle hijackers seem to have been recruited through contacts at local universities and Imam's at Mosques.  

 

According to the head of one of the training camps in Afghanistan, some were chosen by unnamed Saudi sheikhs who had contacts with al Qaeda. Omari, for example, is believed to have been a student of a radical Saudi cleric named Sulayman al Alwan. His mosque, which is located in al Qassim Province, is known among more moderate clerics as a "terrorist factory." The province is at the very heart of the strict Wahhabi movement in Saudi Arabia. Saeed al Ghamdi and Mohand al Shehri also spent time in al Qassim, both breaking with their families. According to his father, Mohand al Shehri's frequent visits to this area resulted in his failing exams at his university in Riyadh. 

 

Saeed al Ghamdi transferred to a university in al Qassim, but he soon stopped talking to his family and dropped out of school without informing them. KSM claims that Bin Ladin could assess new trainees very quickly, in about ten minutes, and that many of the 9/11 hijackers were selected in this manner. Bin Ladin, assisted by Atef, personally chose all the future muscle hijackers for the planes operation, primarily between the summer of 2000 and April 2001. Upon choosing a trainee, Bin Ladin would ask him to swear loyalty for a suicide operation. After the selection and oath-swearing, the operative would be sent to KSM for training and the filming of a martyrdom video, a function KSM supervised as head of al Qaeda's media committee.  

 

As to targets on 9/11, Atta understood Bin Ladin's interest in striking the White House. Atta said he thought this target too difficult, but had tasked Hazmi and Hanjour to evaluate its feasibility and was awaiting their answer. Atta said that those two operatives had rented small aircraft and flown reconnaissance flights near the Pentagon. Atta explained that Hanjour was assigned to attack the Pentagon, Jarrah the Capitol, and that both Atta and Shehhi would hit the World Trade Center. If any pilot could not reach his intended target, he was to crash the plane. If Atta could not strike the World Trade Center, he planned to crash his aircraft directly into the streets of New York.

THE TIMES UK Sept 6, 2025. Revealed after 24 years, how UK was forced to free 9/11 ‘plotter’. Omar al-Bayoumi was arrested in Birmingham days after the 9/11 atrocity. But police were never given crucial evidence by the FBI. The declassified FBI Operation Encore materials portrayed Saudi spy Omar Bayoumi not as an innocent bystander but as someone deeply tied to Musaed al-Jarrah head of Saudi Religious Ministry (Imams) and possibly Saudi intelligence networks with Ziyad Khaleel in America. It references a 2017 assessment by the FBI’s Arabian Peninsula Squad, which had concluded Omar Bayoumi was a “co-optee” of the Saudi General Intelligence Presidency, its secret service, he was a spy. It found the assistance given to 9/11 hijackers Hazmi and Mihdhar was consistent with a co-ordinated terrorist support operation, rather than a series of chance encounters, and involved individuals with official connections to Saudi Arabia.

Bill Warner Private Investigator Sarasota 941-926-1926 at wbipi@verizon.net