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Following
the Sept. 11 money trail
Tower computers scoured for clues to cash transfers
Erik Kirschbaum
12/18/2001
The Toronto Star
Ontario
Page A08
Copyright (c) 2001 The Toronto Star
German computer experts are working around
the clock to unlock the truth behind an unexplained surge in financial
transactions made just before two hijacked planes crashed into New York's
World Trade Center Sept. 11.
Were criminals responsible for the sharp rise
in credit card transactions that moved through some computer systems at the
center shortly before the planes hit the twin towers? Or was it coincidence
that unusually large sums of money, perhaps more than $100 million, were
rushed through the computers as the disaster unfolded?
A world leader in retrieving data, German
-based firm Convar, is trying to answer those questions and help credit card
companies, telecommunications firms and accountants in New York recover
records from computer hard drives that have been partially damaged by fire,
water or fine dust.
Using a pioneering laser scanning technology to
find data on damaged computer hard drives and main frames found in the rubble
of the World Trade Center and other nearby collapsed buildings, Convar has
recovered information from 32 computers that support assumptions of dirty
doomsday dealings.
"The suspicion is that inside information
about the attack was used to send financial transaction commands and
authorizations in the belief that amid all the chaos the criminals would
have, at the very least, a good head start," said Convar director Peter
Henschel.
"Of course it is also possible that there
were perfectly legitimate reasons for the unusual rise in business
volume," he told Reuters in an interview. "It could turn out that
Americans went on an absolute shopping binge on that Tuesday morning. But at
this point there are many transactions that cannot be accounted for," he
said.
Inside Convar's ultra-high security building in
Pirmasens, Germany, is a dust-free "clean room" where damaged
computer drives retrieved from the rubble are coaxed back to life.
Henschel said the raw material recovered, up to
40 gigabytes per computer hard drive, is sent immediately by satellite or
courier back to New York.
Richard Wagner, a data retrieval expert at the
company, said illegal transfers of more than $100 million might have been
made immediately before and during the disaster.
"There is a suspicion that some people
had advance knowledge of the approximate time of the plane crashes in order
to move out amounts exceeding $100 million," Wagner said. "They
thought that the records of their transactions could not be traced after the
main frames were destroyed."
"We have been quite surprised that so many
of the hard drives were in good enough shape to retrieve the data,"
Henschel said. "The contamination rate is high. The fine dust that was
everywhere in the area got pressed under high pressure into the drives. But
we've still been able to retrieve 100 percent of the data on most of the
drives we've received.
Credit: REUTERS NEWS AGENCY; REUTERS FILE PHOTO
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