Al-Barakat

al-Barakat or al-Barakaat (which means "The Blessed" in Arabic) is a group of companies established in Somalia in 1986. Al-Barakat has involved itself in the modern form of hawala, an informal value transfer system, and the remittance trade. By 2001 it operated in 40 countries and was the country’s largest private employer. Al-Barakat handled about US $140 million a year from the Somali diaspora, and also offered phone and Internet services.

History

Al-Barakat started its first operations in 1986, before the fall of the last central government in 1991. However, its rise to prominence came after hawala became the only way to transfer funds to Somalia after many foreign communities largely washed their hands of the country following the disastrous peacekeeping foray in 1993, and remittances had become the lifeline of some of its inhabitants. With no officially recognized private banking system, the remittance trade was dominated by a single firm, al-Barakat.

Repercussions following September 11, 2001 attacks

The effects of anti-terrorist financing measures of the US government and other participating countries were disastrous for al-Barakat – and for Somalia which has had no recognized government or functioning state apparatus, and no formal system of banking, since 1993. After the September 11, 2001 attacks the al-Barakat network came under attack since it was suspected that hawala brokers may have helped terrorist organizations transfer money to fund terrorist activities. In 2001, the United States shut down al-Barakat Bank’s overseas money remittance channel, labeling the bank “the quartermasters of terror.” Despite numerous investigations, nothing was found to link al-Barakaat to terrorist activities as was outlined by the 9/11 Commission. By early 2003 only four criminal prosecutions had been filed, and none involved charges of aiding terrorists. The 9/11 Commission Report has since confirmed that the bulk of the funds used to finance the assault on the twin towers were not sent through the hawala system, but rather by inter-bank wire transfer to the SunTrust Bank in Florida. Nevertheless, the al-Barakat network suffered severely, and millions of Somalis are still cut off from funds transferred to their relatives that remain frozen pending conversion of the UN blacklisting.

With remittances representing 25 percent to 40 percent of Somalia’s total gross national product, closure of al-Barakat Bank has had a big effect for the Somali economy. Its founder Ahmed Ali Jumale, was living in United Arab Emirates at the time of the closure. Although other money transfer agencies soon filled the gap created in the market, the humanitarian impact of money frozen in transit was considerable.

Guantanamo detentions

Several of the captives held in extrajudicial detention in the Guantanamo Bay detainment camps in Cuba are held because Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) intelligence analysts asserted they had some kind of connection to al-Barakat.

ources

* [http://www.boston.com/news/daily/07/attacks_boston_money.htm Boston man arrested in terror money network]
* [http://www.sas.upenn.edu/casi/about/Remittances.pdf Devesh Kapur: "Remittances, the New Development Mantra?"] in Samuel Maimbo and Dilip Ratha, Remittances, (Washington DC: The World Bank, 2004).
* [http://www.amazon.de/dp/3865506569 Hawala. An Informal Payment System and Its Use to Finance Terrorism von Sebastian R. Müller (Broschiert - Dez. 2006), ISBN: ISBN-10: 3865506569, ISBN-13: 978-3865506566]

References