Sticky Notes

As discussed, Korea is involved in the production of Supernotes – counterfeit $100 bills. I’m posting some key points and much of the information is not new.  But it’s a connect-the-dots thing.

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IRA CONNECTIONS

Today an article appears - IRA's top bombers teach Muslim extremists how to kill our boys

“ Continuity IRA terrorists have visited Iran and Syria to sell bomb-making secrets to Hezbollah and Al Qaeda.”

Well, for me, that’s a new connection... The IRA and Hezbollah?

So I did a little backtracking:

July 2006 NYT Magazine - 

F.B.I. and Secret Service agents found counterfeit $100 bills worth more than $300,000, which arrived on a ship, under Panamanian flag from Yantai , China , berthed in the Port of Newark .   My emphasis - SN

Now this first part is interesting - with the tie to the IRA at the end.... 

“The counterfeits were nearly flawless. They featured the same high-tech color-shifting ink as genuine American bills and were printed on paper with the same precise composition of fibers. The engraved images were, if anything, finer than those produced by the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Three million dollars’ worth arrived on another ship in Newark two months later; and supernotes began showing up on the West Coast too, starting with a shipment of $700,000 that arrived by boat in Long Beach, Calif., in May 2005, sealed in plastic packages and wrapped mummy-style in bolts of cloth.”

The article states that the color shifting inks used to really make it hard to counterfeit money is no longer an obstacle. These inks are tightly controlled. The US has exclusive rights to use the green-to-black-shift inks but North Korea has purchased the magenta-to-black inks which can achieve the same affect.

These supernotes have been discovered in Ireland and the NYT article outlines the connection to the IRA and the arrest of an IRA leader with ties to this funneling of the North Korean funny money.

In 2005, The Counterterrorism Blog has this:

"Official IRA" Leader Worked With North Korea to Pass Counterfeit Dollars"

A US court indictment said seven men, including senior Irish republican Sean Garland, distributed the $100 fakes. These activities took place from December 1997 to July 2000.

In October 2005, examimer.com: U.S. Fights N. Korea Over Fake Currency

U.S. prosecutors announced that Sean Garland, a leader of the Official Irish Republican Army, had been indicted in the United States on charges he conspired with North Korea to circulate millions of dollars in fake U.S. currency. Garland pleaded innocent.

• Last August, U.S. authorities in New Jersey and California broke up an international smuggling ring, seizing $4.4 million in counterfeit money that officials said appeared to have come from North Korea .   Scary side note.-SN

Raphael Perl, an analyst with Congress' independent research service, said of the investigations, "We're not talking about a North Korean thread that runs through these cases; we're talking about a six-lane highway."

If the IRA helps launder the Supernotes and distributes them, then there might be a connection to sending the same dollars to Lebanon . Just a thought. - SN

THE MISSILE TEST CONNECTION

Last fall the Treasury issued another release :

And the PATRIOT ACT is what allowed the following, as the US honed in on the following:

“Banco Delta Asia's special relationship with the DPRK [North Korea] has specifically facilitated the criminal activities of North Korean government agencies and front companies. For example, sources show that senior officials in Banco Delta Asia are working with DPRK officials to accept large deposits of cash, including counterfeit U.S. currency, and agreeing to place that currency into circulation."

And we apparently stopped the money flow.

Now back to the NYT:

According to some analysts, the freezing of North Korea ’s bank accounts helps explain the regime’s decision to launch its missiles on July 4.

However the diplomatic standoff is resolved, Asher said that he believes North Korea won’t continue to counterfeit much longer. Next year, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is issuing an updated version of the $100 bills. The notes will be expensive to manufacture, requiring the purchase of a new set of presses at a cost that Asher estimated in the “hundreds of millions” of dollars. The Treasury Department characterizes the next generation of notes as part of a routine redesign that it will undertake on a regular schedule every decade. But Asher has no illusions as to the timing. “It might be a routine update,” he said, “but it’s a routine update that’s being instigated by one country: North Korea .”

ONE MORE INTERSTING SOUTH AMERICAN CONNECTION, WHILE WE'RE AT IT 

June 2004 The Treasury Dept - issued a release and the key points regard this man: Assad Ahmad Barakat is designated as having close ties with Hizballah. (he’s in prison now in SA)

Barakat had long served as a treasurer for Hizballah, and the primary liaison in the South American tri-border area (TBA) for Hizballah's Secretary General Shaykh Hasan Nasrallah from the TBA.

Barakat has also been involved in a counterfeiting ring that distributes fake U.S. dollars and generates cash to fund Hizballah operations.   (Say Anything covered this as well.) 

 More today elsewhere:

And more from Ali this morning at the ‘Bama Liberation Front.  SnappedShot is tracking.