Fraud and money laundering lead to indictments on Utah connected al Qaeda suspects

Salt Lake Tribune:

Counterterrorist agents pounced on five men, one in Utah and four in California, on Wednesday as part of an investigation into the U.S. connections of a suspected senior al-Qaida operative imprisoned in Iraq.
But for now, the federal indictments against the men - all of whom have ties to Utah and all of whom are related to accused terrorist Shawqi Omar - involve only fraud and money laundering.
But FBI agents say that some of the money alleged to have been stolen in various schemes wound up in Jordan. And now they want to know whether that cash has ended up in the hands of terrorists.
"We would be derelict not to investigate where that money is going," said agent Greg Bretzing, a supervisor in the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in Utah.
The Omar family has extensive ties in Jordan, where Shawqi Omar moved his family in 1995 and where he now stands accused of helping terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi plot a chemical attack.
Al-Zarqawi claims to be al-Qaida's Iraqi leader and has been implicated in scores of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings. The U.S. government has put a $25 million bounty on his head.
Federal investigators believe Shawqi Omar acted as al-Zarqawi's "personal emissary" in several Iraqi cities. But back in Utah, Omar's brother Gus says there is no connection.

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There is more. Did these guys settle in Salt Lake because they liked the climate. It could not have been for the religious atmosphere.