A Sudanese-born Arab, Jamal Ahmed Al-Fadl was once the finance manager for al Qaeda, a position that placed him in charge of the terrorist organization’s payroll. According to The 9/11 Commission Report, Al-Fadl skimmed for himself approximately $110,000 from al Qaeda’s coffers. When Osama bin Laden learned of this, Al-Fadl in 1996 defected from Sudan and became a key informant for the United States.

In February 2001 Al-Fadl testified, in a Federal District Court in New York, that he had warned U.S. officials that America’s embassies in Sudan were in al Qaeda’s crosshairs; that al Qaeda was an efficiently run organization that had its own finance committee, a network of profitable business ventures, and even an in-house newspaper; and that al Qaeda’s financial assets in Khartoum were held at the Faisal Islamic Bank and the Al Shamal Islamic Bank.