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Show rrw BA wpmtwyyWT11 Sun Advocate Price, Utah Tuesday October 22, 2002 Former Sun Advocate paper carrier now fights international terrorism By KEN I ARSON Sun Advocate publisher stan and Ibrkey, to searching out money that fuels the and Bin Laden, the Carbon native is still making history with his journey. 1 1 is journey took a new twist da It has been said many times that life Is a journey, but few take the journey like Greg Passic. From the aisles of Carbon High Sclii Nil and the College of Eastern Utah, to making drug deals as an undercover agent in Paki last November when he was brought out bf retirement and agreed to be part of the team to combat terrorism. Passic returned to Price and Carbon County last week to visit his far ther.Obbie Passic. Greg serves as the assistant director of international financial affairs for the National Security Council, office of combating terrorism. He is headquartered in the Whitehouse. Following the September 1 1 attack. President Bush established the new office of homeland security and the team began to establish policies of attacking terrorism. Part of these efforts include finding out where the' funding sources are for Bin Ladens efforts. A graduate of Carbon High School, CEU and the University of Utah in International Relations, Passic joined the Bureau of Narcotics in 1 97 1 and was sent overseas to work in 1973. His father was a Carbon County sheriff for many years in the late 50s through the early 80s was instrumental in his son getting into the Bureau of Narcotics, after attending a school in Phoenix many years ago. Passic headed the financial operation of a Drug Enforcement Advocacy for five years working with the CIA and H3I going after cartel drug dealers. He worked undercover in countries like Turkey, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. He passed through these areas posing as a drug dealer and then spent time in Switzerland as a money launderer for the cartels. Competitve study evaluates data, ranks (Continued from page 5A) with Utah at 1 9th; National Institutes of Health support to institutions per capita, with Utah at 15th; new patents per capita, with Utah at 18th; science and engineering degrees per capita, with Utah at third; and high tech companies as percent of companies, with Utah at 1 1th. Utah ranked 14th in the finance category, which included bank deposits per capita, and 26th in openness, which included incoming foreign direct investments. Utah placed 12th in the domestic competition category. Indicators included electricity prices, with the state ranked seventh, and toxic release, pounds per capita, with the state ranked 48th. The study's key findings included: Competitiveness matters, accounting for more than 25 percent of the variation in living standards from one state to an- other. Some states have a high ranking for overall competitiveness, despite adverse government policies. He was often offered drugs for machine guns. He retired from that position but was called back by the Department of Justice and asked to assist in the financial profiling of the 19 hijackers that changed America on Sept 1 1. He was reactivated as a special agent for the U. S. Treasury, then detailed to the National Security Council, a new unit One of his first jobs was to check into the hijackers bank accounts and find out where the money had came from that paid for their flight training. Anything that has to do with the financial flow of money is part of Passics mission. From this profiling of the hijackers he moved into tracking the and financial flow of the Bin Laden. We traced the flow of money from his diamonds and gold, and money coming from a variety of financial contributions, he explained. Tlie difference between this job and the drug traffic position is that this is often clean money being put into dirty causes, while the (hug money was dirty money, trying to be made dean, said Passic. Much of Bin Ladens money prior to Sept 11 was collected through donations by the Muslim communities toward valiant causes like education and hun- da Utah 11th in United Stales For overall competitiveness, Massachusetts ranked first for the human resources, technology and finance On the other hand, Massachusetts placed 47th for government and fiscal policy and 41st for environmental policy. Cold weather is no obstacle to competitiveness. Four of the 10 top states are in New England. The Sunbelt states mainly fell into the bottom half of the overall rankings. Technology is important, but not determinative. Some states like Maryland, Rhode Island and New York that placed high for technology nevertheless had a relatively low overall ranking. If a state wants to be more competitive, it should look at the details of our study and find out where it ranks high and where it ranks low. States that take our findings to heart will find themselves better positioned to attract business investment and workers, to improve their productivity and, in general, to make their residents more prosperous, noted Beacon Hill Institute study Haughton. sub-index- or 2002 Greg Passic, a former Carbon resident now works for the National Security Council. His quest is to help cut off funds for ger. But in the process Ben Laden was skimming money off the top of every contribution. We have to realize there are over 900,000 million Muslims in the world and 90 percent of these people live in extreme poverty, mostly uneducated. They see Americans as the threat, he stated But taking this bull by the horns uses the same principals as tracking down the drug cartels. We are charged with building apparatuses to find out where their money is coming from, he explained, We need to find out hew their organization does business and build a team to stop it Everything learned in the drug war is applied here. The team, or new Department of Homeland Securities is made up of the border patrol, customs and secret service agencies, but also cooperates with the CIA, & FBI. We needed to build a team with no overlapping authority and with a mission to work together, said Passic. Its not just an American effort The efforts are now worldwide. Over 100 countries are collaborating and identifying the funding sources and looking into the bigger picture. According to Passic, Bin Laden was a good CEO. He started with around 30 key advisors and they worked hard staying connected, sharing ideas and making terrorism plans, he said. After 911 that system collapsed and now Passic thinks that maybe as few as four or five of these top advisors are still alive. He believes they do not use the top leadership to carry on their plans of terrorism any more. Key locations are every- 9(o(iday da where including South America, Indonesia and Ireland. But the US strategy is to combat international terrorism and stop the financial flow to their causes. We do not use the word cooperation, Passic explained. Christmas is coming! Rather, we now talk about collaborating. We are locating re- sources and sending teams throughout the world to work with foreign governments. We have blocked accounts and put a tremendous amount of pressure In the war against on sometimes we became drugs complacent because we had less success, but this war is different It has to be done correctly. We have found that their donations have dwindled to next to noth ing." He speculates that many former supporters of Bin Laden are hesitant to contribute money when there is no proof that he is still alive. The war on terrorism is still raging and changes are being made, but it is his goal to do his part to get the world back to a sense of normalcy where people can resume traveling or shopping, the way they conducted business prior to 91 1. We are working at creating efficient ways to guard the world against terrorist groups, creating a quiet government machine that guards people and isolates the enemy and finds the financial sources that keep them going, summarized Passic. His service detail was a one-yestint that will expire in November of 2002. He compares the effort of combating terrorism to building a new car. We have now built the car but I would like to drive it for a year and see how it operates and works, he states. We have many things in dace and Id like to see how they work over the next year. As long as I continue to make edntributions I will be part of the team. From a paper boy for the Sun Advocate to tracking down drug lords in Pakistan, to investigating the bank accounts of the leaders, Passic has come a long way. His journey is part of the team fighting to get America ar da back to normal Christmas is just around the comer. Now's the time to let everyone know how you can make the Holidays merrier, from unique gifts to helpful services. Our Hobday Shopping Guide will reach over 1000 customers (and potential customers) in the Sun Advocate and Emery County Progress. OLD jjermi, Patti or produced in part through a grant from the Utah Arts Council and through an agreement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc. Lm a production of W tfV TtO uIIm, V M Price Civic Auditorium 24-2- 6 October campaign 17-1- 9; 7:30 p.m. 435-637-07- 32, Tod free IME by Joseph Kesselring Christa ou create an e 1-888-637- -0732 i . . . . |