Some of the accused assassins who allegedly took out an Islamic fundamentalist leader last month reportedly booked their flights and hotel rooms with the help of an Iowa bank. Credit cards issued by a northwest Iowa-based financial institution were used by a Middle Eastern hit squad.
According to officials in Dubai, 14 of 26 suspects in the murder of a senior leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas were in possession of credit cards issued by Storm Lake-based MetaBank. Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was killed on January 19th. Two of the suspects are being held in Dubai.
Warrants have been issued for the others. MetaBank is owned by Meta Financial Group, which also owns Meta Payments Systems, a major provider of credit cards. MetaBank officials haven’t commented pending a review of the situation.
By Joel Hermann, KAYL, Storm Lake