25 October 2001
Texts: Treasury Officials on Anti-Terrorism Finance Initiative
(U.S. seeks to break up terrorists' financial networks) (840)
Two top-level U.S. Treasury Department officials have announced launch
of a multi-agency enforcement initiative aimed at denying terrorist
groups access to the international financial system.
At an October 25 press conference Treasury Deputy Secretary Kenneth
Dam said the initiative, called "Operation Green Quest," aims at
hurting terrorists' fundraising capacity and breaking up their
financial networks.
"The same talent pool and expertise that brought down Al Capone will
now be dedicated to investigating Usama Bin Ladin and his terrorist
network," Dam said.
Spearheading the initiative are enforcement officials from Treasury's
Customs Service, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Financial Crimes
Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
and Secret Service.
Treasury Under Secretary Jimmy Gurule said Operation Green Quest aims
to dismantle al Quaida's and other terrorist groups' financing from
charities and non-governmental organizations and from hawalas and
other underground remittance systems.
Following are the Dam and Gurule texts as prepared for delivery:
(begin Dam text)
October 25, 2001
DEPUTY SECRETARY DAM REMARKS AT THE LAUNCH OF "OPERATION GREEN QUEST"
Multi-Agency Initiative to Target Sources of Funding for Terrorist
Organizations
Thank you for that kind introduction.
Today, I am pleased to announce that the same talent pool and
expertise that brought down Al Capone will now be dedicated to
investigating Usama Bin Ladin and his terrorist network.
We are here to announce the launch of "Operation Green Quest," a new
multi-agency financial enforcement initiative.
This operation is made up of investigators with: Customs, IRS,
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, Office of Foreign Assets
Control, and The Secret Service -- these entities globally recognized
as the best and brightest financial investors in the world.
The goal of Operation Green Quest is to augment existing
counter-terrorist efforts by bringing the full scope of the
government's financial expertise to bear against systems, individuals,
and organizations that serve as sources of terrorist funding.
Operation Green Quest has been created to serve Treasury's broader
mission:
-- To deny terrorist groups access to the international financial
system,
-- To impair the ability of terrorists to fundraise, and
-- To expose, isolate and incapacitate the financial networks of
terrorists.
Here a summary of Operation Green Quest's purpose:
The initiative will target current terrorist funding sources and
identify possible future funding sources -- such as underground
financial systems, illicit charities, and corrupt financial
institutions -- which are among the entities that will be scrutinized
as possible facilitators of terrorist funds.
Utilizing leads from these entities and information developed
independently, Operation Green Quest will launch comprehensive
investigations resulting in blocking orders, criminal prosecutions,
civil and criminal forfeitures, and other actions.
With that, I am delighted to offer the podium to Undersecretary of the
Treasury Jimmy Gurule.
(end Dam text)
(begin Gurule text)
UNDER SECRETARY GURULE'S REMARKS AT THE LAUNCH OF "OPERATION GREEN
QUEST"
Thank you for that kind introduction.
I am proud to join Deputy Secretary Dam and Customs Commission Bonner
to announce "Operation Green Quest" -- the newest enforcement tool
that Treasury, the nation's oldest law enforcement agency, will put to
use in the war against terrorist financing.
It was just a few weeks ago that President Bush outlined our
multi-faceted war against the Al-Qaida terrorist network. The
President declared that "that starving the terrorists of funding"
would be a primary objective of our war on terrorism.
The new war is a conflict "without battlefields and beachheads." In
fact the first shot in this new war was fired from Treasury, in the
form of the Executive Order freezing terrorist assets.
To support the Administration's Financial War on Terrorism, we have
created this Anti-Terrorist Financing Task Force, named "Operation
Green Quest."
It employs Enforcement's complement of investigative assets along with
the Foreign Terrorist Asset Tracking Center's intelligence analysis to
identify, disrupt, dismantle and ultimately "bankrupt" terrorist
networks and their sources of funding.
Operation Green Quest's organization will maximize Treasury's
investigative tools while permitting liaison and partnership with
federal agencies and foreign countries to facilitate the widest range
of effective actions against terrorists and their financiers, ranging
from blocking bank accounts and freezing assets to federal criminal
prosecution.
Let me take a moment to state clearly the goals of this initiative,
and those goals are to:
-- Identify, disrupt, and dismantle the financial operations of
charities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) associated with
Usama Bin Laden (UBL) and al Qaida.
-- Identify, disrupt, and dismantle the financial operations of
terrorist organizations beyond al Qaida.
-- Identify, infiltrate, and ultimately dismantle hawalas and other
underground remittance systems used to provide funds to UBL, al Qaida,
and other terrorist organizations.
-- Develop individual and group targets for analysis by the Foreign
Terrorist Asset Tracking Center (FTAT).
-- Take preventative action by providing requesting nations technical
assistance and support to requesting countries to identify accounts
linked to terrorist networks.
(end Gurule text)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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