07 November 2001
Transcript: Bush, O'Neill, Powell, Ashcroft on Terrorism Money
(Sixty-two names added to asset-block list) (2240)
President Bush says the Treasury Department will freeze the assets of
an additional 62 individuals and organizations believed to be
supporting international terrorism.
The latest actions, announced November 7 in a joint press conference
that also included Treasury Secretary O'Neill, Secretary of State
Powell, and Attorney General Ashcroft, bring to 150 the number of
groups and individuals who will no longer have access to their assets
in the United States.
Bush said that the Group of Eight countries -- the United States,
Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Canada, and Russia --
along with the United Arab Emirates, worked together in blocking
assets and coordinating enforcement action against the Al Taqua and
the Al-Barakaat financial networks.
The president explained that Al Taqua is an association of off-shore
banks and financial management firms that have helped al Qaeda shift
money around the world, and Al Barakaat is a group of money-wiring and
communication companies owned by a friend and supporter of Osama bin
Laden.
"Today's action interrupts al Qaeda's communications," Bush said. "It
blocks an important source of funds. It provides us with valuable
information and send a clear message to global financial institutions:
you are with us, or you're with the terrorists. And if you're with the
terrorists, you will face the consequences."
Attorney General Ashcroft said that the Justice Department has
executed search warrants on all of the offices of Al Taqua and Al
Barakaat and has charged two individuals with operating an illegal
foreign money transmittal business in Dorchester, Massachusetts.
Treasury Secretary O'Neill noted that Treasury has already frozen $24
million in U.S.-based assets of the Taliban and al Qaeda, and is
reviewing an additional 962 accounts.
"We have built an international coalition to deny terrorists access to
the world financial system," O'Neill said. "112 nations have blocking
orders in force, and nations around the world have blocked at least
$43 million in assets."
On the diplomatic front, Secretary Powell said that the United States
is pressing all countries to sign and ratify the International
Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism. That
treaty, he said, would remove legal obstacles to more effective
international cooperation against terrorism.
Following is the White House transcript their remarks:
(begin transcript)
White House
Office of the Press Secretary
November 7, 2001
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN)
PRESIDENT BUSH: Please be seated. The United States is pressing the
war against terror on every front, from the mountains of Afghanistan
to the bank accounts of terrorist organizations. The first strike in
the war against terror targeted the terrorists' financial support. We
put the world's financial institutions on notice: If you do business
with terrorists, if you support them or sponsor them, you will not do
business with the United States of America. Today we are taking
another step in our fight against evil. We are shutting down two major
elements of the terrorists' international financial network, both at
home and abroad.
Ours is not a war just of soldiers and aircraft; it is a war fought
with diplomacy, by the investigations of law enforcement, by gathering
intelligence, and by cutting off the terrorists' money. I want to
thank Secretary Paul O'Neill for being here today and for being the
leader of this fine organization. I want to thank the director Jim
Sloan as well. We do some imaginative work here at the Financial
Crimes Enforcement Network, and I want to thank all the fine Americans
who are on the front line of our war; the people who work here.
I want to thank Secretary Colin Powell for being here as well. He's
doing a magnificent job of stitching together one of the greatest
coalitions ever, a coalition of nations that stands for freedom.
And I want to thank our attorney general for coming; a man whose job
it is to make sure that anytime we find anybody inside our country who
will threaten an American or threaten our institutions, they will be
brought to justice. And that's exactly what our nation is doing.
Acting on solid and credible evidence, the Treasury Department of the
United States today blocked the U.S. assets of 62 individuals and
organizations connected with two terrorist-supporting financial
networks, the Al Taqua and the Al-Barakaat. Their offices have been
shut down in four U.S. states, and our G-8 partners and other friends,
including the United Arab Emirates, have joined us in blocking assets
and coordinating enforcement action.
Al Taqua is an association of off-shore banks and financial management
firms that have helped al Qaeda shift money around the world.
Al-Barakaat is a group of money-wiring and communication companies
owned by a friend and supporter of Osama bin Laden.
Al Taqua and Al-Barakaat raise funds for al Qaeda. They manage, invest
and distribute those funds. They provide terrorist supporters with
Internet service, secure telephone communications and other ways of
sending messages and sharing information. They even arrange for the
shipment of weapons. They present themselves as legitimate businesses,
but they skim money from every transaction for the benefit of
terrorist organizations. They enable the proceeds of crime in one
country to be transferred to pay for terrorist acts in another.
The entry point for these networks may be a small storefront
operation; but follow the network to its center and you discover
wealthy banks and sophisticated technology, all at the service of mass
murderers.
By shutting these networks down, we disrupt the murderers' work.
Today's action interrupts al Qaeda's communications. It blocks an
important source of funds. It provides us with valuable information
and sends a clear message to global financial institutions: you are
with us, or you're with the terrorists. And if you're with the
terrorists, you will face the consequences.
We fight an enemy who hides in caves in Afghanistan and in the shadows
within our own society. It's an enemy who can only survive in
darkness. Today we've taken another important action to expose the
enemy to the light and to disrupt its ability to threaten America and
innocent life. I'm proud of the actions of our agencies. We're making
a difference. We're slowly but surely tightening the noose, and we
will be victorious.
Now it's my honor to welcome the secretary of Treasury, Paul O'Neill.
(Applause.)
SEC. O'NEILL: Thank you.
Mr. President, Secretary Powell, Attorney General Ashcroft, I'm
pleased you're here at one of the key nerve centers in the campaign
against global terrorism, the Foreign Terrorist Asset Tracking Center.
It's here that we marshal the combined assets of law enforcement,
intelligence, and public databases to identify, track, and disrupt the
flow of money to terrorists. This ongoing task requires patience and
sophisticated means because the financial supporters of terror hide in
off-shore havens of secrecy, disguise their true identities, and
masquerade as legitimate businesses while directing their profits to
underwrite enterprises of hate and violence.
They also know that we are watching, and for that reason, they try to
funnel their money through undocumented, unregulated financial
networks constructed to bypass the civilized world's detection. But
their system is imperfect. Somewhere it must always interface with
modern banking and finance. When that connection is made, we have the
wherewithal to intervene, and thanks to the cooperation of allies and
coalition partners, cemented by the good work of Secretary Powell, we
have begun to act, to block assets, to seize books, records and
evidence, and to follow audit trails to track terrorist cells poised
to do violence to our common interest.
With the president's leadership, the Department of Justice, the
Department of State, and the Treasury Department have eliminated
barriers that have hampered past efforts. This new joint effort has
borne fruit. In the United States we've blocked $24 million in assets
of the Taliban and al Qaeda. We have an additional 962 counts under
review. We've built an international coalition to deny terrorists
access to the world financial system. A hundred and twelve nations
have blocking orders in force, and nations around the world have
blocked at least $43 million in assets.
The announcement the president just made is a significant milestone in
this effort. But we will not be finished until we have dismantled the
financial network of the terrorists. And let me also thank you all for
the effort that you're making in this war against terrorism.
Thank you very much. And now it's my pleasure to introduce Secretary
of State Colin Powell. (Applause.)
SEC. POWELL: Well, thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. It's a
pleasure to be out here this afternoon. And Mr. President, Secretary
O'Neill, Attorney General Ashcroft and Mr. Sloan, I also add my
congratulations to the earlier speakers for the wonderful work that is
being done here.
It's a pleasure to be here, really, because with this event we build
on success: success in starving terrorists of their money. For money
is the oxygen of terrorism. Without the means to raise and move money
around the world, terrorists cannot function.
Mr. President, your executive order on terrorist financing has been a
critical part of our efforts worldwide to deny the terrorists their
financial oxygen. We have moved aggressively against the individuals
and organizations covered by your executive order. And with your
announcement today, we have taken our efforts to a new level. We are
now going after the hawala organizations, the shadowy financial
networks that underpin the terrorists' underworld.
Cutting off their financial flows that feed terrorism requires
international cooperation on the broadest scale. And I am pleased by
the strong support and cooperation that our efforts are receiving.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373 requires member states
to prevent the financing of terrorist acts, to criminalize the
provision of funds to terrorists, and to freeze funds and other assets
of terrorists and of their supporters. This is a binding obligation
under Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter.
In the past few weeks alone over 130 countries have committed to
implement this crucial element of the campaign against terrorism. But
that is not good enough. We are working hard to get 100 percent
adherence to Resolution 1373. And to that end we have named an
experienced diplomat, Ambassador Ted McNamara (sp), to lead our
efforts around the world to bring the remaining countries on board,
bring them in support of the U.N. resolution.
So far, we and our international partners have frozen millions of
dollars in terrorist assets, as you just heard. Saudi Arabia has been
prominent among the countries acting against the accounts of terrorist
organizations. We and our partners have millions more in suspect
accounts under review.
But this is only a beginning. There is more to do, and we are doing
it. For example, we are pressing all countries to sign and ratify the
International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of
Terrorism, a treaty which removes legal obstacles to more effective
international cooperation against terrorism. And I am delighted that
Saudi Arabia once again has just ratified this convention. We are now
working with our United States Senate to gain its consent to our
ratification of that treaty.
Mr. President, the coalition against terrorism is strong and we are
making real progress against the terrorists, under your leadership.
And I can tell you, you can count on your State Department and our
many dedicated employees around the world to do their very best in
making sure that we will prevail in this campaign.
Thank you, sir, very much.
And now it is my pleasure to present my colleague and friend, the
attorney general of the United States, John Ashcroft. (Applause.)
MR. ASHCROFT: It is an honor to be here today with the president and
with my colleagues from the Department of State and from the
Department of the Treasury to announce an important new effort in the
fight against terrorism.
When the president declared war on terrorism, he promised we would
fight the war on many fronts. One of the most important, one of the
most crucial fronts is the choking off of the money supply that fuels
terrorist organizations. Today we have shut down several financial
networks exploited by terrorist groups. Piece by piece, we are
dismantling the infrastructure of the terrorist network.
The Department of Justice is bringing the full weight of the criminal
law against those who fund or launder money for terrorists. This
morning the United States Attorney in Boston charged two individuals
with operating an illegal foreign money transmittal business. They are
alleged to be officers of Al-Barakaat-related businesses in
Dorchester, Massachusetts.
In addition, in locations across the country, the Department of
Justice, the FBI, and other federal law enforcement agencies are
interviewing individuals and taking other investigative steps in the
ongoing criminal investigations of Al-Barakaat entities. These steps
include executing search warrants on Al-Barakaat-related facilities in
Massachusetts, Ohio and Virginia. Our criminal investigation of Al-
Barakaat-related activities and entities is national in scope and it
is ongoing.
As today's actions demonstration, we will use all tools available to
us -- administrative tools, civil tools, and criminal prosecutions --
to find and uproot terrorist financial networks. We will not stop
until the war on terrorism is won.
Thank you very much. This concludes today's event. (Applause.)
(end transcript)
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