11 February 2002
Cutting Funds to Terrorists Achieving Success, U.S. Official Says
(Treasury official discusses U.S. process) (1060)
By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent
United Nations -- A senior U.S. official met with members of the U.N.
Security Council's Afghan Sanctions Committee February 11 to explain
U.S. procedures for blocking terrorist assets and to urge the United
Nations to take supportive action.
The United States hopes to persuade the Security Council to pass a
resolution setting up an international list of individuals and groups
involved in financing terrorist activities and requiring nations to
block their assets and trade.
Jimmy Gurule, U.S. Department of the Treasury undersecretary for
enforcement, characterized U.S. efforts to freeze the money of
terrorist financiers and starve the terrorists of the funds needed to
launch attacks as "quite successful" and "significant."
Since President Bush signed the Executive Order on Terrorist Financing
on September 23, 2001, the United States has designated 168
individuals or entities as supporting, financing or facilitating
terrorist financing, Gurule said. "In terms of dollars, $104 million
has been blocked both domestically and internationally.... There are
147 countries that have issued blocking orders in support of the
designations made by President Bush," he added.
"This is a preventative strategy. This isn't a numbers game. The
endgame has never been dollars. The endgame has been to disrupt the
flow of terrorist organizations, with the aim of preventing future
terrorist attacks and saving lives," the undersecretary said at a
press conference at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.
"The intelligence reports that I have recently reviewed indicate that
the strategy is making a difference and al Qaeda is having difficulty
in moving money internationally," Gurule said.
"To that end substantial credit must given -- and properly so -- to
our allies because this strategy is more than simply a US strategy.
For it to be successful it depends in large part on international
cooperation," he said. "It does us very little good if we issue
blocking orders in the United States to domestic banks, but terrorist
financiers are able to move their money through foreign bank
accounts."
While he would not reveal details of the intelligence reports on al
Qaeda financial operations, Gurule said that the reports were
"particularly encouraging in terms of the impact that we certainly
intended these blocking orders to have."
The blocking orders "have really caused al Qaeda to have to rethink
how it moves money internationally, to come up with different methods,
different systems," he said. "We've really forced them out of their
comfort zone...in terms of reliable, familiar methods and systems for
moving money. In short, the effort has been disruptive."
"And that has been one of the principal objectives -- to disrupt the
flow of funds. So we think that our strategy is working," he said.
One example of the squeeze on al Qaeda financial operations has been
the November action against the international conglomerate al
Barakaat, which operates in 40 countries around the world with
business ventures in telecommunications, construction, and currency
exchange. It has been a principal source of funding, intelligence and
money transfers for Usama bin Laden, the undersecretary said. Moving
against al Barakaat "in short, delivered a very significant blow."
Gurule said he was at U.N. headquarters to provide the sanctions
committee with an overview of the U.S. process to "assure them that
this process is fair, based upon objective criteria and international
standards, and is a thorough and deliberative process."
"It involves the input and consultation of multiple U.S. federal
agencies including the Departments of the Treasury, State, Justice,
(and) the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as the intelligence
community. They all have a say with respect to the names that are
proposed for designation," he said.
The evidence that is considered in determining whether or not an
individual should be considered includes criminal investigation
information, intelligence information as well as public or open source
information, Gurule said. A committee meets regularly to review the
names that are being considered and the Department of Justice
undertakes a legal review with respect to legal sufficiency of the
evidence.
"It is only after this very thorough, deliberative process has been
completed and only after there has been a review of legal sufficiency
of the evidence by Department of Justice attorneys that names are
proposed to the secretary of the Treasury and ultimately to the
president for designation," Gurule said.
The legal standard that is being applied is, in essence, an
international standard that has been set forth and is articulated in
Security Council resolutions 1333, 1373 and 1390, passed after the
September 11 terrorist attacks, he noted.
There is also an administrative review process available to anyone who
is listed, has had his or her assets blocked, and believes that a
blocking order has been issued in error, the Treasury official said.
Persons seeking to be removed can petition the Treasury Department's
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
The al Barakaat order has been challenged and is currently under
administrative review, for example.
Exchanges of correspondence, additional fact-finding, and often
meetings occur before OFAC decides whether to remove a name from the
list. After the administrative legal process is exhausted, if the
person is not satisfied with the outcome, the issue can be taken to
U.S. Federal Court, he said.
"The United States also welcomes other countries' taking the lead in
terms of designating individuals and freezing bank accounts. It is
important because this is war against terrorism globally. It is
important that we have this international cooperation and it be
reciprocal," Gurule said.
"If a foreign country designates an individual and asks the United
States to support that action by issuing a blocking order domestically
in the United States, the United States would only do so after it had
determined, assured itself, that there was a legally sufficient basis
for doing so in the United States," he said.
Gurule emphasized that cutting the funds to terrorist organizations is
a painstaking process that requires cooperation and information
sharing on a global scale and that the United States intends to press
ahead.
"The threat of terrorism remains very real in the United States," he
said. The blocking orders demonstrate "the seriousness with which we
here in the United States take that threat and urgency of the action
we are taking to disrupt terrorists, to cut off thefunds, and to
protect against terrorist acts. The threat is real."
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
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