D
Dr. Jai Maharaj
Guest
http://xrl.us/7d4m
Frozen assets: US has crimped Al Qaeda funds
By Peter Grier
The Christian Science Monitor
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Washington - For years the three Saudi men had worked as a
loosely organized team, according to US intelligence.
They'd funneled thousands of dollars in cash -- and non-
monetary help such as Al Qaeda training manuals -- to
Islamist militants in the Philippines.
At one point they'd even paid $18,000 for an operation to
blow up the US or Australian embassies in Manila, allege US
officials. But Philippine authorities disrupted the plot
before it could be realized.
So this fall the US government took action against the
trio: Abdul Rahim al-Talhi, Muhammad Abdallah Salih
Sughayr, and Fahd Muhammad Abd al-Aziz al-Khashiban. On
Oct. 10, the Treasury Department designated them as
terrorist financiers -- freezing their assets and
forbidding American citizens from doing business with them.
The move did not draw much notice at the time. But small
actions such as this are a crucial part of what may be one
of the most successful parts of the struggle against
terrorism: the effort to curtail its financiers.
"All our evidence is, this is successful and actually a
very important part of the war on terror," said John B.
Taylor, former Treasury undersecretary for international
affairs, at a Council on Foreign Relations seminar earlier
this year.
It's also an effort that has some controversial aspects.
Among them is whether the US government has too much power
to punish alleged terrorist paymasters and funding groups
via simple administrative actions.
In 2004, for instance, the US alleged that a Texas-based
charity named the Holy Land Foundation had funneled about
$12 million to the Palestinian militant group Hamas --
which the US has named a terrorist organization. The Bush
administration ordered the foundation closed.
But on Oct. 22 a federal criminal prosecution of five
officials from the now-defunct charity collapsed amidst
legal confusion. It is unclear whether prosecutors will
attempt to try the case again.
Some jurors had a hard time accepting the prosecution's
contention that by sending money to Hamas-affiliated local
charities named "zakat committees" the Holy Land Foundation
was supporting terrorist actions.
"The fact that they couldn't get a single conviction
suggests that we need to rethink the process by which [Holy
Land] was shut down," says David Cole, a law professor at
Georgetown University. "They were able to close it down,
freeze its assets ... ultimately on the basis of secret
evidence."
The US has issued sanctions against 44 different charitable
organizations under authority derived from an executive
order signed by President Bush, according to Chip Poncy,
director of strategic policy at the Treasury's Office of
Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes.
All these groups were carrying out some legitimate
charitable activities, said Mr. Poncy at a May 10 hearing
of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. But they were
also funding some activities that the US considered to be
in support of terrorism.
"The view that we have always taken is that if any aspect
of a charity's organization is engaged in terrorist
support, then the charitable organization is a problem,"
said Poncy.
Overall, tackling the financial front of the struggle
against terrorism appears to be successful, say experts. In
part, this is due to the fact that the US is a center of
world commerce, and many global business transactions are
carried out in dollars.
Plus, even foreign banks generally do not want the taint of
dealing with named terrorists. Thus the world's formal
financial system is now generally closed to Al Qaeda and
other well-known terrorist groups.
The CIA estimates that prior to Sept. 11, Al Qaeda was
spending about $30 million per year. Since then, the US has
seized some $265 million in assets linked to the group --
about nine years worth of operating expenses.
The US has also named some 460 individuals as terrorist
supporters, and thus subject to sanctions. The Oct. 10
designation of the three men alleged to be paymasters of
Southeast Asian militants was part of this aspect of the
effort.
The 9/11 Commission gave an 'A-' to the war on terrorist
financing in its 2004 public report.
"It is premature to assume that terrorist organizations are
having difficulty funding their organizations and
operations," concludes a monograph on the subject issued by
the US Army Command and General Staff College. "What is
important is that the global effort against terrorist
financing has made it more expensive and more difficult to
raise and move funds."
That can be seen in the fact that the most spectacular Al
Qaeda-linked attacks in the West in recent years -- the
Madrid bombings of 2004 and the London bombings of 2005 --
were low-tech affairs, cheap, and financed primarily
through criminal activities carried out by the bomber
groups themselves.
The future of terrorist financing may involve simple theft
or the manipulation of stored-value cards, Internet
banking, and online payment services.
"Our adversaries will either become more technologically
savvy or they will regress to methods that don't leave a
paper trail," said John Pistole, FBI deputy director, at an
Oct. 22 American Bankers Association seminar on terrorist
financing.
More at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20071030/ts_csm/afinancing
Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/24fq83
http://www.mantra.com/jai
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational
purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not
have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the
poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for
fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current
e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others are
not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of
which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed
that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by
subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more information
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.
Frozen assets: US has crimped Al Qaeda funds
By Peter Grier
The Christian Science Monitor
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Washington - For years the three Saudi men had worked as a
loosely organized team, according to US intelligence.
They'd funneled thousands of dollars in cash -- and non-
monetary help such as Al Qaeda training manuals -- to
Islamist militants in the Philippines.
At one point they'd even paid $18,000 for an operation to
blow up the US or Australian embassies in Manila, allege US
officials. But Philippine authorities disrupted the plot
before it could be realized.
So this fall the US government took action against the
trio: Abdul Rahim al-Talhi, Muhammad Abdallah Salih
Sughayr, and Fahd Muhammad Abd al-Aziz al-Khashiban. On
Oct. 10, the Treasury Department designated them as
terrorist financiers -- freezing their assets and
forbidding American citizens from doing business with them.
The move did not draw much notice at the time. But small
actions such as this are a crucial part of what may be one
of the most successful parts of the struggle against
terrorism: the effort to curtail its financiers.
"All our evidence is, this is successful and actually a
very important part of the war on terror," said John B.
Taylor, former Treasury undersecretary for international
affairs, at a Council on Foreign Relations seminar earlier
this year.
It's also an effort that has some controversial aspects.
Among them is whether the US government has too much power
to punish alleged terrorist paymasters and funding groups
via simple administrative actions.
In 2004, for instance, the US alleged that a Texas-based
charity named the Holy Land Foundation had funneled about
$12 million to the Palestinian militant group Hamas --
which the US has named a terrorist organization. The Bush
administration ordered the foundation closed.
But on Oct. 22 a federal criminal prosecution of five
officials from the now-defunct charity collapsed amidst
legal confusion. It is unclear whether prosecutors will
attempt to try the case again.
Some jurors had a hard time accepting the prosecution's
contention that by sending money to Hamas-affiliated local
charities named "zakat committees" the Holy Land Foundation
was supporting terrorist actions.
"The fact that they couldn't get a single conviction
suggests that we need to rethink the process by which [Holy
Land] was shut down," says David Cole, a law professor at
Georgetown University. "They were able to close it down,
freeze its assets ... ultimately on the basis of secret
evidence."
The US has issued sanctions against 44 different charitable
organizations under authority derived from an executive
order signed by President Bush, according to Chip Poncy,
director of strategic policy at the Treasury's Office of
Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes.
All these groups were carrying out some legitimate
charitable activities, said Mr. Poncy at a May 10 hearing
of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. But they were
also funding some activities that the US considered to be
in support of terrorism.
"The view that we have always taken is that if any aspect
of a charity's organization is engaged in terrorist
support, then the charitable organization is a problem,"
said Poncy.
Overall, tackling the financial front of the struggle
against terrorism appears to be successful, say experts. In
part, this is due to the fact that the US is a center of
world commerce, and many global business transactions are
carried out in dollars.
Plus, even foreign banks generally do not want the taint of
dealing with named terrorists. Thus the world's formal
financial system is now generally closed to Al Qaeda and
other well-known terrorist groups.
The CIA estimates that prior to Sept. 11, Al Qaeda was
spending about $30 million per year. Since then, the US has
seized some $265 million in assets linked to the group --
about nine years worth of operating expenses.
The US has also named some 460 individuals as terrorist
supporters, and thus subject to sanctions. The Oct. 10
designation of the three men alleged to be paymasters of
Southeast Asian militants was part of this aspect of the
effort.
The 9/11 Commission gave an 'A-' to the war on terrorist
financing in its 2004 public report.
"It is premature to assume that terrorist organizations are
having difficulty funding their organizations and
operations," concludes a monograph on the subject issued by
the US Army Command and General Staff College. "What is
important is that the global effort against terrorist
financing has made it more expensive and more difficult to
raise and move funds."
That can be seen in the fact that the most spectacular Al
Qaeda-linked attacks in the West in recent years -- the
Madrid bombings of 2004 and the London bombings of 2005 --
were low-tech affairs, cheap, and financed primarily
through criminal activities carried out by the bomber
groups themselves.
The future of terrorist financing may involve simple theft
or the manipulation of stored-value cards, Internet
banking, and online payment services.
"Our adversaries will either become more technologically
savvy or they will regress to methods that don't leave a
paper trail," said John Pistole, FBI deputy director, at an
Oct. 22 American Bankers Association seminar on terrorist
financing.
More at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20071030/ts_csm/afinancing
Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/24fq83
http://www.mantra.com/jai
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational
purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not
have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the
poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for
fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current
e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others are
not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of
which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed
that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by
subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more information
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.