$150m 'terrror funds' frozen
2005-11-09 21:18
Vienna - The United States and other nations have frozen more than $150m of "terrorist assets" in the global anti-terrorism fight since 2001, a senior US official said on Wednesday.
"Key financiers have been detained, over $150m of terrorist assets have been frozen and millions more blocked in transit or seized at borders," US state department counter-terrorism co-ordinator Henry Crumpton told a 55-nation OSCE conference on combating terrorist financing that opened in Vienna on Wednesday.
Crumpton, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) field officer who led the CIA's campaign in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2002, said "attacking terrorist finances is not an end unto itself" since terrorism needs to be fought on many fronts.
But he said the financial front is fruitful since "by breaking financial flows, enemy leadership becomes isolated and constrained".
Crumpton gave as an example a "recently intercepted letter" from al-Qaeda's overall number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, to al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, complaining "about the difficulties of command and control and the lack of funds, and asks for $100&nbs-p;000 dollars".
International network
Crumpton said "disrupting financial links" also yields valuable intelligence about terrorist organisations as "the trail of money can lead to operatives and support networks and can point the way to deeper intelligence collection".
Nato as well as United Nations drug officials were also participating in the Organisation for Security and Co-Operation in Europe's meeting to discuss how to block the channels through which terrorism is financed.
Patrick Hardouin, a Nato deputy assistant secretary general, said the current terrorist threat is unique and requires a response that mirrors its flexible structure, where local entities are influenced by but autonomous from the major leaders.
"The best way to confront terrorist networks could be to build an efficient international network," Hardouin said.
Terrorists and charities
Crumpton said terrorists "are developing into micro targets with macro impact" and so "the United States has sought to focus the resources and abilities of a wide variety of multilateral organisations to build a global counter-terrorism web".
"The enemy links that we can sever include communication, travel, intelligence, logistics, political accords and finances," Crumpton said.
He said counter-terrorism officials were trying to avoid hurting legitimate Islamic charity organisations even if some of these groups have been used to fund terrorists.
Such charities may be basically legitimate and helpful to people but "may be infiltrated by some individuals who may be siphoning off the assets of the group," Crumpton said.
He said the US has won promises from Saudi officials "to set up a commission to look at charities but they haven't done that yet".