U.S. Hits Terrorist Financial Networks
Washington's move to target members of an ancient Middle East system of transferring money as part of its crackdown on Osama bin Laden could bear fruit, but the real source of his power lies not in money but in the zeal of his followers, a terrorism expert said Thursday.
Peter Bergen said in his new book, "Holy War, Inc." which focuses on the Saudi-born militant, that initial strategies to pursue bin Laden's assets were "largely feel-good measures, with little impact on his finances."
"If there was a way of cracking down on (the system of) hawala potentially that would be a pretty smart thing to do," Bergen told Reuters.
Hawala is the Arabic word for an informal, largely unregulated financial network.
"The question is how do you do that because by the nature of these transactions they're not done by computer. They're done by handshake and trust," he said, adding: "It would seem like a much harder thing to do although it might be quite a fruitful thing to do if you can do it."
On Wednesday, the Bush administration orchestrated raids on U.S. businesses and arrested two Massachusetts men in a global crackdown on Osama bin Laden's financial network. Overseas, two Arab financiers were questioned by Swiss police cooperating with the United States.
"Today, we are taking another step in our fight against evil," President Bush said, announcing the first major crackdown on companies, organizations and people suspected of aiding terrorists from U.S. soil.
Customs agents, acting on an order signed by Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, seized evidence at nine locations in four cities: Boston, Minneapolis, Seattle and Columbus, Ohio. Assets of nine organizations and two people in the United States were frozen.
In addition, evidence was seized at two storefronts in northern Virginia, said officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
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Targeting a second financial network, the United States also asked allies to freeze assets that aid bin Laden and his al-Qaida organization in at least nine countries. Some of them acted even before Mr. Bush announced the crackdown on the network suspected in the Sept. 11 attacks on Washington and New York.
In all, the names of 62 entities and people were added to a list of suspected terrorist associates targeted by Mr. Bush in an executive order signed last month. The earlier list included 88 groups or people whose assets had been frozen because of their ties to al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.
The new list covers groups and people affiliated with two suspected bin Laden financial networks — Al Taqua and Al-Barakaat. Authorities say both "hawalas" funnel money to al-Qaida through companies and nonprofit organizations they operate.
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Mr. Bush said the link to bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist organization is unmistakable: Al-Barakaat is owned by a friend of bin Laden's.
"By shutting these networks down, we interrupt the murderers' work," Mr. Bush said at a Treasury Department investigation center just outside Washington in northern Virginia.
Mr. Bush accused both networks of managing, investing and distributing terrorists' money; providing internet service and telephones to terrorists; arranging the shipment of weapons; and of skimming money from transactions at their shell companies.
It appeared be a significant victory in a week when Mr. Bush is aggressively battling back against criticisms of the bombing in Afghanistan, reports CBS News Chief White House Correspondent John Roberts. Meeting late Wednesday with America's staunchest ally, Britain's Tony Blair, Mr. Bush received assurances of robust support for all aspects of the war against bin Laden.
"The determination to see that justice is done is every bit as strong today as it was on September 11," said the British leader.
In Boston, Mohamed M. Hussein and Liban M. Hussein were charged with running an illegal money transmitting business, according to a criminal complaint.
The two men ran Barakaat North America Inc. in Dorchester, Mass., a foreign money exchange, without a state license, according to a U.S. Customs Service affidavit. The business moved over $2 million through a U.S. bank from January through September, the government said.
Federal authorities in Columbus, Ohio, sealed off a money-transfer and check-cashing business on the administration target list. Barakaat Enterprise shares a small strip mall with a pizza shop and beauty salon, with private homes across the street.
In Seattle, more than a dozen U.S. Customs Service agents raided a building containing the offices of Barakat Wire Transfer Co. and detained one man.
Customs agents in blue windbreakers converged on a Minneapolis address shared by several businesses and a man, Garad Jama, suspected of aiding bin Laden's network.
The Al-Barakaat organization has ties in several countries, including the United States. The order cites affiliated organizations in Minnesota, Massachusetts, Ohio and Washington state.
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The list targets assets in several countries, including Switzerland, Somalia, Liechtenstein, the Bahamas, Sweden, Canada, Austria, Italy and the United Arab Emirates. The administration is urging governments to freeze the assets in banks within their borders.
Swiss police briefly detained two Arab financiers allegedly linked to bin Laden's terrorist network and an Egyptian fundamentalist group. Youssef M. Nada and Ali Himmat questioned for several hours in Lugano, Switzerland, just across the border from their homes in Campione D'Italia.
Liechtenstein officials seized documents of a financial manager who represents Al Taqua in the country, said Lothar Hagen, spokesman for the national court, the highest judiciary in the Alpine principality of 32,000.
Police in Vienna, Austria, were investigating a company the United States says is linked to bin Laden.
In the Bahamas, however, officials said a bank cited by the United States had already been closed down but not because of ties to bin Laden.
The order clamps down on the assets of Al Taqua co-founders Nada and Himmat. It also names Mansour-Fattouh of Zurich, Switzerland, and Hussein Abdullahi Kahie of Somalia.
Three companies also were named: Youssef M. Nada and Co.; Al Taqua Management Co. in Switzerland; and Al Taqua Bank in the Bahamas. Bahamian officials said the bank already had been shut down, but not because of any suspected ties to bin Laden.
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