U.S. officials have frozen another $10 million in assets linked to Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network and the Taliban, a Treasury Department official said Tuesday.
Since Sept. 11, federal officials have blocked about $80 million in funds with suspected terrorist ties. About $34.2 million was in the United States, Treasury officials said.
“This is one of the main ways we’re trying to fight terrorism. It is a new front in a broad-based war,” said Deputy Treasury Secretary Kenneth Dam.
Dam said the Bush administration’s financial war against terrorism has been gaining momentum as information emerges about Al Qaeda and more countries join the coalition.
Some nations, such as Luxembourg and Canada, have attempted to block the assets of every person and organization placed on the U.S. list of terrorist supporters, Dam said. Others are proceeding more cautiously. But even Libya, Iran and Iraq, which have sponsored terrorists in the past, have expressed support for the U.S. effort to block terrorist funds–though their actual level of support is unclear, Dam said.
“Every country can see itself as the potential victim of terrorism,” he said.
Dam, who has taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago, said he was confident American civil liberties will be protected under the anti-terrorist Patriot Act.
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The law, signed by President Bush in October, gives federal officials authority to block a group’s assets pending an investigation of its links to terrorism. It also allows for greater information-sharing between U.S. law-enforcement agencies and foreign intelligence services.
Dam said there is still oversight from federal judges, who review classified evidence in chambers. “The judicial process is there,” he said, adding that the powers given to Treasury are justified by national security concerns in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
“I think the law is sufficiently targeted,” Dam said. And there is a process for groups to challenge the evidence. Thus far, Treasury officials said, five groups or individuals have petitioned the Treasury Department for “reconsideration” — the first step in the proceeding to be taken off the terrorist list.
Dam also provided figures showing that Bush’s 2003 budget will seek to boost funding for Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCen, by 6.3 percent, or $3.3 million, to $52.3 million.
“By investigating the financiers of terrorists, we can uncover the terrorists themselves,” Dam said.