U.S., Saudis Block Assets of Charity

U.S. authorities, working in conjunction with Saudi Arabia, blocked the assets of a Saudi charity’s offices in Somalia and Bosnia on Monday, saying they had been linked to Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network.

Treasury Secretary Paul H. O’Neill announced the crackdown on the six-month commemoration of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Just back from a week of meetings with leaders of four Middle Eastern nations, O’Neill said U.S. officials have made significant progress in establishing a coalition to cut off the Al Qaeda network’s money pipeline and its ability to launch terrorist attacks.

O’Neill said U.S. and Saudi officials moved Monday to block some assets of the Al Haramain Islamic Foundation, a Saudi-based charity he said had ties to Bin Laden and other terrorists.

“Few deceits are more reprehensible than the act of collecting charity from well-intentioned donors and then diverting those funds to support hatred and cruelty,” O’Neill said.

The action marked the first time the U.S. and another nation have worked together since Sept. 11 to freeze the financial assets of an organization suspected of helping terrorists, according to O’Neill and other Treasury officials.

O’Neill would not discuss the specifics of the effort but said authorities had reliable information that money raised in Al Haramain’s offices in Somalia and Bosnia-Herzegovina had been diverted to support terrorist activities.

The action affects only those two offices of Al Haramain, not its headquarters in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, and prevents the charity’s main office from sending funds to them.

Representatives of the charity in Saudi Arabia did not respond to a request for comment. O’Neill said there were no indications that officials at the group’s headquarters were either involved in funneling money to terrorists or knew about employees who were.

According to the group’s Web site, Al Haramain helps feed and educate the poor in dozens of countries, including war-torn nations or regions such as Somalia, Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo.

Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations have a significant presence in Bosnia and Somalia, where the branch offices “are clearly linked to terrorist financing,” said a Treasury Department memo. It said the Somalia office of Al Haramain is linked to Al Qaeda and Al Itihaad al Islamiya, a Somali terrorist group.

Al Haramain’s Bosnia office has been linked to Gamaa al Islamiya, an Egyptian terrorist group, Treasury officials said.

Since Sept. 11, O’Neill said, more than $104 million in financial assets linked to Al Qaeda and Afghanistan’s former ruling Taliban militia have been blocked worldwide. The United States has identified 191 individuals and organizations suspected of financing or engaging in terrorism and wants their assets frozen, O’Neill said.