US: A year of tracking al-Qaeda finances has yielded poor results, Colum Lynch, reports from New York.
A global campaign to block al-Qaeda's access to money has stalled, enabling the terrorist network to obtain a fresh infusion of tens of millions of dollars and putting it in position to finance future attacks, according to a draft UN report.
In the months immediately following the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington, the US and other UN members moved to shut down al-Qaeda's financial network, freezing more than $112 million in assets belonging to suspected members and supporters of the organisation.
But only $10 million in additional funds have been blocked over the past eight months, according to the 43-page draft report, which was written by a UN panel responsible for monitoring enforcement of an arms, travel and financial embargo against al-Qaeda and its associates.
The network continues to draw on funds from the personal inheritance of Osama bin Laden, as well as investments and money diverted or embezzled from charitable organisations, according to the draft report. The report of the Monitoring Group on al-Qaeda, which is expected to be published next week, offers a rare survey of the state of the financial war on terrorism.
In the aftermath of attacks, President Bush announced the freezing of assets of dozens of organisations and individuals linked to al-Qaeda, and US diplomats harnessed the authority of the UN Security Council behind the effort. The council adopted a resolution requiring the United Nations' 189 members to seize the assets of individuals placed on a UN list of suspected associates of al-Qaeda.
Despite this campaign, the report said, al-Qaeda financial backers in North Africa, the Middle East and Asia manage at least $30 million in investments for the group, with some estimates ranging as high as $300 million. The money reportedly includes investments from Mauritius, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Panama, it said.
Al-Qaeda is also suspected of having bank accounts under the name of unidentified intermediaries in Dubai, Hong Kong, London, Malaysia and Vienna. And private donations to the group, estimated at $16 million a year, are believed to "continue, largely unabated",, the report said.
"Despite initial successes in locating and freezing" al-Qaeda assets, the network "continues to have access to considerable financial and other economic resources", the report said, adding that it has proven "exceedingly difficult" to identify these funds.
"Al-Qaeda is by all accounts 'fit and well' and poised to strike again at its leisure," it continued. "The prime targets of the organisation are likely to be persons and property of the United States of America and its allies in the fight against al-Qaeda, as well as Israel."
The UN panel said the task of blocking al-Qaeda funds has been frustrated by the group's decision to shift its assets into precious metals and gems, and to transfer its money through an informal money exchange network, known as hawalas, that is virtually impossible to trace. Revenues from hard-to-track "illegal activities including smuggling, petty crime, robbery, embezzlement and credit card fraud augment these funds," it said. But the effort to shut al-Qaeda's financial network has also been hampered by inadequate auditing of religious charities, lax border controls in several European countries, known as the Schengen Area group, that allow travellers to cross their borders with a single visa, and "stringent evidentiary standards" required by European governments before they will seize an individuals assets, the draft report said.
The report said the Schengen Information System - a computer programme used to monitor border crossings within the group's 15 member-states - has placed only 40 of the 219 names on the UN list on its database. Several members of the Schengen group said their "national laws precluded them from placing" their citizens on "national watch-lists without appropriate judicial basis", according to the UN report.
The Schengen group includes 13 members of the European Union and Norway and Iceland. Britain and Ireland are the only EU countries that are not members. The UN panel warned that the refusal of key European countries to fully comply with the Security Council's sanctions could have a "derogatory impact" on the effort to shut al-Qaeda's financial operations.
European governments have faced legal challenges by their citizens on the UN list who claim they have been denied their rights to a trial, enshrined in the Council of Europe's Human Rights Charter. They also have expressed concern that Security Council's procedures for placing individuals on the sanctions list lack the legal safeguards required by their own courts for freezing assets.
"Several states have indicated that they are facing legal challenges to the blocking of assets," the report said. They have also cited humanitarian concerns, and a dearth of evidence linking suspects to terrorist activities.
The panel also cited the failure of the US and other governments to provide complete information about suspected al-Qaeda members, including birth dates and passport numbers. It warned that the publication of distinct terrorist lists by the United States, United Nations, European Union, and individual countries was creating confusion and undermining efforts to freeze al-Qaeda assets. - (Washington Post)