$147 million in al-Qaida and Taliban assets seized, frozen

UNITED NATIONS -- Countries have seized or frozen $147 million in assets belonging to 435 individuals and groups linked to al-Qaida or the Taliban, crimping terrorist cash flows, a U.S. Treasury official said.

U.N. sanctions require all 191 U.N. member states to impose a travel ban and arms embargo against a list of those linked to Osama bin Laden's terror network and the former Afghan rulers and to freeze their financial assets. The list currently includes 320 individuals and 115 groups.

"We think it is now harder, costlier and riskier for al-Qaida to raise and move money," assistant treasury secretary Juan Zarate said Monday after briefing the U.N. Security Council committee monitoring the sanctions.

"We've frozen now approximately $147 million in terrorist-related assets based on this process."

International efforts to cut off funding to key figures and organizations with terrorist links have been effective, Zarate said.

"We know that the designation process not only freezes assets but it cuts off channels of funding for al-Qaida. It deters those who would otherwise support al-Qaida and other like-minded terrorist groups," he said.

Zarate, who is responsible for trying to combat terrorist financing, did not identify which countries had frozen funds but said the amount has increased.

"We think frankly there's probably more out there that's been seized or frozen that's been underreported," he said.

He called the U.N. sanctions committee "one of the most potent bodies in the world in combating terrorist financing" and said its work over the past three years has yielded promising initial results.

Zarate, whose statement to the closed-door committee meeting was released later by the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, said dozens of countries had joined the United States in submitting the names of individuals and groups for the list, and scores of countries had adopted laws to fight terrorist financing or were doing so.

"This must be the beginning, and not the end of our efforts," he said. "The U.S. and all countries can and must improve our individual and collective efforts to develop and implement effective terrorist financing sanctions regimes."

Zarate said the sanctions have forced terrorist groups like al-Qaida to use more informal ways of moving and raising money, adding that the United States has identified the use of cash couriers by al-Qaida to move money across borders.

"That is something that this committee has to look at," he said.

Chile's U.N. Ambassador Heraldo Munoz, the former chairman of the sanctions committee, cited complaints from countries about the lack of identifying information about those on the list.

But Zarate disagreed, saying that great strides have been made to improve such information over the last three years.