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| Europe |
| US blocks funds of Italian al-Qaeda |
| 2005-08-01 |
| The United States on Monday froze the assets of three North African men who are suspected of operating a militant cell in Italy with links to al Qaeda and Moroccan extremists. The U.S. Treasury Department said it had blocked the assets of Moroccan Ahmed El Bouhali, Tunisian Faycal Boughanemi and Moroccan Abdelkader Laagoub for providing financial and/or material support to the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, which the U.S. government says is affiliated with al Qaeda. The Treasury Department did not give any information on assets the three men hold in the united States. Boughanemi and Laagoub are already in Italian custody, but Bouhali is not. No additional information on his status was immediately available. Italy has already frozen the assets of the three men, and has asked the United Nations to require all its member states do the same. "Today's action targets individuals operating an al Qaeda-linked terrorist cell in Italy that recruited combatants, raised funds for terrorist activities and even planned terrorist attacks," Stuart Levey, Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement. The Treasury said the three men were members of an Islamic militant group set up in Cremona, Italy, in 1998 with the aim of committing attacks in Italy, Morocco, Tunisia and other countries. It said investigations by Italian authorities produced evidence that the group recruited volunteers for paramilitary training, collected funds for terrorism and planned attacks. Some experts and officials say designations such as these may only have a limited impact and by themselves are only likely to weed out the most obvious terrorist funding transactions. But they say the public naming is helpful as part of a larger strategy that must also include behind-the-scenes intelligence gathering, a crackdown on unlicensed money transfer services and close monitoring of suspected terrorist financiers, deep-pocket donors, bulk cash couriers and other suspicious financial flows. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |