WASHINGTON Ñ The United States has identified the sources of Al Qaida funding and found they were fewer in number than earlier estimated.
Officials said U.S. intelligence has determined that Al Qaida is
supported by 12 financiers, most of them Saudis. They said the Bush administration is sharing the findings
with Washington's allies in NATO and the European Union.
On Sunday, Treasury Undersecretary Jimmy Gurule begins a six-day visit
to European countries to coordinate efforts to freeze assets of those deemed
as terrorist financiers. The countries include Denmark, which holds the EU
presidency, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg, Sweden and Switzerland, Middle East Newsline reported.
"It is our first big break in understanding Al Qaida's financial
network," an official said.
"At first, the network was so big that we didn't
think could find major channels of support. Now, we believe we have."
The officials said the new information has fueled a renewed effort to
freeze the assets of those suspected of helping Al Qaida and satellite
groups. They said the information could result in the blocking of finances
of industrialists of leading Gulf Arab businessmen in Asia and Europe. So
far, the United States and its allies have frozen $112 million, regarded as
an insignificant portion of Al Qaida's network.
Gurule did not identify the new targets and denied that he was carrying
a "Saudi list." He said he will discuss "high-impact, high-value Al Qaida
targets" with European allies.
U.S. officials have acknowledged that Washington has not obtained
sufficient support from EU states against terrorist financiers. They cited
the EU's refusal to deem such groups as Hizbullah or the political wing of
Hamas as terrorist organizations. Officials said the EU has also been slow
in acting against targets deemed as terrorists.
"We want to engage in a very specific level of information on these
targets where we want the European Union to take action," Gurule said. "It
goes beyond general statements and requests to specific people and entities
we want authorities to act against."
But officials said most of the dozen financiers are Saudi bankers and
businessmen who provide direct support to Al Qaida. They did not elaborate.
The administration does not plan to confront Saudi Arabia with the new
information. But officials said the United States plans to first form a
coalition that will ensure that Europe will be off-limits to Saudi
financing.
On Friday, the Washington Post said Al Qaida has relied on human
couriers to fly cash from Saudi Arabia to agents around the world. The
newspaper said U.S. intelligence followed the couriers and helped identify
the money trail.
"In the next few weeks, you will hear cries of pain, mostly from Saudi
Arabia," the senior official was quoted by the Post as saying. "If the
Saudis don't take action against these people, we will at least make sure
they cannot travel outside their home country and cannot do business as
usual around the world."