#### For Immediate Release March 11, 2002

# Fact Sheet

## Designations of Somalia and Bosnia-Herzegovina Branches of Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation 

*"We must assure people around the world who are giving money to help
others that all of the money given for charitable purposes only goes for
good purposes. Organizations that pervert the name of charity with acts
of hatred and cruelty are an affront to us all, and we will find them,
expose them, and shut them down."*

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| Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill                                       |
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| *March 11, 2002*                                                      |
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###  

Today the United States and Saudi Arabia acted jointly to block the
funds of the Somalia and Bosnia-Herzegovina branches of the Al Haramain
Islamic foundation because these branches were diverting charitable
funds to terrorism. This first joint designation opens a new phase in
international cooperation to destroy the terrorist financing network.
And it marks the strength of the anti-terror coalition six months after
the attacks of September 11.

The Saudi Arabia‑based Al‑Haramain Islamic Foundation is a private,
charitable, and educational organization dedicated to promoting Islamic
teaching throughout the world. A growing amount of its funding comes
from grants from other countries, individual Muslim benefactors, and
special campaigns, which selectively target Muslim‑owned business
entities around the world as sources for donations.

The branch offices of Al Haramain in Somalia and Bosnia are clearly
linked to terrorist financing. The Somalia office of Al-Haramain is
linked to Usama bin Laden\'s al-Qaida network and Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya
(AIAI), a Somali terrorist group. Al-Haramain Somalia employed AIAI
members and provided them with salaries through Al-Barakaat Bank, which
was designated on November 7, 2001 under E.O. 13224 because of its
activities as a principal source of funding, intelligence and money
transfers for Usama bin Laden.

The Bosnia office of Al-Haramain is linked to Al-Gama\'at Al-Islamiyya,
an Egyptian terrorist group. Al-Gama\'at Al-Islamiyya was designated on
November 2, 2001 and it is a signatory to Usama bin Laden\'s Fatwah
dated February 23, 1998, targeting Americans and their allies.

Over the past few years, Al‑Haramain Somalia has funneled money to AIAI
by disguising funds as if they were intended for orphanage projects or
Islamic school and mosque construction. The organization has also
employed AIAI members and provided them with salaries through Barakaat
Banks and Remittances, a subsidiary of Al-Barakaat Bank.

Even after AIAI was named in the Annex to Executive Order 13224 on
September 23, 2001, and subsequently designated by the United Nations
under UNSCR 1333, Al‑Haramain Somalia has continued to provide financial
support to AIAI. In late December 2001, Al­-Haramain Somalia was
facilitating the travel of AIAI members in Somalia to Saudi Arabia where
the AIAI members planned to apply for residency permits.

The Secretary of the Treasury has the authority to designate the
Al‑Haramain Somalia and Bosnia offices as subject to Executive Order
13224 pursuant to paragraphs (d)(i) and (d)(ii) based on a determination
that it assists in, sponsors, or provides financial, material, or
technological support for, or financial or other services to or in
support of, or is otherwise associated with, persons listed as subject
to EO 13224.

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| > **\"We put the world\'s financial institutions on notice: if you do |
| > business with terrorists, if you support them or sponsor them, you  |
| > will not do business with the United States of America.\"**         |
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  ***President George W. Bush, 11/7/01***

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Starving the terrorists of funding remains both a priority and a success
of the war on terrorism. Ever since the President took his initial
action in freezing terrorist finances, the international coalition has
continuously strengthened its efforts to disrupt, dismantle, and destroy
the pipelines from which terrorist receive money.

Our first step has been to deny terrorists access to the world's
organized financial structures; simultaneously, we have been moving to
bring more of informal money transfer systems and phony charities under
government regulation. Both lines of attack have produced results.

-   President Bush launched the first offensive in the war on terrorism
    on September 23 by signing an Executive Order freezing the
    U.S.-based assets of those individuals and organizations involved
    with terrorism.

-   All but a handful of the 192 countries in the world have expressed
    their support for the financial war on terror.

-   150 countries and jurisdictions have issued orders freezing
    terrorist assets, and the international community is helping others
    improve their legal and regulatory systems so they can move
    effectively to block terrorist funds.

-   The US has designated 191 known terrorists, terrorist organizations,
    and terrorist financial networks, whose assets are now subject to
    freezing in the U.S. financial system.

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-   Since September 11, the U.S. has blocked more than \$34 million in
    assets of terrorist organizations. Other nations have also blocked
    more than \$70 million. The funds captured only measure the money in
    the pipeline at the time the accounts were shut down, which is a
    small fraction of the total funds disrupted by the closing of the
    pipeline.

-   On November 7, the U.S. and its allies closed down operations of two
    major financial networks -- al-Barakaat and al-Taqwa -- both of
    which were used by al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden in more than 40
    nations as sources of income and mechanisms to transfer funds. As
    part of that action, OFAC was able to freeze \$1,900,000
    domestically in Al-Barakaat-related funds. Treasury also worked
    closely with key officials in the Middle East to facilitate blocking
    of Al-Barakaat\'s assets at its financial center of operations.
    Disruptions to Al-Barakaat\'s worldwide cash flows could be as high
    as \$300 to \$400 million per year, according to our analysts. Of
    that, our experts and experts in other agencies estimate that \$15
    to \$20 million per year would have gone to terrorist organizations.
    The Al-Barakaat investigation exemplifies the importance of the flow
    of funds disruption measure that we are attempting to use more
    broadly.

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-   On December 4, President Bush froze the assets of a U.S.-based
    foundation -- The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development
    \-- that has been funneling money to the terrorist organization
    Hamas. In 2000, the foundation raised \$13 million. Because of our
    actions, next year it won't raise a penny. On January 9, we blocked
    another spurious charity and two offices of a third for stealing
    from widows and orphans to fund al Qaeda terrorism.

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-   International organizations are key partners in the war on financial
    terrorism. Since September 28, over 100 nations have submitted
    reports to the United Nations on the actions they have taken to
    block terrorist finances, as required under United Nations Security
    Council resolution 1373 which calls on all nations to keep their
    financial systems free of terrorist funds.

-   The Financial Action Task Force \-- a 29-nation group promoting
    policies to combat money laundering \-- adopted strict new standards
    to deny terrorist access to the world financial system.

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-   The G-20 and IMF member countries have agreed to make public the
    list of terrorists whose assets are subject to freezing, and the
    amount of assets frozen.

-   For the first five months of this effort, the US identified
    terrorists for blocking and then sought cooperation from our allies
    around the world. A new stage in international cooperation was
    reached on December 28, 2001, when the EU took the lead and
    designated 6 European-based terrorists for asset blocking, on which
    US followed suit. The US designated a further 21 European-based
    terrorists, at Spain's request, on February 26, 2002. Nations around
    the world have different information and different leads, and it is
    crucial that each of allies not only blocks the terrorist financiers
    we identify, but also develops its own leads to broaden the effort
    to identify and take action against those who fund terrorism

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