10/31/2001

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The Saudi government has cooperated with the U.S. effort to disrupt financing of terrorist organizations by issuing an order to freeze assets in that country of 66 individuals and groups suspected of links to terrorism, a Bush administration official said today.

President Bush issued a sweeping order on Sept. 24 to block terrorist assets.

The U.S. government is in a delicate situation in its relationship with Saudi Arabia, a longstanding American ally that has a reluctant partner in the U.S.-organized anti-terror coalition. The Saudis have refused to allow their bases to be used as staging grounds for the attacks, which were sparked by the Taliban's refusal to hand over Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Saudi Arabia "has cooperated" with the U.S. financial action against terrorism and has issued an order to block the assets, Jimmy Gurule, the Treasury undersecretary for enforcement, told reporters.

Asked whether the Saudi government had actually blocked assets, Gurule replied, "I think what's most important is cooperation." In some cases, it may be more desirable to keep bank accounts open and monitor them as part of an investigation, he said.

Treasury officials say 152 countries have pledged cooperation with the U.S. effort. Of those, 81 have issued asset blocking orders, including Saudi Arabia.

An official said Wednesday that the Gulf Cooperation Council, of which Saudi Arabia is a member, had said in mid-October that its member nations were issuing blocking orders.

The revelation about Saudi Arabia came as a 29-nation anti-money-laundering group, which had met in a two-day emergency session in Washington, announced it had adopted measures to disrupt terrorists' financing. The measures include imposing anti-money-laundering requirements on non-bank financial systems such as the informal "hawala" system believed to be used by bin Laden's network to move money.

The actions by the task force, part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, "could potentially save thousands of lives," Gurule said.