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News  
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U.S. freezes alleged terror assets
Treasury Department says nine individuals, one group are terrorist financiers.
April 19, 2002: 12:23 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The U.S. Treasury Department Friday said it froze the assets of nine individuals and one organization it called terrorist financiers.

Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said the people and the organization were all tied to Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda organization.

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"Today we block the finances of an assortment of terrorists involved in financing and carrying out bombings, kidnappings and murder," O'Neill said. "We will continue to expose and shut down these thugs wherever we find them."

Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill  
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill

The group whose assets were frozen was the Pakistan-based Aid Organization of the Ulema. Its assets under the name al-Rashid Trust in Pakistan had already been frozen by the government, which accused it of funding the Taliban, the former ruling organization in Afghanistan, since 1999.

The individuals named by the government were:

  • Ahmed Idris Nasreddin, allegedly a supporter of Youssef Nada and Bank Al Taqwa, both previously identified by the government as terrorist financiers;
  • Abdelkadir Mahmoud Es Sayed, an Egyptian, alleged to be the organizer of al Qaeda's cell in Milan, Italy;
  • Khalid Al-Fawaz, who has been indicted in the United States for conspiring to bomb the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 225 people and wounded 4,500;
  • Abu Hamza al-Masri, allegedly the legal officer for the Islamic Army of Aden, which the government said claimed credit for the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 people;
  • Mohamed Ben Belgacem Aouadi, Mokhtar Bouchoucha, Tarek Charaabi and Sami Ben Khemais Essid, all four of whom are in prison in Italy for weapons trafficking convictions and are allegedly part of an al Qaeda cell operating in Italy; and
  • Lased Ben Heni, a Libyan whom the government alleged was a liaison between al Qaeda cells in Italy and Frankfurt, Germany.

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The latest designations bring to 202 the total number of groups and individuals with assets frozen by the Treasury Department for alleged terrorist financing. The department said it has frozen $104 million in assets, $34 million in the United States and $70 million in other countries.

The U.S. government believes bin Laden and the al Qaeda organization were responsible for the Sept. 11 terror attacks that killed more than 3,000 people, the Cole bombing and the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, among other activities.  Top of page






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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.