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Paul O'Neill Announces Agreement Between U.S. and Saudis

Aired March 11, 2002 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: To Washington Paul O'Neill here to announce new measures taken in cooperation with the Saudi government to block terrorist funding. Here's Paul O'Neill.

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PAUL O'NEILL, TREASURY SECRETARY: ... Bosnia-Herzegovina branches of the Saudi Arabia-based Al-Harman Islamic Foundation.

While the Saudi headquarters for this private charitable entity is dedicated to promoting Islamic teachings, we and our Saudia Arabian allies have determined that the Somalia and Bosnia-Herzegovina branches of Al-Harman have been engaged in supporting terrorist activities and terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda, Aiai and others.

Few deceits are more reprehensible than the act of collecting charity from well-intentioned donors then diverting those funds to support hatred and cruelty. As I said during my visit to the Gulf, misusing charity funds to support terrorism harms the people who gave the donation, harms the people who should have received it and is dangerous to us all.

Organizations that pervert the name of charity are an affront to us all, and we will find them, expose them and shut them down. Today the Saudi government is joining us in this blocking action. We've had significant cooperation in blocking accounts of those named by the United States, and our European allies have made designations of their own.

As the first joint blocking we've undertaken today's action is a sign of the growing strength of the antiterror coalition, appropriate to mark the sixth-month anniversary of the September 11 attacks. I just returned from a visit to the Persian Gulf where I had the opportunity to meet with King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah, others in the Saudi government, and the leadership in Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE.

Throughout the region I encountered a great recognition that the September attacks weren't only an attack on the United States, but were an attack on the civilized world. The governments there, like elsewhere in the world, are eager to cutoff terror access to funds wherever we may find them. We all agree that we have a responsibility to safeguard charities so that we can assure people giving to charities that their donations will be used only for their intended good purposes.

HEMMER: Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill there in Washington making the announcement of cooperation between the U.S. and the Saudi government group. Apparently the group that Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill is discussing had offices in Somalia and in Bosnia and apparently the links have now been severed.

No amount given, though, about what the administration believes is the amount of money the administration believes the foundation may have passed on to terrorists. They also say there's a link to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. That word from Washington and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill.

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