Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live At Daybreak
FBI Director Looking For New Ways to Cut Off Money Pipeline
Aired September 20, 2002 - 05:08 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: With the United Nations report saying efforts to freeze terror funding have slowed, FBI Director Robert Mueller is looking for new ways to cut off the money pipeline.
CNN's Tim O'Brien reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TIM O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is Congress' answer to a new kind of war. The Patriot Act provides a wide range of options for combating money laundering and terrorist financing. It's already helped the U.S. in freezing $34 million in assets that might have been used to support terrorism.
But FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress that isn't enough. He urged law makers to allow the government to freeze the assets of any suspect prior to any trial and without regard to whether the asset can be directly linked to terrorism or other crime.
ROBERT MUELLER, FBI DIRECTOR: The foremost problem we face regarding the recovery of criminal proceeds in terrorism cases, as well as those involving corporate fraud, is the inability to freeze assets pending trial. If the property can be confiscated after the conviction, it should be frozen prior to a conviction.
O'BRIEN: Mueller says that al Qaeda has been crippled financially, but that it is seeking alternative ways to hide assets and transfer funds, increasingly using gold or diamonds instead of cash and bank accounts. A draft U.N. report obtained by CNN questions how much progress has actually been made in cutting off al Qaeda's money supply, saying al Qaeda continues to have access to considerable financial and other economic resources.
The Bush administration disputes any suggestion it's losing ground and a top Treasury official also dismissed as mere growing pains reports of an emerging turf war within the administration over how to fight terrorism.
KENNETH DAM, TREASURY UNDERSECRETARY: Because we had not done this kind of thing until immediately after September 11 and so there were some learning steps and learning pains that we had to face.
O'BRIEN: Secretary Dam added that the number of complaints within the administration has now fallen steadily.
(on camera): There were, however, no complaints about the operation of the Patriot Act or its usefulness in cutting off money used to subsidize terror. The important civil liberties questions that have so troubled several members of Congress, not to mention a number of federal courts, were left for some other day.
Tim O'Brien, CNN Financial News, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Pipeline>
Aired September 20, 2002 - 05:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: With the United Nations report saying efforts to freeze terror funding have slowed, FBI Director Robert Mueller is looking for new ways to cut off the money pipeline.
CNN's Tim O'Brien reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TIM O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is Congress' answer to a new kind of war. The Patriot Act provides a wide range of options for combating money laundering and terrorist financing. It's already helped the U.S. in freezing $34 million in assets that might have been used to support terrorism.
But FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress that isn't enough. He urged law makers to allow the government to freeze the assets of any suspect prior to any trial and without regard to whether the asset can be directly linked to terrorism or other crime.
ROBERT MUELLER, FBI DIRECTOR: The foremost problem we face regarding the recovery of criminal proceeds in terrorism cases, as well as those involving corporate fraud, is the inability to freeze assets pending trial. If the property can be confiscated after the conviction, it should be frozen prior to a conviction.
O'BRIEN: Mueller says that al Qaeda has been crippled financially, but that it is seeking alternative ways to hide assets and transfer funds, increasingly using gold or diamonds instead of cash and bank accounts. A draft U.N. report obtained by CNN questions how much progress has actually been made in cutting off al Qaeda's money supply, saying al Qaeda continues to have access to considerable financial and other economic resources.
The Bush administration disputes any suggestion it's losing ground and a top Treasury official also dismissed as mere growing pains reports of an emerging turf war within the administration over how to fight terrorism.
KENNETH DAM, TREASURY UNDERSECRETARY: Because we had not done this kind of thing until immediately after September 11 and so there were some learning steps and learning pains that we had to face.
O'BRIEN: Secretary Dam added that the number of complaints within the administration has now fallen steadily.
(on camera): There were, however, no complaints about the operation of the Patriot Act or its usefulness in cutting off money used to subsidize terror. The important civil liberties questions that have so troubled several members of Congress, not to mention a number of federal courts, were left for some other day.
Tim O'Brien, CNN Financial News, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Pipeline>
