Brussels, 27/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - The United States is upset by the Europeans ambiguity towards Hamas and regrets that they "did not rally around the designation of this terrorist group" as such, said David Aufhauser, General Advisor to the American Treasury responsible for combating the financing of terrorism, on Tuesday. According to Aufhauser, speaking through a video-conference before a few journalists, "this is a question on which we must be on the same wavelength" to manage to dismantle "the terrorist enterprise". But, he added, other than this eminently political issue and others, purely "administrative" (…) "we are rather pleased" with the Union's contribution and its "absolute solidarity". For Washington, it is crucial to publicly qualify a terrorist organisation as such and freeze its assets. Yet, according to Mr. Aufhauser, the distinction made in Brussels between the armed branches and charitable branches of Hamas impedes the freeze of the group's financial resources and "with respect, this rationale is sophistry". "Nobody is at war against the idea of building hospitals or orphanages, or of looking after displaced people, but these same people who decide how to spend the money on hospitals decide how to spend the money to kill people, and you cannot shrug off your responsibility for your left hand and celebrate what you are doing with the right one: that remains blood money".
Although "much remains to be done", Mr. Aufhauser is nevertheless satisfied that the collective fight against the financing of terrorism has already allowed for much to be achieved. To date, the United States and its Allies have arrested some 2,290 people in 99 countries suspected of having terrorist activities or of financing them, 251 individuals and bodies have been public qualified as terrorist and, since 11 September 2001, over 121 million dollars of suspect assets have been frozen throughout the world, he said. Remains that the "most of the assets we are seeking to freeze, cash transfers we hope to put a brake on and registers we hope to control are over the ocean that surrounds us".
Aufhauser hoped that the partners in this fight would do more than "simply add names" to the lists of organisations and financiers of terrorism. The United States, for its part, has come up with an "ambitious" programme comprising very diversified instruments, including an "executive order" under the codes of conduct of financial intermediaries and even aimed non-international authors of terror that may now have their assets frozen, strengthening the surveillance at the "doors" of the American financial markets, a diplomacy aimed at promoting vigilance on a world scale, appeal to the private sector to contribute in locating and apprehending terrorists and their bankers, technical assistance in developing countries.