J-10
07-13-2004, 12:49 PM
Snow Says Terror Threat Hangs Over the U.S. Economy
July 13, 2004 — By Glenn Somerville
CLEVELAND (*******) - The government's ability to stop the flow of cash to terror groups is essential for protection of the U.S. economy from threats of terror attacks, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said on Tuesday.
"Hatred fuels the terrorist agenda, cash makes it possible," he said at a local film-coating plant. "The work to track and shut down the financial network of terror is, therefore, one of the most critical jobs of our government today."
The Treasury chief's remarks were part of the Bush administration's push to win support for the controversial Patriot Act among voters uneasy about the war in Iraq and about provisions of the 2001 law that gave the government broad new investigative powers.
In a local radio interview, Snow said any effort to water down the Patriot Act would be "a disaster" for efforts to hamper terror groups' ability to move money, declaring "there is no more serious threat to our economy than the threat of terrorist attacks on our soil."
The Patriot Act was approved overwhelmingly by the U.S. Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but some critics -- both Democratic and Republican -- say it gives federal agents too much power and violates privacy.
The Bush administration last week narrowly beat back an effort in the U.S. House of Representatives to soften the law by limiting federal monitoring of library records and bookshop orders.
Even the possibility of a terror attack creates uncertainty, although it is difficult to quantify the impact on the economy, Snow said.
"It's in the back of peoples' minds that a terror attack can't be totally discarded. That creates an element of uncertainty. I don't think it's taking one-tenth, two-tenths, three-tenths of GDP (gross domestic product) -- you can't quantify it but it is on peoples' minds," Snow told reporter.
'BLOOD MONEY'
Snow highlighted the Treasury's role in tracking terror finances and said the Patriot Act had helped law enforcement officials and financial services providers share information.
"These changes have enabled the government, in partnership with the financial community, to tighten the tourniquet that cuts off terrorist blood money," Snow said.
He said some $141 million of suspicious money has been frozen since 2001 in the United States and abroad, keeping it out of terror group hands.
Some Patriot Act provisions are set to expire at the end of next year, including ones allowing intelligence agents and law enforcement authorities to share information about suspected terrorists, and expanded use of wiretaps and search warrants.
"Reauthorization of the act is one of the most important steps we can take to defeat the killers, to force them back into their tunnels and holes, starved of the resources it would take to build a bomb, pilot a plane or harness a virus," Snow said.
abcnews (http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/*******20040713_266.html)
July 13, 2004 — By Glenn Somerville
CLEVELAND (*******) - The government's ability to stop the flow of cash to terror groups is essential for protection of the U.S. economy from threats of terror attacks, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said on Tuesday.
"Hatred fuels the terrorist agenda, cash makes it possible," he said at a local film-coating plant. "The work to track and shut down the financial network of terror is, therefore, one of the most critical jobs of our government today."
The Treasury chief's remarks were part of the Bush administration's push to win support for the controversial Patriot Act among voters uneasy about the war in Iraq and about provisions of the 2001 law that gave the government broad new investigative powers.
In a local radio interview, Snow said any effort to water down the Patriot Act would be "a disaster" for efforts to hamper terror groups' ability to move money, declaring "there is no more serious threat to our economy than the threat of terrorist attacks on our soil."
The Patriot Act was approved overwhelmingly by the U.S. Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but some critics -- both Democratic and Republican -- say it gives federal agents too much power and violates privacy.
The Bush administration last week narrowly beat back an effort in the U.S. House of Representatives to soften the law by limiting federal monitoring of library records and bookshop orders.
Even the possibility of a terror attack creates uncertainty, although it is difficult to quantify the impact on the economy, Snow said.
"It's in the back of peoples' minds that a terror attack can't be totally discarded. That creates an element of uncertainty. I don't think it's taking one-tenth, two-tenths, three-tenths of GDP (gross domestic product) -- you can't quantify it but it is on peoples' minds," Snow told reporter.
'BLOOD MONEY'
Snow highlighted the Treasury's role in tracking terror finances and said the Patriot Act had helped law enforcement officials and financial services providers share information.
"These changes have enabled the government, in partnership with the financial community, to tighten the tourniquet that cuts off terrorist blood money," Snow said.
He said some $141 million of suspicious money has been frozen since 2001 in the United States and abroad, keeping it out of terror group hands.
Some Patriot Act provisions are set to expire at the end of next year, including ones allowing intelligence agents and law enforcement authorities to share information about suspected terrorists, and expanded use of wiretaps and search warrants.
"Reauthorization of the act is one of the most important steps we can take to defeat the killers, to force them back into their tunnels and holes, starved of the resources it would take to build a bomb, pilot a plane or harness a virus," Snow said.
abcnews (http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/*******20040713_266.html)