Hard to know what to believe with these Syrian reports.
Syria seizes 6 bearing $23 million tied to al-Qaida
Gregory L. Vistica and Douglas Farah
The Washington Post
Dec. 20, 2003 12:00 AM
WASHINGTON - At least six Arabs believed linked to al-Qaida and carrying what some intelligence reports estimated was $23.5 million were arrested by Syria last week, administration officials said.
It is believed to be the first time in the war on terrorism that couriers have been seized with such a large amount of money, the counterterrorism officials said.
U.S. officials are trying to trace the money. But Syria has refused to turn over the individuals for interrogation and has not given U.S investigators access to them, a senior U.S. official said. Damascus may not have officially notified Washington it is holding the individuals, the official said. The official added that Syria will likely keep the money it confiscated.
Officials in the Syrian Embassy in Washington said Friday that they were unable to locate the ambassador or his deputy to respond to requests for comment.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies have not made a significant seizure of money moving to terrorist organizations outside of bulk cash shipments departing the United States, sources say.
While U.S. authorities have spotted couriers leaving Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, they have not been able to stop them because U.S. officials have no jurisdiction there.
If the cash Syria seized is as much as first reports indicate, it would be a significant catch. One U.S. official said it is possible the money was part of Saddam Hussein's stockpile of cash and was being moved out of Iraq to finance terrorist attacks elsewhere.
If so, the seizure would represent a serious blow to al-Qaida's financing.
Al-Qaida increasingly relies on couriers to move money as other channels have come under scrutiny, U.S. officials have said in recent interviews.
They said this is especially true in the Middle East. The reason, one official said, is that having a trusted courier carry the money "means that no strangers are introduced into the equation," which reduces risk. The recent seizure in Syria is in keeping with that.
U.S. officials said that despite not having access to the couriers, it is a positive sign that Syria made the arrests. The Syrians "are doing things that we would approve of" in the war on terrorism, one of the U.S. counterterrorism officials said. "It's not all bad."
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