Steve Israel: “Mr. Speaker, we know that this bill is not the silver bullet in our war against terrorism, but it is a vital tool for…”

“Mr. Speaker, we know that this bill is not the silver bullet in our war against terrorism, but it is a vital tool for our law enforcement community. I want to thank the chairman and the ranking member for getting this good strong bill to the floor with such dispatch. Mr. Speaker, September 11 we have learned a great deal about Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda terrorist network. We know that in addition to a complex global financial network, there are many, many sources of funds and a personal fortune of $300 million that Osama bin Laden has. Alarmingly, evidence suggests that organizations in the United States and abroad have cloaked themselves as charitable organizations to help funnel those funds to al-Qaeda. The President has already frozen the assets of the Wafa Humanitarian Organization, the Al Rashid Trust, the Makhtab al-Khidamat, and most recently, the Society of Islamic Cooperation. These were groups that were supposedly charitable organizations, but were mere conduits for raising money for the treacherous acts of September 11. In committee, Mr. Speaker, I introduced an amendment that the chairman and the gentleman from New York (Mr. LaFalce) were gracious enough to accept. It is an important measure. It simply tells the Treasury Department to scrutinize how terrorists use charitable non-profits and other groups to fund these activities.”