Snow Says Terror Threat Hangs Over U.S. Economy

Tue Jul 13, 2004
By Glenn Somerville

CLEVELAND (Reuters) - The potential for more terror attacks is a risk to the U.S. economy that requires vigilance against any bid to weaken measures for investigating suspicious money transactions, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said on Tuesday.

"Terrorism is a threat to the economy and it's awfully important that we keep our guard up and do all we can to keep the terrorists at bay," Snow said in a local radio interview.

The U.S. Treasury chief's remarks were the first in what is expected to be a series of efforts to win renewal of key provisions of the Patriot Act, a centerpiece of the White House's war on terror and of President Bush's election campaign.

Snow said terror groups cannot survive if their cash is choked off.

"Hatred fuels the terrorist agenda, cash makes it possible," he said in remarks prepared for delivery after a tour of a local film-coating plant later on Tuesday. "The work to track and shut down the financial network of terror is, therefore, one of the most critical jobs of our government today."

Voter unease about the war in Iraq, and about provisions of the Patriot Act giving the government broad new investigative powers to try to uncover potential threats, has become an issue in November's presidential vote.

The Patriot Act was approved overwhelmingly by the U.S. Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but some opponents say it gives federal agents too much power.

Last week, a bid in the U.S. House of Representatives to soften the Patriot Act by limiting federal monitoring of library records and bookshop orders was narrowly defeated.

In the radio interview, Snow said watering down provisions of the Patriot Act would be "a disaster" for efforts to keep pressure on 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," 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.

He said financial institutions now are registered with the U.S. Treasury and more data can be collected.

TURNING THE SCREW
"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 among overseas allies, keeping it out of the hands of potential terror groups.

Some provisions of the Patriot Act 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.

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