TERRORIST FINANCE: INITIAL TURKISH RESPONSE ON

S E C R E T ANKARA 001158 SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/SE, EB/ESC/ESP AND S/CT TREASURY FOR GENERAL COUNSEL (DAVID AUFHAUSER) AND TASK FORCE ON TERRORIST FINACING E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/02/2006 TAGS: ETTC EFIN PTER CVIS TU SUBJECT: TERRORIST FINANCE: INITIAL TURKISH RESPONSE ON CHECHENS, HEKMATYAR, ANSAR AL-ISLAM, LASHKAR REF: A. SECSTATE 46849 ¶B. SECSTATE 44222 ¶C. SECSTATE 39386 ¶D. SECSTATE 26891 (U) Classified by Economic Counselor Scot Marciel for reasons 1.5 (b),(d). ¶1. (S) On February 18 and 21, MFA Department Head for Intelligence and Research Nihat Ersen and MFA counter-terrorism officer Firat Sunel responded to our demarches on four terrorist asset freeze requests (reftels). Two of the four involved pre-notifications of upcoming UN designations (Chechen groups and Ansar al-Islam),and we stressed the need to act quickly on both requests. ¶2. (S) Ersen and Sunel said the names on the four demarches would be circulated interagency to GOT intelligence agencies, Treasury, banking regulatory board and Central Bank to research possible financial links to Turkey. If there were any assets under these names in Turkey, they would be blocked informally. However, formal, legal blocking of assets required a Council of Ministers decree, and GOT practice was to include names on such decrees only after they have been designated by the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee. The MFA was now preparing a draft decree and would include on it about 20 names recently designated by the UN (including Laashkar i Jhangvi). ¶3. (U) Sunel updated us on the reaction to the last Council of Ministers decree, issued in October 2002, which included the Nasreddin Holding company in Istanbul. This company's assets had been blocked, and Sunel said he would find out the dollar amount involved and inform us. The MFA had recently received a letter from the company's Turkish lawyers threatening a lawsuit if the assets were not unblocked. PEARSON