FSB REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ON AL-QAIDA ACTIVITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 000437 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR S/CT ROTHSCHILD, EUR/PGI REASOR STATE FOR EUR/RUS, EB/ESC/IEC TREASURY FOR BAKER/GAERTNER NSC FOR TRACY MCKIBBEN E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/01/2017 TAGS: KTFN PTER PREL RS SUBJECT: FSB REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ON AL-QAIDA ACTIVITY IN RUSSIA Classified By: ECON M/C Quanrud, Reasons 1.4 (b/d). ¶1. (C) On January 22, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) passed a note to Embassy Moscow ORC requesting information the USG might have regarding Al Qaida financial activity in the Russian Federation. Below is an unofficial Embassy translation of the note. A copy of the original Russian-language note as well as the English translation will be sent via classified email to S/CT, EUR/PGI and EUR/RUS. ¶2. (C) English-language translation of the note follows: "The Russian Federal Security Service Confidential SIPDIS Exclusively for the United States Regarding a report from the U.S. Congress In late September 2006, the intelligence committee of the U.S. House of Representatives (Embassy Note: the HPSCI) published a report under the title 'Al Qaida: The Many Faces of an Islamic Extremist Threat.' A significant part of the report was dedicated to issues of terrorist financing activity. In this regard, Russia was mentioned as being among the countries in which Al Qaida carried out fundraising activities. In view of the fact that the basis of the report was presumably provided to the Congress by the CIA's CTC and by the U.S. NCTC, we request that you inform us, if possible, of any information specifically on Russia, which was used in the report. We would also like to express our interest in receiving any information of which the Russian Government might not be aware, be it factual or analytical, which relates to this matter. We appreciate your cooperation." End translation. BURNS