Switzerland blocks 24 accounts suspected of terrorism links

AFX News ^ | Wednesday, October 31, 2001

[Dog Gone]

ZURICH, Oct 31, 2001 (AFX-UK via COMTEX) -- Switzerland has blocked 24 banking accounts suspected of funding terrorist network, said the Swiss federal prosecutor's office.

The amounts found on the accounts and the names of the accounts holders were not disclosed.

The account holders are part of the second list of names published by the US authorities on Oct 11 suspected of having links with the Sept 11 attacks.

A presumed 29-year old islamist activist of Tunisian or Algerian origine was also extradited to Italy on Monday, after having been arrested in Zurich on September 24, said the Swiss ministry of justice.

[Dog Gone]

We were told that the war will take place on many fronts.

This morning, it was Zurich.

[EggsAckley]

Thanks for posting some GOOD news. We're getting way too much bad news these days.

[12B]

Now that is news. Hope it just wasn't a dog and pony show for us. I'd feel a lot better if they said there was significant cash found.

[eureka!]

Yes. Good on Zurich. Though we won't know it, I do hope the rules of engagement include wet work too with no legitimate target untouched--lawyers, bankers, financiers, arms traffickers etc. This is a new kind of war...

[Dog Gone]

Good news is harder to come by, because it isn't going to be announced in many cases.

Would we announce a CIA hit on some terrorists in an apartment in Cairo? Not a chance.

Is it happening? I have no doubt.

[Milosevic2]

This is propaganda to calm down the sheeple.
Just think about this : the swiss government, just like the rest of the european governments, is censoring the fact that the responsible for the "accident" that caused the Gotthard Tunnel to close for the first time ("at least six monts") was a Turkish illegal immigrant in Belgium, that was working for a ghost company that had no license for transportation.
Keep in mind that the Gotthard is the most important strategic point in the European transport system. This happens just before the snow will close the alternate route.

[Dog Gone]

Good grief. Sometimes sh%t happens.

Don't try to make everything fit into a grand conspiracy.

[Cicero]

It's hard to tell. Did they block it when the new accounts were first listed, or did they wait until now?

No doubt some countries are acting swiftly, while others are letting the terrorists draw out their money before they "block" them. With Switzerland, it could have gone either way, because I'm sure they are with us on the terrorism issue, but they also rely on banking privacy for their economic lifeblood.

[HEFFERNAN2]

Well I feel better already...and how much was in the accounts after the Swiss called their customers...zip, zero, the big goose egg. The Swiss waited fifty count 'em fifty years after WWII to reveal that the Nazis had money in their accounts and that the Jews had money coming to them so let's not get all ecstatic about the Swissies "blocking" 24 accounts...probably belonged to Hitler and they had zero funds in them. Semper Fi, Mike

[Azzurri]

Switzerland has blocked 24 banking accounts suspected of funding terrorist network, said the Swiss federal prosecutor's office.

Maybe, finally, X42's assets have been frozen.

[Dog Gone]

Most of the industrialized nations couldn't freeze the accounts simply because we asked them to. Even we had to go through legal channels authorizing the action.

There was an article I saw yesterday, but did not post, about Italy approving legislation to begin seizing accounts.

These things take time, unfortunately, but we are slowly squeezing off the financial lifeblood of the terrorists.

Eventually, all the banks will comply because we will cut them off from the US banking system if they don't. None can survive that for an extended period.

[a history buff]

The Swiss press did report what you say. No censoring there.

The Gotthard was an accident waiting to happen. The timing is suspicious, but, there's a lot that makes me doubt that this was on purpose. Simply put, people with family in Turkey are very well advised to behave themselves, and not cause trouble for the Turkish gov't or the Turkish diaspora. That simple.

[a history buff]

Of course banks doing business in the state of New York simply closed all dormant accounts held by those who perished in the Holocaust after 7 years that is in 1952, and destroyed the paper work. The Swiss banks, on the other hand, perhaps wrongly, and guided by greed, required people to prove that the money entrusted to them was rightfully theirs, sometimes not trying to accomodate survivors. But the panel selected to investigate the whole affair was stunned by how little money had been dormant. But D'Amato would never have campaigned against BoA, Citi et al.

[HEFFERNAN2]

point made and taken...big difference was that Americans in general and NY'ers specifically fought and died fighting in WWI & WWII while the Swiss hid under their desks. :-)