US embassy cable - 04MADRID4415

C O N F I D E N T I A L MADRID 004415 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS EB/ESC/TFS (BSTEPHENSON), S/CT (TKUSHNER), 
NEA/ARP (TWILLIAMS), NEA/ELA (DBARON), IO/PHO (APEREZ), NSC 
(MRUPPERT), TREASURY (JZARATE; DGLAZER, TPHILLIPS), OFAC 
(RNEWCOMB) 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/18/2014 
TAGS: KTFN, EFIN, PREL, PTER, SP, Counterterrorism 
SUBJECT: TERRORISM FINANCE DISCUSSIONS WITH GOS TREASURY 
OFFICIALS 
 
REF: (A) STATE 244943 (B) STATE 242611 
 
1.(C) Summary: GOS Treasury officials lauded cooperation with 
the U.S. on terrorism finance issues.  Within the Financial 
Action Task Force (FATF) context (see refs A and B), they 
wanted more background information on why the U.S. did not 
want to establish monitoring mechanisms to track financial 
flows of less than $3,000.  Information from Treasury on this 
would be useful in our discussions with GOS officials - 
please e-mail Carl Schonander at Schonanderce@state.gov with 
such information if it is available. End Summary 
 
2. (U) EconCouns and EconOffs met with Treasury and Financial 
Policy Director General Belen Romana Garcia and other 
Treasury officials on 11/17/04 to discuss terrorism finance 
issues.  These officials, in addition to their primary remit 
to combat money laundering, are responsible for implementing 
terrorism finance designation decisions and for developing 
policies on monitoring terrorism financial flows.  They 
reported that they had good cooperation with the U.S. within 
the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which Spain co-chairs 
with the U.S. Treasury Department's Daniel Glazer.  However, 
there was one area of disagreement.  The EU apparently 
believes financial flows of less than $3,000 should be 
tracked, whereas the U.S. does not because according to the 
Spaniards we do not want to impede worker remittances.  The 
GOS officials said though that they thought this issue could 
be worked out within the FATF. 
 
3. (C) EconOff briefed Belen Romana and her staff on the 
substance of the meeting between Assistant Secretary Wayne 
and Dutch Foreign Ministry Advisor Wouter Jurgens (ref A). 
They were unaware of the upcoming November 29-30 case-based 
terrorism finance workshop.  They were interested in the EU's 
intention to work especially with Maghreb countries and 
Indonesia to implement the FATF Special Recommendation IX on 
cash couriers.  Belen Romana said that the recommendation was 
not technically difficult to implement but would require 
political will to implement in many nations. 
 
4. (U) The GOS officials said that the implementing 
regulations for Spain's new terrorism finance law were still 
being drafted.  The law allows the GOS to block assets 
without UN or EU authorization.  However, fearing adverse 
litigation, the GOS has not yet used this new authority. 
Belen Romana said that when the GOS is pre-notified, her 
office takes about a week to find out what assets are being 
held by the designee(s).  She said she hoped to be able to 
obtain this information in a few days but added that, of 
course, the GOS could not actually block assets in the 
absence of a legally valid designation. 
 
5. (U) Comment: We sensed real commitment on the part of 
these highly qualified civil servants to combat terrorist 
financing.  We would certainly recommend their participation 
in appropriate terrorist financing workshops and other 
events. 
ARGYROS