US embassy cable - 02KUWAIT5172

C O N F I D E N T I A L KUWAIT 005172 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARP AND EB/ESC 
 
TREASURY FOR OGC - AUFHAUSER AND OFAC - NEWCOMB 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: (27 NOVEMBER 2012) 
TAGS: ETTC, EFIN, PTER, PREL, KU 
SUBJECT: TERRORIST FINANCE - KUWAIT: STATUS OF GRF 
FREEZE REQUEST 
 
REF: STATE 216024 AND PREVIOUS 
 
1.(U) Classified by Deputy Chief of Mission Frank C. 
Urbancic for reasons 1.5 (B) and (D). 
 
2. (U) This is an interim response to reftel. 
 
3.(C) Embassy had alerted the GOK to the GRF asset 
freeze on October 20, but despite repeated attempts, 
Embassy was only recently able to get the Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs to confirm that it had forwarded the 
request for a freeze to the Central Bank of Kuwait 
(CBK).  Embassy reminded the MFA that the request for 
the freeze action was accompanied by a request for 
information on any assets found and/or frozen; the MFA 
said it would follow up again with the CBK.  Post has 
not yet been able to confirm that the CBK has received 
the order, nor whether the CBK has issued a circular to 
banks and financial institutions to serach for and 
freeze any GRF accounts. 
 
4.(C) Ambassador raised this issue in a November 19 
meeting with Minister of State for Foreign Affairs 
Sheikh Dr. Mohammed Al-Sabah, pointing out that such 
delays defeated the purpose of such freeze actions. 
Attributing the delay to bureaucratic error, Dr. 
Mohammed agreed that in a world where money can be moved 
in an instant, swift action was required.  He indicated 
he would follow up to ensure that future requests were 
acted upon in a more timely manner. 
 
5.(C) Embassy will continue to follow up with the CBK 
and MFA to determine the existence and status of any GRF 
accounts in Kuwait. 
 
JONES