US embassy cable - 03KUWAIT921

UNCLAS KUWAIT 000921 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EB/ESC/ESP (GLASS) 
STATE FOR S/CT 
STATE FOR NEA/ARP AND NEA/RA 
STATE FOR IO/PHO (PEREZ) 
STATE FOR EUR/PGI (COOK/REASOR) 
STATE FOR EUR/RUS (MORROW/BOSSHART) 
NSC FOR PETERS 
TREASURY FOR GENERAL COUNSEL AUFHAUSER 
TREASURY FOR OFAC DIRECTOR NEWCOMB 
TREASURY FOR TASK FORCE ON TERRORIST FINANCING 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETTC, EFIN, PTER, PREL, KU 
SUBJECT: TERRORIST FINANCE -- KUWAIT: FREEZE ACTIONS ON 
LAJNAT AL-DAAWA AL-ISLAMIYYA ACCOUNTS? 
 
REF: KUWAIT 721 AND PREVIOUS (NOTAL) 
 
1. One local Arabic-language daily newspaper front-paged a 
short piece on March 15 suggesting that Kuwait's Central Bank 
had taken action to freeze accounts of the Lajnat Al-Daawa 
Al-Islamiyya.  Embassy informal translation of the piece 
follows: 
 
"Government source: Al-Daawa Reponse to Accusations Not 
Convincing" 
 
The issue of the freezing of the Islamic Daawa Committee's 
assets funds by the Central Bank for suspicion of its 
involvement in financing terrorism came to the fore 
yesterday,  High ranking government sources said that the 
Committee's response to the list of 11 French accusations was 
not convincing, while at the same time taking into account 
that Paris has no conclusive evidence of (the Committee's) 
involvement in financing terrorism. 
 
2. Post will follow up with Central Bank and MFA officials to 
discover what, if any, funds were actually frozen. 
JONES