The risk of terror attacks is one of the key dangers the U.S. economy faces and requires vigilance against any bid to weaken measures for investigating suspicious money transactions, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said in remarks prepared for delivery Tuesday.
In the first of an expected series of efforts to win renewal of key provisions of the Patriot Act, a centerpiece of the White House's war on terror and of President Bush's election campaign, Snow said terror groups cannot survive if their cash is choked off.
"Hatred fuels the terrorist agenda, cash makes it possible," Snow said in the speech prepared for delivery after a tour of a local film-coating plant. "The work to track and shut down the financial network of terror is, therefore, one of the most critical jobs of our government today."
Voter unease about the war in Iraq, and about provisions of the Patriot Act that gave the government broad new investigative powers to try to uncover potential threats, has become an issue in campaigning for November's presidential vote.
Last week, a bid in the House to soften the Patriot Act by limiting federal monitoring of library records and bookshop orders was narrowly defeated.
The Patriot Act was approved overwhelmingly by Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States but some opponents say it gives federal agents too much power.
Declaring "there is no more serious threat to our economy than the threat of terrorist attacks on our soil," Snow highlighted the Treasury Department's role in tracking terror finances and said the Patriot Act had helped law enforcement officials and financial services providers share information. He said financial institutions now are registered with the U.S. Treasury and more data can be collected.
"These changes have enabled the government, in partnership with the financial community, to tighten the tourniquet that cuts off terrorist blood money," Snow said. He added that some $141 million of suspicious money has been frozen since 2001 in the United States and among overseas allies, thus keeping it out of the hands of potential terror groups.
Some provisions of the Patriot Act are set to expire at the end of next year, including ones allowing intelligence agents and law enforcement authorities to share information about suspected terrorists, and expanded use of wiretaps and search warrants.
"Reauthorization of the act is one of the most important steps we can take to defeat the killers, to force them back into their tunnels and holes, starved of the resources it would take to build a bomb, pilot a plane or harness a virus," Snow said.
Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge warned terrorists might launch an attack to disrupt upcoming November elections but said there were no plans to raise the terror threat level.
