U.S. treasury puts Dhari on terror list

NINEWA /Iraqi News The U.S. Department of the Treasury said on Friday that it targeted the support network of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) by designating Muthanna Harith al-Dhari for providing financial, material, or technological support and financial or other services to or in support of AQI under Executive Order 13224. Executive Order 13224 freezes any assets the designated individuals have under U.S. jurisdiction, and U.S. persons are prohibited from engaging in any transactions with those individuals. The department also said the UN 1267 Committee, which targets al-Qaeda and the Taliban, is adding al-Dhari to the Consolidated List of individuals and entities associated with Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda and the Taliban at the request of the Governments of Iraq and the United States. “In addition to our designation, Treasury is pleased to have partnered with the Government of Iraq to list al-Dhari at the UN’s 1267 Committee today, and we will continue our aggressive efforts to isolate those terrorist actors and networks that seek to threaten the stability of Iraq,” said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey. Based in Jordan and Iraq, the department said, Muthanna Harith al-Dhari provides financial, material, or technological support and financial or other services to or in support of AQI including operational guidance for attacks against Iraqi Forces and Coalition Forces in Iraq. As of August 2008, al-Dhari intended to reinvigorate the insurgency in Iraq by providing training to any insurgent organization fighting Coalition Forces. In one instance, al-Dhari attended training meetings conducted by AQI in Syria in mid-August 2008, during which he explained AQI‘s future intentions to the trainees and stated that all available support from AQI would be offered across Iraq for operations against Coalition Forces. Al-Dhari also advised the trainees that he and two other individuals would soon be traveling to Baghdad to begin re-supplying insurgent leaders with equipment. The department explained that as of October 2008, al-Dhari provided $1 million to an AQI member who actively recruits Iraqis in Syria and al-Anbar province to support AQI, instructing the recruiter to tell new AQI recruits that they would be paid up to $10,000 upon completion of their training in Syria. Additionally, as of 2008, al-Dhari financed an AQI cell that called for fighting against the Iraqi Army and Multinational Forces – Iraq. The Treasury Department said that in addition to the reasons for which he is being designated today, al-Dhari provides money to his own Sunni insurgent group, the 1920s Revolutionary Brigade, and other insurgent cells. As of early July 2008, al-Dhari provided money to a 1920s Revolutionary Brigade faction leader to fund the faction’s operations, to include targeting Coalition Forces, the Iraqi Army and Police, and Government of Iraq officials. Moreover, Dhari provided funding to an improvised explosive device (IED) cell leader in order to conduct IED operations targeting Coalition Forces along a highway between Zaidan and Nassir Wa Salaam, Iraq. MH (R)/AmR 1