Cablegate: Ambassador's Meeting with Finance Minister:

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS ANKARA 001510

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

STATE FOR E, EB/IFD, EB/CBA, INL/C/CP, EB/ESC/TFS, S/CT,AND
EUR/SE
TREASURY FOR OASIA - JLEICHTER AND MMILLS, AND OFAC DIRECTOR
NSC FOR GPETERS, MBRYZA AND TMCKIBBEN

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EFIN ECON PREL PGOV PTER TU
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR'S MEETING WITH FINANCE MINISTER:
TERRORISM FINANCE

1. (Sbu) At a meeting March 9 with Finance Minister Kemal
Unakitan, the Ambassador stressed the importance of
strengthening Turkey's regime for combatting the financing of
terrorism. In this context, the Ambassador raised the Global
Relief Foundation/Marwan Haddad case, about which the
Department of Justice had made a formal request under the
Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT). The Ambassador passed
a copy of the MLAT request to Minister Unakitan, in which the
U.S. requests information on accounts in Turkey into which
the Global Relief Foundation--an entity with ties to
Al-Qaeda--transferred funds. The Ambassador pointed out that
the U.S. was only interested in tracking the links to these
accounts, and was not interested in the other issues relating
to the Turkish bank in question, Al-Baraka Turk. Note: As a
former board member of Al-Baraka, some post contacts alleged
Unakitan was blocking cooperation with the U.S on this case.
End Note. The Ambassador also mentioned that the team of U.S.
experts who had visited Turkey in November was working on a
draft report on Turkey's anti-terrorist financing regime.

2. (Sbu) Unakitan replied that the GOT attached great
importance to cooperation in counter- terrorism including
combatting terrorist financing. Though the Ambassador had
raised a number of other topics (reported septel), at the end
of the meeting Unakitan said he was most interested in the
terrorism finance issue. He recommended the Embassy keep
close contacts with the Turkish anti-money laundering agency,
MASAK, and praised MASAK's Acting Director. Referring to the
proposed legislation regarding MASAK, the Minister said that
the law would strengthen MASAK's ability to fight terrorism
financing.

EDELMAN

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