US vows terror fight across Americas
by Alexandra Olson

The Associated Press    Translate This Article
18 February 2005

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad - The United States increased its funding to fight terrorism in the Americas Thursday as regional security chiefs called for improved intelligence sharing and tougher laws against terror financing.

U.S. Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson urged countries to increase their financial contributions to the Inter-American Committee against Terrorism, an arm of the 34-member Organization of American States that was holding its fifth annual conference in Trinidad's capital of Port-of Spain.

``We know that terrorists in our hemisphere are increasingly engaged in narcotics and weapons smuggling, and money laundering, as a means to fund their criminal and often very violent agendas,'' Hutchinson told delegates.

Security chiefs and Cabinet ministers adopted a resolution Thursday calling for increased intelligence sharing. The document also urged member states to update anti-money laundering legislation, broadening the definition to include terrorist financing. It also emphasized the need to bolster document security, including issuing digital passports that are harder to falsify and make it easier to identify suspicious travelers.

Hutchinson, who has resigned from his post effective March 1, said with its latest pledge of $1.6 million, the United States has contributed $5 million to the OAS agency since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Some of the money will also go toward assessing border and document controls in the Caribbean, a key transit route for South American cocaine and heroin headed to North America and Europe. With thousands of migrants in rickety boats also crossing hard-to-patrol Caribbean borders each year, officials fear there's nothing to stop terrorists from exploiting the same routes.

Another vulnerability is the poorly patrolled border area linking Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, where U.S. officials say money from weapons smuggling and drug trafficking is being diverted to Islamic militant groups.

``I would not go so far as to say there are operational cells in that area,'' Hutchinson said in an interview after his speech. ``But it is of great concern any time you have a region that does support terrorist organizations financially.''





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