Meeting at INTERPOL Headquarters in Lyon, France, on the three month anniversary of the September 11th attacks, Treasury Under Secretary for Enforcement Jimmy Gurulé and INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble announced a new joint Treasury -INTERPOL partnership to crack down on terrorist financing.

The two law enforcement officials announced their intention to establish an international terrorist financing data base and Secretary General Noble publicly called on each of INTERPOL's 179 member countries to identify important information regarding the financial support of terrorism that would also be incorporated into the database. The INTERPOL database would consolidate international and national lists of terrorist financiers and make it available to police around the world to prevent the flow of funds to terrorist groups and to assist in criminal investigations.

The Treasury Department will work closely with INTERPOL to develop the foundations for this new tool to fight terrorism. 'The fight against terrorist financing can only be successful by pooling together all available resources to crack down on those choosing to fund acts of terror against innocent people,' said Treasury Under Secretary Gurulé. 'Today INTERPOL joined us in strengthening that effort by bringing their law enforcement expertise and global infrastructure to the war on terrorist financing.'

In addition, Secretary General Noble also extended INTERPOL's full support to the Treasury Department's operational task force Green Quest's assignment of a permanent U.S. INTERPOL agent to the task force. 'INTERPOL is committed to both the fight against terrorism and the funds that make such heinous acts possible' said Secretary General Noble. 'We are dedicated to the task of shutting down funds earmarked for terror. The international law enforcement community looks forward to partnering with the Treasury Department to develop future tools to crack down on funds destined for acts of terror and other illegal purposes.' Both officials were optimistic that the terrorist financing data base could be operational within sixty days.