THE US fight against terror is moving to the Pacific islands, with Washington set to launch several multi-million-dollar projects to track terrorist financing and money-laundering in the region, senior US sources have revealed. A Fiji-based "flying squad" of US financial investigators is to visit vulnerable Pacific states to track suspicious funds and compare money flows through the region, under the US State Department's Pacific strategy.
| Fiji-based, huh? Another one of those "hard-ship" posts. |
Agents from the department's "drugs 'n thugs" bureau, the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Group, had already begun training Fijian investigators in the worldwide pilot of a new State Department computer system that simulated the latest illegal money-smuggling methods, the Washington sources said. The importance of Pacific security was also underlined yesterday by US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, who arrived at the Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Samoa to deliver a stern warning to Pacific nations that they were particularly vulnerable to terrorists looking for a "soft target". Mr Kelly praised John Howard's "forthright" leadership in the region and thanked Australia for taking part in the Iraq war. "Terrorist organisations such as Jemaah Islamiah are not far in time and space from the Pacific and we must be constantly alert," Mr Kelly said at the forum. "Governments must also refrain from measures that could provide unintended support to terrorist networks." |