ARAB-US RELATIONS - Jan. 9 - US Extends Crackdown On Terror Funding.

The US Treasury Department orders a freeze on accounts belonging to the Pakistan and Afghanistan-based offices of the Revival of Islamic Heritage Society, a Kuwaiti-based charitable group connected to the Salafi, an Islamist movement with close ties to Saudi Arabia. The US also orders a freeze on the assets of a group called the Afghan Support Committee, based in Peshawar, Pakistan and in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Two individuals - Abu Bakr Al Jaziri and Abd Al Mushin Al Libi - are also added to the list of targeted entities. (The US move is the first time that Washington efforts to crack down on terrorist financing have reached Kuwait, its closest ally in the Arab world. The US actions bring to 168 the number of groups and individuals that have been targeted since the Sept. 11 attacks, leading to the freezing worldwide of accounts worth about $68m. Kuwait has tried since the Sept. 11 attacks to rein in Islamist charities that might be funnelling money to Al Qaida or other terrorist groups by bringing charities under much closer government regulatory control. The country was embarrassed last year when one of its citizens, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, appeared in videos as a spokesman for Osama Bin Laden).

The Kuwaiti government said on Jan. 10 it had moved on Jan. 2 to freeze accounts of the Afghan Support Committee and the Pakistan and Afghanistan accounts of the Revival of Islamic Heritage Society following a request from the US government. The US order excludes the Kuwait headquarters of the group, though there appear to be close ties between the headquarters and the regional offices. The director of the Kuwait government's information office in Washington Shafeeq Ghabra said: "The government of Kuwait has not so far found anything suspicious regarding this group". The US plans to send a delegation of Treasury and Justice Department officials to Kuwait next week to co-ordinate efforts to crack down on financing of terrorist groups.