Following Bin Laden's Money Trail

W A S H I N G T O N, Sept. 20 -- The Treasury Department's Foreign Terrorist Asset Tracking Center, has begun operating nearly around the clock in a secret location, possibly near the White House.

Treasury Undersecretary Jimmy Gurule, who has a prosecutor's background as a U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles, says bluntly, the center's purpose is "to disrupt the financial operations of terrorist organizations."

Staffed with more than a dozen federal prosecutors and law enforcement officials, the center is accessing bank, credit card, and stock transactions.

This week, Treasury Department officials expect to ask Congress for legislation giving the center broader powers to request tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service and to capture and read e-mail traffic, all tied to ongoing investigations of individuals suspected of terrorist activities.

A government official said the legislation, which would include measures to facilitate intelligence gathering and use of military forces, would almost certainly include provisions to legalize special tracking measures involving the IRS and the Internet.

"Discussions are under way," said the official, who asked not to be identified, "and [while] nothing has been introduced so far today, tomorrow is not too soon" to expect the proposed legislation to reach Capitol Hill.

There are also discussions within White House circles about the possibility of issuing an executive order containing provisions for the same four areas of concern, said the official.

"I don't know if it's gone beyond the paper napkin stage," he cautioned.

While investigators and prosecutors in New York gather information and begin assembling a case, the center is checking accounts for more than 100 names of suspected accomplices and associates of Osama bin Laden's network.

Dozens of names were supplied just seven months ago in New York by a bin Laden associate on trial for the U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa. Jamal Ahmed al-Fadl sketched an insider's view of the bin Laden organization, mostly in the Sudan.