COMPLETE COVERAGE | FRONT LINES | AMERICA AT HOME | INTERACTIVES »

Feds to expand freeze on alleged terrorist funds

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Treasury Department will soon add numerous bank accounts to its list of assets it will seek to freeze and close as part of a global effort to choke off funds to the al Qaeda terrorist organization, a senior Treasury Department official told CNN.

Michelle Davis, chief spokeswoman for the Treasury Department, would not confirm the number of accounts to be added to Treasury's global freeze list but confirmed several had been turned over to the National Security Council for final scrutiny before being placed on the official government list.

CNN.COM SPECIAL REPORT  CNN NewsPass Video  Agencies reportedly got hijack tips in 1998  MORE STORIES Intelligence intercept led to Buffalo suspects Report cites warnings before 9/11  EXTRA INFORMATION Timeline: Who Knew What and When? Interactive: Terror Investigation Terror Warnings System Most wanted terrorists What looks suspicious? In-Depth: America Remembers In-Depth: Terror on Tape In-Depth: How prepared is your city?  RESOURCES On the Scene: Barbara Starr: Al Qaeda hunt expands? On the Scene: Peter Bergen: Getting al Qaeda to talk

Davis said the CIA, FBI and Defense Intelligence Agency have been sending names of suspect groups and individuals to the Treasury Department, which then submits the names to a vast database of questionable financial transactions looking for matches.

The department's database contains some 14 million entries yearly. Twelve million are known as Cash Transaction Reports, a notification Treasury receives every time a $10,000 cash transaction occurs. The other two million are known as Suspicious Activity Reports and cover large non-cash money movements via money orders or wire transfers.

Davis also said some accounts will never appear on the freeze list, largely because Treasury, the FBI, CIA and DIA want to monitor the movement of cash through the accounts to develop other leads on al Qaeda fund-raising. She said solid leads have been developed from the original list of 27 accounts and those soon-to-be-named as well as account that are now being permanently watched.

The world's leading industrialized democracies pledged this weekend to carry out a global campaign to find, freeze and eventually close accounts that funnel monies to al Qaeda.

Davis also said other nations, particularly in the Gulf region, are cooperating in tracing and shutting down accounts but are doing so privately.

-- From CNN White House Correspondent Major Garrett.