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U.N. report: Al Qaeda still active
UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Al Qaeda is still able to receive money despite global efforts to combat the financing of terrorism and its members are still able to travel widely, according to a report released Wednesday by a U.N. Security Council panel of experts. The panel was established to monitor efforts against Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, the Taliban and their associates. The report also said al Qaeda is setting up new training camps in Afghanistan. And the chairman of the monitoring group said it could find no connection between al Qaeda and Iraq. The report said recent intelligence reports show al Qaeda is "regrouping and setting up simple training facilities inside Afghanistan, close to the Pakistan border." Michael Chandler, the group's chairman, told reporters the camps are in a remote region of eastern Afghanistan and indicated the United States is aware of them. In addition, the report said the monitoring group "remains highly preoccupied by the potential" for al Qaeda to manufacture some kind of "dirty" bomb. Tanzanian police recently seized 100 kilograms of "suspected raw uranium, a highly radioactive and dangerous material," and the Tanzanian government has seized "five canisters of suspected uranium" in recent months, the report said. The United Nations is continuing to follow the matter with Tanzanian authorities and in discussions with its International Atomic Energy Agency, the report said. While "important progress" has been made in identifying and breaking up al Qaeda cells, a "large number" of al Qaeda operatives and others trained by al Qaeda "remain at large and should be designated ... as terrorists," the report said. While countries have collectively made great strides against al Qaeda, Chandler said, "there's a tremendous amount of sympathy in some countries for the movement" and a large number of new adherents continue to join its ranks. Chandler said the key to international cooperation against al Qaeda and others is the U.N.'s "consolidated list" of suspected terrorists and terror groups. One problem, Chandler said, is that the list apparently is not as definitive as it could be. The list currently has the names of 92 entities and 232 individuals associated with bin Laden, al Qaeda and the Taliban. The authors of the report attached a list of 104 more individuals and entities identified -- through media reports or public mention -- as possibly linked with al Qaeda. Chandler said his group wants nations to come forward and weigh in on those names. "We're saying, should these people appear on the list or shouldn't they?" Chandler said. Chandler said that without such broad sharing of information, investigative cooperation, and international financial controls, al Qaeda would continue to be able to resist, recruit and re-arm. "Al Qaeda is an insidious movement and no countries or group of countries can handle this problem alone," Chandler said. Among nations singled out by the report is the United States. Four of the "most wanted terrorists" -- Imad Fayez Mugniyah, Ahmad Ibrahim al-Mughassil, Ali Saed bin al-Hoorie and Ibrahim Salih Mohammad al-Yacoub -- are on the FBI's Web page but have not been included in the U.N. list, the report said. Chandler said that while the United States has been a "leading member of the international community in making sure the list is effective" and in putting names on the list, the United Nations needs to know why it has not put those names on it.
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