One of the first steps taken by the US government in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks was to freeze the financial assets of people and organizations suspected of contributing to al-Qaeda . On September 24, 2001, President George Bush ordered the assets of 27 people and organizations frozen.

While freezing assets of known of suspected terrorist and terrorist financiers was, and is, important, it was clear that more work needed to be done to combat the problem of terrorist financing. The US Treasury Department?s analysis of money laundering is a laudable step in the direction of a developing a more comprehensive plan to tackle money laundering in general and terrorist financing in particular.