US Launches Strike on Financial Foundation of Terror NetworkU.S. President George W. Bush signed an executive order Monday immediately freezing the assets of 27 individuals and organizations in the country and prohibiting U.S. sanctions with the 27 different entities."They include terrorist organizations, individual terrorist leaders, a corporation that serves as a front for terrorism and several nonprofit organizations," Bush said at the Rose Garden of the White House. "Today we have launched a strike on the financial foundation of the global terror network," he said. "This executive order means that United States banks that have assets of these groups or individuals must freeze their accounts, and United States citizens or businesses are prohibited from doing business with them," he said. In a statement released later, Bush said that the order affects 11 terrorist groups, 12 individual terrorist leaders, a corporation that serves as a front for terrorism, and three non- profit organizations with links to terrorists. "This list is just the beginning," Bush said. "We will freeze the assets of others as we find that they aid and abet terrorist organizations around the world." Bush called on banks and financial institutions around the world to freeze or block terrorists' ability to access funds in foreign accounts. He threatened that if they fail to help the U.S. by sharing information or freezing accounts, U.S. Department of Treasury has the authority to freeze their banks' assets and transactions in the country. Bush announced that the Department of the Treasury has established a Foreign Terrorist Asset Tracking Center to identify and investigate the financial infrastructure of the international terrorist networks. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Treasury Secretary Paul O' Neill were present at the Rose Garden as Bush spoke. "We have the president's explicit directive to block the U.S. assets of any domestic or foreign financial institution that refuses to cooperate with us in blocking assets of terrorist organizations," said O'Neill. Bush's executive order marked the first public step in Bush's declared war on terrorism on the financial front following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. Over 6,500 people were presumed dead in the attacks. Meanwhile, the U.S. is deploying forces around the world in preparation for a military strike against exiled Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network. Former President Bill Clinton signed a similar order in 1998 to freeze bin Laden's holdings. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/ |