Bush Freezes Suspected Terror Assets

President Bush, expanding his war on terrorism into the cauldron of the Middle East, today announced the seizure of assets and records of a group accused of supporting Hamas, which claimed responsibility for the weekend's suicide bombings in Israel.

Bush said the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development of Richardson, Tex., raised $13 million from U.S. residents last year and then used the money to fund Hamas efforts to "indoctrinate children to grow up into suicide bombers" and "recruit suicide bombers and to support their families."

The president said the government also has blocked the accounts of an Hamas-linked bank as well as a Hamas-linked holding company based in the West Bank.

"Our action today is another step in the war on terrorism," Bush said during a Rose Garden ceremony. "It's not the final step. There are more terrorist networks of global reach and more front groups who use deceit to support them. The net is closing. Today it just got tighter."

Bush said that assets and accounts of the Holy Land foundation were frozen at midnight, and that federal agents then "secured the offices and records" of the group. He said foundation offices California, New Jersey and Illinois also are being investigated.

"The message is this: Those who do business with terror will do no business with the United States – or anywhere else the United States can reach," Bush said.

Holy Land, which describes itself as a tax-exempt charity founded in 1989, says its focus is helping Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine. "Our mission is to find and implement practical solutions for human suffering through humanitarian programs that impact the lives of the disadvantaged, disinherited, and displaced peoples suffering from man-made and natural disasters," the group said on its Web site (www.hlf.org.).

Neither of the phone numbers listed on the Web site was working this morning.

Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill and Attorney General John D. Ashcroft appeared with Bush, who flew to Florida afterward for an afternoon devoted to the economy, touring a job center and then holding a town hall meeting focusing on the plight of the unemployed.

This afternoon, Bush expressed his sympathy to those who have lost jobs as a result of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings over Washington, New York and Pennsylvania. "There's nothing that hurts me more than to know, as we head for the holiday season, that some of our citizens and some of their families hurt because they've been laid off as a result of" the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings over Washington, New York and Pennsylvania. He also used the forum in Orlando to urge congressional action.

"I urge the United States Congress to stop talking and to get an economic stimulus bill to my desk," he said.

Speaking in the Rose Garden this morning, O'Neill said the al Aqsa Bank and the Beit El-Mal Bank "aren't just banks that unknowingly administer accounts for terrorists – they are direct arms of Hamas established and used to do Hamas business."

"The Holy Land Foundation masquerades as a charity, while its primary purpose is to fund Hamas," O'Neill said. "This is not a case of one bad actor stealing from the petty-cash drawer and giving the stolen money to terrorists. This organization exists to raise money in the United States to promote terror."

Ashcroft said: "By freezing the financial apparatus of Hamas, we signal that the United States of America will not be used as a staging ground for the financing of those groups that violently oppose peace as a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We won't tolerate it any more than we will tolerate the financing of groups that on September 11th attacked our homeland."