Statement on Financial Fight Against Terror
(December 4, 2001)
The President. Good morning. Today we take another
important step in the financial fight against terror. From the beginning
of this fight I have said our enemies are terrorist networks of global
reach, and all who harbor them and support them are our enemies, as
well. We began with Al Qaida and the Taliban. We identified some of
Al Qaida's financial backers and we moved against their accounts.
In November we advanced further and identified 22 more
global terrorist organizations. And now we are moving against their
financing, as well. At midnight yesterday the Treasury Department froze
the assets and accounts of the Holy Land Foundation in Richardson, Texas,
whose money is used to support the Hamas terror organization. Earlier
today Federal agents secured the offices and records of the Holy Land
Foundation in Texas, California, New Jersey, and Illinois as a part
of an ongoing investigation. At the same time, we have blocked the accounts
of an Hamas-linked bank, an Hamas-linked holding company based in the
West Bank.
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.
Hamas is an extremist group that calls for the total
destruction of the State of Israel. It is one of the deadliest terrorist
organizations in the world today.
Hamas openly claimed responsibility for this past weekend's
suicide attacks in Israel that killed 25 innocent people, many of them
teenagers, and wounded almost 200 other people. Hamas is guilty of hundreds
of other deaths over the years and just in the past 12 months have killed
two Americans. And today we act.
Hamas has obtained much of the money that it pays for
murder abroad right here in the United States, money originally raised
by the Holy Land Foundation. The Holy Land Foundation is registered
with the IRS as a tax-exempt charity based in Richardson. It raised
$13 million from people in America last year. The Holy Land Foundation
claims that the money it solicits go to care for needy Palestinians
in the West Bank and Gaza. Money raised by the Holy Land Foundation
is used by Hamas to support schools and indoctrinate children to grow
up into suicide bombers. Money raised by the Holy Land Foundation is
also used by Hamas to recruit suicide bombers and to support their families.
America has called on other nations to suppress the
financing of terror. Today we take further steps to suppress it inside
our borders. I am confident that most of the donors to the Holy Land
Foundation, and perhaps even some of the individuals who are associated
with the Foundation, had no idea how its money was being used. They
wanted to relieve suffering in the region of the world that has suffered
too much. But the facts are clear, the terrorists benefit from the Holy
Land Foundation. And we're not going to allow it. Our action today is
another step in the war on terrorism. 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.
And now it's my honor to welcome to the podium the Secretary of the
Treasury, Paul O'Neill.
Sources: Public Papers of the President |