Clinton freezes U.S. assets of Mideast groups

[joshua geller <joshua@dee.retix.com>]

here's something I found in my mailbox:

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	 WASHINGTON (Reuter) - President Clinton has ordered a freeze
on the U.S. assets of 12 Middle East ``terrorist'' groups, the
White House said Tuesday.
    White House spokesman Mike McCurry said Clinton had signed
an executive order ``to block the assets in the United States of
certain terrorist organizations that threaten to disrupt the
peace process'' in the Middle East.
	 ``The action will specifically prohibit certain kinds of
financial transactions with these groups,'' McCurry said.
	 The groups include Hamas, Hizbollah, Islamic Jihad, Abu
Nidal, Black September, the Fatah Revolutionary Council, Kach,
the Palestine Liberation Front, and the Islamic Group, McCurry
said.
	 He did not name the others, but said there would be more
information released at a 2 p.m. EST White House briefing with
officials from the Treasury, State and Justice departments and
the National Security Council.
	 Under the order, charitable contributions to these groups in
the United States will also be blocked, McCurry said. He said
Clinton had also frozen the U.S. assets of 18 individuals
suspected of involvement in Middle East terrorism, but McCurry
did not name them.
	 Clinton signed the order Monday night and it took effect at
midnight EST the same day, McCurry said. He said the president
acted under the authority of the International Emergency
Economic Powers Act.
	 Clinton plans to discuss the matter in his State of the
Union address to Congress Tuesday night, McCurry said.
	 ``One of the things the president will address in the State
of the Union tonight is the  new world in which we live, in
which there are new types of threats to our security and to
global security,'' he told reporters in his office.
	 ``We just had a very painful and tragic reminder of that in
Israel in recent days, and that's the impact of terrorism,''
McCurry said, referring to a weekend terrorist bombing that
killed 18 Israeli soldiers and a civilian. Islamic Jihad claimed
responsibility for the bombing.
    McCurry said the decision was the result of a detailed and
lengthy review within the U.S. government of how to combat
terrorism. The goal was to make it harder for these groups to
finance their activities by cutting off their  U.S. sources of
support and blocking their access to the U.S. financial system,
he said.
	  Clinton is also preparing anti-terrorist legislation,
McCurry said.
	 ``We do need additional legislation that would further
assist the efforts to combat terrorism, and the president will
soon send the Congress a comprehensive anti-terrorism package
that would stregnthen our ability to prevent terrorist acts, to
identify those who perpetrate violent acts and bring them to
justice,'' McCurry said.