NYT on USG Threats

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

   The New York Times 
   January 25, 1995, p. A9. 
 
   [Excerpts] 
 
   Clinton Orders Assets of Suspected Terrorist Groups Frozen 
 
 
   By Douglas Jehl 
 
 
   Washington, Jan. 24 -- Seeking to underscore an American 
   commitment to the fight against terrorism, President 
   Clinton today issued an executive order intended to cut off 
   the flow of funds from United States citizens to 
   organizations suspected of terrorist activities in Israel 
   and other countries. 
 
 
   Mr. Clinton's directive orders American financial 
   institutions to search for and immediately freeze any 
   accounts held in the names of Hamas, Islamic Holy War and 
   10 other organizations, and 18 of their top leaders. 
 
 
   It also forbids financial transfers from the United States 
   to those groups and individuals and will seek to prevent 
   them from gaining access to donations made to charitable 
   causes in the Middle East. 
 
 
   Administration officials said it was too soon to know 
   whether any assets would be uncovered. 
 
 
   While today's announcement at the White House emerged from 
   an Administration review concluding that the United States 
   could do more to limit terrorists' access to money, aides 
   to Mr. Clinton acknowledged that the timing had been 
   largely dictated by the quest for a tough-worded 
   centerpiece to the State of the Union address. 
 
 
   The aides said Mr. Clinton intended to use the speech in 
   part to demonstrate his commitment to preserving foreign 
   policy gains in the Middle East against those who would 
   scuttle peace efforts. 
 
 
   Even if the groups identified today do not hold accounts in 
   their names, the officials said the directive could give 
   the Government more power to block and deter transfers to 
   them -- even when those are disguised as contributions to 
   charity. 
 
 
   "It is not foolprooof," a senior Administration official 
   said at a White House briefing this afternoon. "It is 
   capable of being circumvented through a variety of 
   strategems." But another official said the measures could 
   "essentially sever the lifeline that keeps these 
   organizations going." 
 
   *** 
 
   A statement issued by three major American Islamic 
   organizations warned that the initiative could "have a 
   negative impact on legitimate political expression by 
   American Muslims and others." 
 
 
   But advocates of the plan said it represented no more than 
   a first step, even though Administration officials said 
   they would need to see further evidence that charitable 
   contributions were being used to support terrorist 
   operations before the Government would seek to block 
   operations by Muslim and Islamic groups active in raising 
   money in the United States. 
 
 
   Administration officials say that much of that money is 
   used for legitimate purposes in building mosques, providing 
   food and milk and otherwise helping Palestinian communities 
   like the ones in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. 
 
 
   But State Department officials have said that millions of 
   dollars a year from the United States ends up in the hands 
   of militants in the Hamas organizatlon, whose total 
   spending is estlmated by Israeli officlals at $30 million 
   a year and they said a test of the initiative would be 
   whether it could cut back that flow. 
 
 
   For now, the names of groups and individuals whose assets 
   are to be frozen or blocked unaer Mr. Clinton's order reads 
   like a who's who list of organzations and people identified 
   as terrorists. 
 
 
   In addition to Hamas and Islamic Holy War, they include the 
   Palestine Liberation Front and its leader, Mohammed Abul 
   Abbas -- also known as Abu Abbas --  as well as the two 
   rival factions of the Popular Front for the Liberation of 
   Palestine. 
 
 
   The list also includes two militant Jewish organizations, 
   Kach and Kahane Chai, which were spawned by Rabbi Meir 
   Kahane and were outlawed by Israel early last year. 
 
 
   The authority that Mr. Clinton invoked today in blocking 
   the assets is provided to the President under the 
   International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which was used 
   by President Carter to freeze Iranian assets when Americans 
   were being held hostage in Teheran. 
 
 
   But the White House made clear that Mr. Clinton intended to 
   ask Congress soon for even more sweeping authority to curb 
   terrorism, including wider powers to use wiretapping and 
   swift deportation procedures against suspects. 
 
 
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   End 
 
 
 
   The New York Times 
   January 25, 1995, p. B6. 
 
 
   Head of the F.B.I.In New York Resigns 
 
 
   After a year as the head of the Federal Bureau of 
   Investigation's New York office, William A. Gavin said 
   yesterday that he was leaving for an executive post with a 
   medical-care company. 
 
 
   Mr. Gavin, 53, said he would retire in March as a deputy 
   assistant F.B.I. director to join U.S. Healthcare, in Blue 
   Bell, Pa, one of the country's largest health maintenance 
   organizations. The F.B.I. has a mandatory retirement age of 
   57. 
 
 
   Last January, Louis J. Freeh, the F.B.I. director, named 
   Mr. Gavin to run the office at an annual salary of 
   $130,000. But he was not promoted to the title of assistant 
   director, the rank normally given to the agency's top 
   manager in New York, one of the agency's most prestigious 
   assignments. 
 
 
   An agent and supervisor for 27 years, Mr. Gavin was in 
   charge of the investigations that led to the convictions of 
   four men for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and 
   the indictments of 12 other men accused of plotting to blow 
   up the trade center and other New York Iandmarks. The 12 
   defendants are currently on trial in Federal District Court 
   in Manhattan. 
 
 
   Law-enforcement officials said yesterday that James 
   Kallstrom, a supervisory agent in New York, was considered 
   the most likely candidate to be chosen by Mr. Freeh to take 
   over the office. Mr. Kallstrom is now in charge of special 
   operations, the unit responsible for the surveillance and 
   the electronic monitoring of criminal suspects. 
 
 
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   End