Posted on 07/17/2007 10:44:58 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration announced a new tool Tuesday to freeze financial assets of those who want to destabilize Iraq.
President Bush unveiled a new executive order that allows the administration to block bank accounts and any other financial assets that might be found in this country belonging to people, companies or groups that the United States deems are working to threaten stability in Iraq.
Bush cited the "unusual and extraordinary threat" to national security and foreign policy of the United States "posed by acts of violence threatening the peace and stability of Iraq and undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq and to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people."
No person, company or group was designated under the order on Tuesday.
The order seeks to fill a gap in U.S. authority to use financial sanctions to go after such offenders.
The president's new executive order comes as Republican support for the Iraq war has eroded in recent weeks. A White House interim progress report last week found that the U.S.-backed government in Baghdad has made spotty progress in meeting major targets of reform.
The 25-page administration report was issued in the fifth year of a war that has claimed the lives of more than 3,600 U.S. troops and is costing U.S. taxpayers an estimated $10 billion a month.
Against this backdrop, the State Department announced Tuesday that the United States is ready to hold new direct talks with Iran on the deteriorating security situation in Iraq.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, in consultation with with secretaries of State and Defense, is authorized to take action under the president's new executive order.
The administration already has tools to clamp down financially on people, companies and groups that seek to bankroll terrorist activities or help funds specific terror groups, such as al-Qaida and Hezbollah. The United States also has financial sanctions against countries accused of fostering terrorism, such as Iran.
Does the DNC count?
Start with the DNC, CodePink, Moveon.org, and MediaMatters.
That’ll make a huge dent in those supporting terrorism in Iraq.
dang, you beat me to it.
They can start by freezing the assets of Hillary, Pelosi, Obama, Edwards, and the Democrat Party.
Wow! And only a mere six years after 9/11. The firm resolve of our government, as demonstrated by the lightning speed of this decisive move leaves me numb with awe.
How about a crackdown on the massive amounts of overseas cash flowing into Democrat and Socialist 527’s to influence American elections?
Again??
But, Bullwinkle — that trick never works!!
That, and every major Hollywood studio.
Expect a Turbin Durbin bill backed by Wuss Feingold and Dingy Harry Reid to end this any second....
stroke of the pen, new law ..cool !
CAIR!
While this may work in the short term, much of it has already been done. What is needed is to get far more bloody minded and take out the people themselves.
Terrorist instigators, often Imams and Mullahs, who radicalize and provoke Muslims into committing acts of terror; terrorist financiers, who act from protected positions of authority and power, but who are not themselves political leaders; and terrorist infrastructure managers, such as terrorist media and communications, journalists who support, encourage and solicit terrorists; all must be exterminated.
This must be done covertly and discreetly, in many cases making it look like disease, ordinary crime, natural causes or accidents, instead of by outright killing. And by US policy, foreign political leaders will not be assassinated. But this still leaves several thousand of these individuals who should be sanctioned.
It literally is between one and perhaps five thousand of such people in the entire world who are the primary cause of most terrorism. And once they are eliminated, terrorism will cease to be an issue for at least a generation and probably longer. It cannot function internationally without such assistance.
Had a program of this nature been instituted at the start of the WoT, by now there would be little al-Qaeda left and the WoT would be winding down. But until such people are gone, the war will continue unabated.
Additionally, by using “natural” means to do this, it will neither create martyrs, nor will it place the lives of the assassins at unusually high risk. Most of these targets live normal, routine lives otherwise, and will be very easy to both target and kill with far less effort than a prepared and paranoid subject.
Long the subject of spy novels, such mass assassinations were almost never done, the most probably by resistance organizations during World War II.
But it is something that should not only be considered, but implemented as soon as possible, to make an end to this. Killing a few thousand could save millions of lives down the road.
The State of Ohio has major pension fund investments in companies that do business with Iran. Does the president’s executive order apply to government pension funds as well?
Why not right after 9/11?....We are showing up a day late and a dollar short.
Does this include new monies to the Taliban in Pakistan or the Pali’s recently announced by the WH? Why is some money good and other money bad? The source? Blackbird.
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