Posted on 11/04/2001 5:37:08 AM PST by NixNatAVanG InDaBurgh
US freezes Arab terror groups' bank accounts
By Janine Zacharia
WASHINGTON (November 4) - In a move applauded by pro-Israel advocates, the US has added anti-Israeli terrorist groups Hamas, Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to a presidential executive order that instructs foreign banks and financial institutions to freeze terrorists' accounts or face American sanctions.
The decision came as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs David Satterfield said on Friday that the Palestinian intifada had "become an ongoing process of calculated terror and escalation," and blasted the Palestinian leadership for failing to act against terrorists as promised.
Speaking before a pro-Palestinian audience, Satterfield argued that, while Israel needs to realize that a political settlement is the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Palestinian violence only hurts the Palestinian people's aspirations.
"Use of violence is not a tool which can in any fashion whatsoever advance the issues or interests of either side," he said. "The intifada, whatever its origin, has become an ongoing process of calculated terror and escalation, reciprocated by actions which all too often - by Israel - have proved inflammatory and provocative. Steps must be taken to bring this to a halt," he told a conference held by the Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine.
He said the Palestinians had delivered "good words, excellent rhetoric" regarding promises to stop violence.
"Nice instructions sent, but very little in terms of the substance of confronting those elements whose interests are not in advancing the cause of the Palestinian people," he said, adding that it is in Arafat's interest to act against organizations that are opposed to a negotiated settlement with Israel," he said.
Israel and its allies on Capitol Hill and elsewhere had been pushing since President George W. Bush signed the original September 24 order - which exclusively targeted al-Qaida - to expand its scope and include organizations that conduct terrorism against Israel.
Administration officials have argued in recent weeks that groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad already face stringent financial constraints. However, those constraints were only domestic, and previous orders did not have the scope of the new one.
They also argued that the war on terrorism would have two phases, and that after phase one, in which the US is targeting al-Qaida and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, they would get to other terrorist organizations.
The root of the argument was that officials feared that including Palestinian groups or organizations like Hizbullah, widely perceived as resistance groups across the Arab world, would cause fissures in the US-led coalition against Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.
Asked why a decision was taken now to add the groups, a senior administration official said yesterday: "We think this is a good test for some of the states which say they want to be part of the coalition. As we've said before, you can't chose good terrorists and bad terrorists. This will be a signal to those who think Hizbullah can be treated solely as a 'resistance' group. They have to be regarded as a terrorist group."
The senior official acknowledged that the move was largely a gesture to Israel, which in recent weeks has felt slighted by moves by the administration to court Arab coalition members. The move went further, though, adding to the order 22 groups listed as Foreign Terrorist Organizations by the State Department.
The move resulted, too, from the realization that many of the terrorist organizations interact financially, and the desire to unite all terrorist groups under one set of uniform financial constraints.
"Rather than signal out just the ones Israel wanted, it does it across the board so everybody - including Kach and Kahane Chai, and groups like the Tamil Tigers - are all on the list now."
Asked if the US would seriously pursue financial institutions abroad that do not comply with the executive order, the official said: "I think we're going to go after them as effectively as we can."
The September 24 executive order greatly expanded the Treasury Department's ability to target and block money associated with terrorists. It immediately freezes US financial assets of and prohibits US transactions with organizations, individuals, corporations, and non-profit organizations believed to be associated with listed terrorist groups.
Foreign banks and financial institutions are asked to freeze or block terrorists' ability to access funds in their accounts, and are asked to share information with the US about the accounts of specified individuals and organizations. If foreign financial institutions do not comply, the US can penalize them by freezing their assets and transactions in the US.
According to Undersecretary of Treasury for Enforcement Jimmy Gurule, $24 million in funds have been blocked since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the US.
The move to expand the financial war came on the heels of an appeal by Attorney General John Ashcroft to Secretary of State Colin Powell to designate more than 40 additional groups officially as terrorist organizations so they could be more effectively targeted in the war on terrorism.
Those groups included Hizbullah and three organizations affiliated with Fatah, Tanzim, or the PLO that have been active in the intifada: Martyrs of al-Aqsa, Umar al-Mukhtar Forces, and the Salah al-din Battalions.
"It's a step in the right direction that they are characterizing these Fatah constituent groups as terrorists," said David Schenker, a terrorism analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "But the larger question is what are they going to do with Fatah itself."
The pro-Israel lobby American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) welcomed both the widening of the financial war and the new designations of terrorist organizations.
"AIPAC applauds the significant steps the Bush administration has takenÉ to widen the scope of its ongoing war on terrorism," AIPAC said in a statement released Friday. "These measures clearly demonstrate the administration's strong commitment to waging a comprehensive war against terrorism."
The administration, particularly the State Department, in recent weeks has sparred with Israel over what Sharon and his government have perceived as overly pro-Arab policies. The moves seemed at least in part designed to allay those fears.
Satterfield on Friday seemed to go even further by criticizing the intifada and Arafat, and his remarks were met with mocking jeers.
"Israelis, because of Arafat's failure to act against such organizations, no longer perceive Arafat as a peace partner, but as a terrorist," he said
"The image of Yasser Arafat in 1993, in the eyes of the Israeli public and then-leadership, transformed itself from that of a terrorist, a rogue, an enemy, to one of a partner - a difficult partner, a painful partner, but a partner. The intifada has transformed that back to the negative image," Satterfield said.
Satterfield was pressed on Israel's use of American weaponry in the killings of Palestinians, and participants questioned why US policy was not tougher against Israel, when it is destroying Palestinians' homes and attacking civilians with American arms.
"We look at that. We also look at the bodies lying on the street as a result of Hamas, PFLP, and Jihad terror," he said.
By freezing, all we do is deny them access and any interest that occurs and while this war is going on. Later, they will probably get them back. (Remember Iran and Iraq?)
Seizing would help pay for a small part of the WOT.
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