Bush's First Strike on Terrorists is Financial By Susan Jones CNSNews.com Morning Editor September 24, 2001

(CNSNews.com) - Terrorists are going to realize they can't face down freedom," President George W. Bush said Monday morning, as he stepped into the Rose Garden to announce his first attack in the war on terrorism.

"At 12:01 this morning, a major thrust of our war on terrorism began with a stroke of a pen," he said. "Today, we have launched a strike on the financial foundation of the global terror network."

The president signed an executive order immediately freezing the U.S. assets of, and prohibiting U.S. banking transactions with, 27 groups and individuals linked to terrorism.

The affected parties include terrorist organizations, individual leaders, a corporation that serves as a front for terrorism and several nonprofit "charitable" organizations.

Bush repeated that shutting down the financial lifeblood of terrorist groups is one of the fronts in this new type of war. "We will starve the terrorists of funding," he said, although he admitted that he does not expect many assets to be frozen in the United States. "Most of the assets will be overseas," he said.

But, the president added, the U.S. action puts pressure on the rest of the financial world: "If you do business with terrorists - if you support or sponsor them - you will not do business with the United States of America."

He said his administration developed the list of terror-sponsoring groups based on "clear evidence," much of which was classified and would not be disclosed. He said the list released Monday was just a beginning - that more names would be added in the days ahead.

"We've established a Foreign Terrorist Asset Tracking Center at the Department of the Treasury to identify and investigate the financial infrastructure of the international terrorist networks," he said.

The goal is twofold - to follow a money trail to the terrorists "so we can find out where they are," and to freeze the money that fuels their activities.

"Money is the lifeblood of terrorist operations. Today we are asking the world to stop payment," he said.

'The campaign has begun'

Appearing with President Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell made it clear that freezing the terrorists' financial assets is the first step in an unconventional war.

"The campaign has begun," he told reporters. "We're going after al Qaeda, we're going after terrorism, and this is an indication of how we're going to use all the elements of our national and international power to do it."

He said the Bush administration is very pleased with the level of cooperation it is receiving from around the world. "All civilized nations of the world understand that the civilized world has to go after terrorism."

He singled out the United Arab Emirates for breaking off diplomatic relations with Afghanistan's Taliban regime.

-- Anonymous, September 24, 2001