Updated at 8:45 a.m., Monday, September 24, 2001

The September 11 attack
Bush signs order freezing assets of terrorists

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Bush, calling for a "strike on the financial foundation" of terrorists, demanded today that foreign banks follow America's lead and freeze the assets of 27 individuals and organizations.

Bush, standing in the Rose Garden, said the order that took effect one minute after midnight applied to "terrorist organizations, individuals, terrorist leaders, a corporation that serves as a front for terrorism and several nonprofit organizations." He conceded they operate primarily overseas, adding that as a result, "We're putting banks and financial institutions around the world on notice."

If they fail to assist, he said, the Treasury Department "now has the authority to freeze their banks' assets and transactions in the United States."

Bush spoke nearly two weeks after the worst terrorism attack on American soil, when terrorists hijacked jetliners and flew them into the World Trade Center twin towers and Pentagon. A fourth plane crashed in the Pennsylvania countryside after doomed passengers apparently struggled with the hijackers. More than 6,000 people are dead or missing.

Halfway around the world, Osama bin Laden urged Pakistani Muslims to fight "the American crusade." The Saudi exile has been named repeatedly by administration officials as the chief culprit behind the Sept. 11 attacks.

Administration officials indicated a continuing concern about more terrorism directed at the United States. Concerned about possible chemical weapons attacks, the Federal Aviation Administration extended Sunday's ban on crop-dusting from airplanes in domestic airspace.

Bush coupled his remarks about the financial network of terrorists with a fresh declaration that he was "concerned about the shock this had on the economy." But he said "the fundamentals for (economic) growth are strong," and added defiantly, "We'll come out of this and we'll come out of it strong."

There was at least some sign of optimism on Wall Street, where the stock market opened sharply higher after a week of exceptionally steep declines.

Flanked by Secretary of State Colin Powell and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, Bush said: "Money is the lifeblood of terrorist operations. Today, we're asking the world to stop payment." He called the list "the financial equivalent of law enforcement's most-wanted list."

The White House issued a list covered by the president's order. It included bin Laden and several others by name, as well as organizations such as Al-Jihad, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad; the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan; and the Mamoun Darkazanli Import-Export Co.

A fact sheet issued by the white House expanded an order put in place during the Clinton administration. It expands the class of affected groups to all those who are "associated with" designated terrorist groups, and "establishes our ability to block the U.S. assets of, and deny access to U.S. markets, those foreign banks that refuse to freeze terrorist assets."

In his remarks, the president said he recognized that some European countries would probably need to rewrite their own laws to meet America's conditions for choking off the financial network. He said the administration would respond on a "case-by-case basis" in determining how to measure compliance.

Powell repeated the administration's view that bin Laden was culpable for the Sept. 11 attacks that killed more than 6,000. "There's no question that this network ... this guy at the head of this network, the chairman of this holding company of terrorism, is the one who's responsible."

The president's executive order marked the first public step of the financial elements of his declared war on terrorism.