PRESIDENT BUSH: Good morning. Today we take
another important step in the financial fight against
terror. From the beginning of this fight I have said our
enemies are terrorist networks of global reach; and all who harbor them
and support them are our enemies as well. We began with Al
Qaeda and the Taliban. We identified some of Al Qaeda's
financial backers and we moved against their accounts.
In November, we advanced further and identified 22 more global
terrorist organizations. And now we are moving against their
financing as well.
At midnight yesterday the Treasury Department froze the assets and
accounts of the Holy Land Foundation in Richardson, Texas, whose money
is used to support the Hamas terror organization.
Earlier today, federal agents secured the offices and records of
the Holy Land Foundation in Texas, California, New Jersey and Illinois
as a part of an ongoing investigation. At the same time, we
have blocked the accounts of an Hamas-linked bank, an Hamas-linked
holding company based in the West Bank.
The message is this: Those who do business with terror
will do no business with the United States or anywhere else the United
States can reach.
Hamas is an extremist group that calls for the total destruction of
the State of Israel. It is one of the deadliest terrorist
organizations in the world today.
Hamas openly claimed responsibility for this past weekend's suicide
attacks in Israel that killed 25 innocent people, many of them
teenagers, and wounded almost 200 other people. Hamas is
guilty of hundreds of other deaths over the years; and just in the past
12 months have killed two Americans. And today we act.
Hamas has obtained much of the money that it pays for murder abroad
right here in the United States, money originally raised by the Holy
Land Foundation. The Holy Land Foundation is registered with
the IRS as a tax-exempt charity based in Richardson. It
raised $13 million from people in America last year. The
Holy Land Foundation claims that the money it solicits goes to care for
needy Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Money raised by the Holy
Land Foundation is used by Hamas to support schools and indoctrinate
children to grow up into suicide bombers. Money raised by
the Holy Land Foundation is also used by Hamas to recruit suicide
bombers and to support their families.
America has called on other nations to suppress the financing of
terror. Today we take further steps to suppress it inside
our borders. I am confident that most of the donors to the
Holy Land Foundation, and perhaps even some of the individuals who are
associated with the Foundation, had no idea how its money was being
used. They wanted to relive suffering in the region of the
world that has suffered too much. But the facts are clear,
the terrorists benefit from the Holy Land Foundation. And
we're not going to allow it. Our action today is another step in the
war on terrorism. It's not the final step. There
are more terrorist networks of global reach, and more front groups who
use deceit to support them. The net is
closing. Today it just got tighter. And now, it's
my honor to welcome to the podium the Secretary of the Treasury, Paul
O'Neill.