Pocketbook Approach To Terror War
President Bush moved to block the finances of two more groups allegedly linked to terrorism -- an organization he said gave nuclear information to the al-Qaida network, and a Kashmir-based group he said aimed to disrupt India-Pakistan relations.
"Today I'm announcing two more strikes against the financing of terror," Bush said in the White House Rose Garden on the 100th day after terrorists attacked America.
Bush accused the Kashmir group, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, also known as Army of the Righteous, of using terrorism to undermine India-Pakistan ties. The group was formerly identified on a State Department list of terrorist organizations.
"LET is a stateless sponsor of terrorism, and it hopes to destroy relations between Pakistan and India and undermine Pakistani's president, (Pervez) Musharraf. To achieve its purpose, LET has committed acts of terrorism inside both India and Pakistan," Bush said.
The president said the second group, Umma Tameer-e-Nau, was established by a former Pakistan atomic energy commission official and masqueraded as a charity for the hungry in Afghanistan. The president said in reality the group gave nuclear weapons information to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, which the United States blames for the Sept. 11 attacks on America.
"We know that al-Qaida would like to obtain nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and we know that oftentimes they do not act alone. Al-Qaida has international supporters, and some of those supporters hide themselves in the disguise of charity," he said.
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said neither Lashkar-e-Tayyiba nor Umma Tameer-e-Nau was believed to have assets in the United States, meaning cooperation from other countries is needed to make the financial actions effective.
Mr. Bush cited last week's attack on the Indian parliament and a car bombing in Srinagar on Oct. 30 as recent examples of terrorist attacks in India, but stopped short of accusing LET of being behind the attacks.
The White House said in a fact sheet the group was one of the three largest Kashmiri separatist groups fighting against India and said it had conducted a number of attacks against Indian troops and civilian targets in Kashmir since 1993. It said LET was suspected in eight attacks in August that killed nearly 100 mostly Hindu Indians.
The White House fact sheet said that after Afghanistan's ruling Taliban left Kabul, workers at UTN's offices fled the area, and a search of the offices yielded documents setting out a plan to kidnap a U.S. attache and outlining basic physics related to nuclear weapons.
Already, in the 100 days since suicide hijackers attacked on Sept. 11, the Bush administration has blocked more than $33 million in assets of groups said to be involved in terrorism. Some of the 142 countries that are cooperating in the U.S. anti-terror campaign and have issued orders freezing assets have blocked another $33 million.
The tallies are part of a 100-day report released by the White House on Thursday to show progress in the war at a time when frustrating questions swirl over bin Laden's whereabouts and whether he will be captured at all.
Since U.S. and British forces began bombing targets in Afghanistan on Oct. 7, the military has destroyed at least 11 terrorist training camps and 39 command posts of Afghanistan's terrorist-allied Taliban, according to the White House report.
During that same period, the Defense Department's $51-million humanitarian mission airdropped nearly 2.5 million food packets to starving Afghan civilians.
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