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Assets of Texas foundation frozen
©Associated Press WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration on Tuesday froze the financial assets and closed the offices of a Texas foundation accused of funneling money to Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that claimed responsibility for last weekend's deadly attacks in Israel. President Bush also ordered a crackdown on two Palestinian groups accused of financing Hamas. "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," he said. Bush called Hamas one of the deadliest terrorist organizations in the world and said it supports "the total destruction of Israel." The Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, with offices in Illinois, California and New Jersey, denied ties to Hamas. The group, registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt charity, raised $13-million last year and calls itself the largest Muslim charity in America. "If the Holy Land Foundation has violated any U.S. law, they would have charged us in a court of law. They wouldn't need to seize our assets," said foundation president Shukri Abu-Baker. "We intend to pursue this in a court of law." Hamas, on the State Department terrorist list, said through a spokesman it gets no money from U.S. groups. Bush said Hamas uses foundation money to indoctrinate children to become suicide bombers and to support suicide attackers' families. Most donors don't know how the money is used, Bush said, "but the facts are clear, the terrorists benefit from the Holy Land Foundation, and we're not going to allow it." The other groups targeted Tuesday were Al Aqsa International Bank and the Beit El-Mal Holdings Co., an investment group. It was not known whether the group had assets in U.S. banks, but the administration was urging allies to target assets abroad.
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From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
