President Bush announced 'a major thrust of our war on terrorism' Monday as he signed an executive order freezing all assets in U.S. financial institutions belonging to known supporters of terrorists, while Attorney General John Ashcroft told a congressional committee that federal investigators need additional security powers now to effectively combat terrorism.
'We will starve the terrorists of funding, turn them against each other, rout them out of their safe hiding places and bring them to justice,' Bush said at an event in the White House Rose Garden.
The executive order freezes the assets of 27 different terrorist organizations and individuals and prohibits American institutions and citizens from doing business with the isolated entities. In addition, any foreign institution that fails to comply with the order will have its American assets frozen by the U.S. Department of Treasury, Bush said.
'We have developed the international financial equivalent of law enforcement's 'Most Wanted' list,' Bush said. 'And it puts the financial world on notice. If you do business with terrorists, if you support or sponsor them, you will not do business with the United States of America.'
Bush also promised that more organizations and individuals would be added to the list as evidence is compiled to demonstrate that 'they aid and abet terrorist organizations around the world.' Evidence linking the 27 listed entities to terrorist activity will not be released, however, due to its classified nature.
While emphasizing the many fronts on which the proclaimed war on terrorism will be fought, Bush reminded reporters and others present that intelligence and financial responses to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon will be accompanied by military action.
'Make no mistake about it, I've asked our military to be ready for a reason,' Bush said.
Also Monday, Ashcroft testified before the House Judiciary Committee in favor of legislation that would give federal investigators more power to detain legal aliens, wiretap terrorist suspects and use computers to gain access to personal information on suspects.
'The American people do not have the luxury of unlimited time in erecting the necessary defenses to future terrorist acts,' Ashcroft said, but added that use of the requested powers would not necessarily have prevented the hijacking of the four airliners used as weapons by terrorists believed to be associated with Osama bin Laden.
'There's absolutely no guarantee that these safeguards would have avoided the Sept. 11 occurrence,' he said. 'We do know that without them, the occurrences took place. I cannot say to you that had we merely enacted these in August, that they would have curtailed the activity in September. There is no way I can assure the committee that we will not have terrorist attacks in the future.'
Ashcroft also said Monday that more than 350 people have been arrested, and 400 more are being sought in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks. Only one person thus far has been charged with a crime related to the attacks. Other detainees have been charged with immigration, traffic or minor offenses.
On the day after the largest one-week point loss in the history of Dow Jones Industrial Average, the blue-chip market measure rose 367 points Monday, to a close of 8585.72. The value of the Nasdaq and S&P 500 averages also increased.
UW-Madison investment management Professor Werner F.M. De Bondt said Monday's improved market performance means little for Americans trying to understand the current state of the U.S. economy.
'I do not think it means anything,' De Bondt said, characterizing Monday's bump up in the market as somewhat expected.
'It's more likely than not after a big fall there's a bit of a rebound,' he said, referring to the Dow's 14 percent drop last week. 'During the remainder of the week we will see how the market feels.'
A day after stating on ABC's 'This Week' that 'we will put before the world, the American people, a persuasive case [so] that there will be no doubt when that case is presented that it is al Qaeda led by Osama bin Laden who has been responsible for this terrible, tragic incident,' Secretary of State Colin Powell appeared to retreat from providing such proof to the public.
Standing with Bush at the Rose Garden event, Powell called the evidence the United States has gathered classified, and said only that 'as we look through it, [if] we can find areas that are unclassified and it will allow us to share this information with the public, we will do so.'
