AP "translates" Bush's Latest Executive Order on Iraq

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AP "translates" Bush's Latest Executive Order on Iraq

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

sent by MichaelP (activ-l)

AP via The Guardian - Jul 17, 2007
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6786106,00.html

NEW FINANCIAL TOOL FOR IRAQ FIGHT

By JEANNINE AVERSA

AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration announced a new tool Tuesday
aimed at putting a financial squeeze on people who run networks that
recruit and send would-be terrorists into Iraq.

President Bush unveiled an executive order that allows the
administration to block bank accounts and any other financial assets
that might be found in this country belonging to people, companies or
groups that the United States deems are working to threaten stability
in Iraq.

Bush cited the ``unusual and extraordinary threat'' to national
security and foreign policy of the United States ``posed by acts of
violence threatening the peace and stability of Iraq and undermining
efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in
Iraq and to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people.''

No person, company or group was designated under the order on Tuesday.

The order seeks to fill a gap in U.S. authority to use financial
sanctions to go after such offenders.

White House press secretary Tony Snow said the order targets terrorist
and insurgent groups, including those assisted by Syria and Iran, that
are not covered by existing authorities.

``What this is really aimed at is insurgents and those who come across
the border,'' Snow explained.

As many as 80 suicide bombers per month cross into Iraq from Syria,
the administration said last week in an interim progress report on the
war.

Stuart Levey, the Treasury Department's undersecretary for terrorism
and financial intelligence, believes the new authority will be helpful
to U.S. efforts to stem violence in Iraq and to curb the flow of money
- - from both outside and inside Iraq - to support insurgents.

``There are now groups or individuals that we will now be able to
target that would have been difficult prior to this executive order,''
Levey said in an interview with The Associated Press. ``For example,
Shia militia groups linked to Iran. Sunni insurgent groups that are
taking sanctuary in Syria and indigenous Iraqi insurgent groups that
are not covered under pre-existing authorities.''

The president's new executive order comes as Republican support for
the Iraq war has eroded in recent weeks. The White House's interim
progress report found that the U.S.-backed government in Baghdad has
made spotty progress in meeting major targets of reform.

The 25-page administration report was issued in the fifth year of a
war that has claimed the lives of more than 3,600 U.S. troops and is
costing U.S. taxpayers an estimated $10 billion a month.

Against this backdrop, the State Department announced Tuesday that the
United States is ready to hold new direct talks with Iran on the
deteriorating security situation in Iraq.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, in consultation with secretaries of
State and Defense, is authorized to take action under the president's
new executive order. Levey wouldn't say how soon the administration
would use its new authority.

The administration already has tools to clamp down financially on
people, companies and groups that seek to bankroll terrorist
activities or help funds specific terror groups, such as al-Qaida and
Hezbollah. It has sanctions against trade with certain officials of
former President Saddam Hussein's regime. The United States also has
financial sanctions against countries accused of fostering terrorism,
such as Iran and Syria.


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