U.S. Freeze Assets of Holy Land Foundation and Others Linked to Hamas

On December 4, 2001, U.S. President George Bush announced the addition of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (hereafter the Holy Land Foundation), the Al Aqsa Bank, and Beit al Mal Holdings Co., a bank, to the list of terrorist organizations. All are allegedly connected to the Hamas organization which the U.S. Government has in a November 22, 2001 executive order characterized as a terrorist organization. Treasury officials said, so far, a half a dozen banks in the U.S. have frozen $ 1.9 million of the Holy Land Foundation?s assets. The Holy Land Foundation say the money it solicits is used to care for needy Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. However, the Bush Administration said Hamas used the funds to support school that indoctrinate children to become suicide bombers. Attorney General John Ashcroft said the three organizations were focus of joint law enforcement action prior to September 11. He said the Holy Land Foundation shares employees with Infocom, an Internet company that the FBI raided and whose assets the Treasury Department froze less than one week before the terrorist attacks.