TUESDAY,SEPT.25,2001
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 5A
Bush wants terrorists' assets frozen
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON President Bush, calling for a "strike on the financial foundation" of terrorists, demanded yesterday that foreign banks follow United States' lead and freeze the assets of 27 individuals and organizations.
He said the order that took effect one minute after midnight applied to "terrorist organizations, individuals, terrorist leaders, a corporation that serves as a front for terrorism and several nonprofit organizations." He conceded they operated primarily overseas, adding that as a result, "we're putting banks and financial institutions around the world on notice."
If they fail to assist, he said, the Treasury Department "now has the authority to freeze their banks' assets
and transactions in the United States."
Bush said he recognized that some European countries would probably need to rewrite their own laws to meet America's conditions for choking off the financial network. He said the administration would respond on a "case-by-case basis" in determining how to measure compliance.
In a statement dated Sunday and broadcast yesterday, bin Laden said some Pakistanis died opposing American plans to use Pakistan as a springboard in the battle against terrorism.
Halfway around the world, Osama bin Laden urged Pakistani Muslims to fight "the American crusade." He accused Bush of leading a new crusade against Islam "under the flag of the cross."
"We hope that they are the first martyrs in Islam's battle in this era against
the new crusade and Jewish campaign led by the big crusader Bush under the flag of the cross," he said of the dead. The statement was broadcast by Alazeera, the Qatar satellite channel.
The Saudi exile has been named repeatedly by administration officials as the chief culprit behind the Sept. 11 attacks.
In a faxed statement, he said the death of bin Laden would do little to remove any threat to the United States.
At the same time, the leader of Afghanistan's ruling militia, Mullah Mohammed Omar, said the United States should withdraw from the Persian Gulf and "put an end to the biased attitude on the issue of Palestine."
American administration officials indicated a continuing worry about more terrorism directed at the United States. Concerned about possible
chemical weapons attacks, the Federal Aviation Administration extended Sunday's ban on crop dusting from airplanes in domestic airspace.
The president's executive order marked the first public step of the financial elements of his declared war on terrorism.
The president was also working on the diplomatic front during the day, meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien at the White House. He spoke with Russian president Vladimir Putin for nearly an hour during the weekend and will see Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi tomorrow.
At the same time, American military forces are deploying around the world in anticipation of an expected strike against bin Laden and his Al-Qaida network.
Crop dusters grounded for security checks
The Associated Press
BELLE GLADE, Fla. — A group of Middle Eastern men — including one of the suspected hijackers in the Sept. 11 disaster — repeatedly asked a fertilizer company about cropduster planes in the months leading up to the terrorist attacks, company employees told the FBI.
J. D. "Will" Lee, general manager of South Florida Crop Care, said yesterday that groups of two or three Middle Eastern men visited almost every weekend for six or eight weeks before the attacks, including the weekend before.
Lee said a co-worker, James Lester, identified one of the men for the FBI as Mohamed Atta, thought to be one of the suicide hijackers in the attacks on the trade center and the Pentagon. Lester did not return a phone message seeking comment.
The men asked about the range of the airplane, how much it would haul, how difficult it was to fly and how much fuel it would carry. Lee said.
"I wouldn't spend any time talking to them or telling them anything because I didn't think it was any of their business." Lee said.
Lee said some of the men filmed the aircraft during a few of their vis-
he. It said he did not allow them to take pictures of the cockpit.
The Federal Aviation Administration banned crop dusters from flying Sunday and yesterday, concerned about the possibility of chemical and biological attacks.
There are an estimated 3,500 agricultural aviators nationwide, and this is a crucial time for aerial crop spraying, said James Callan, executive director of the National Agricultural Aviation Association.
The FBI said it was one of the steps it had taken out of "an abundance of caution" and "in reaction to every bit of information and threats received during the course of this investigation."
Cailan said he got a call from an FAA official about 8 a.m. Sunday.
"They just want to make sure that everyone in the ag aviation industry is keeping their eyes and ears open," he said.
In Florida, state agriculture and law enforcement agents visited all of Florida's crop dusters to make security checks, said state Agriculture Department representative Terence McElroy.
McElroy said when the flights resume, pilots would be required to notify state officials of their flight times and aircraft tail numbers to allow law enforcement to track each plane.
Two more charged for supplying IDs to Arab terrorists
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Two men have been charged with helping three of the hijackers in the terrorist attacks fraudulently obtain Virginia driver's licenses last month, prosecutors said yesterday.
Meanwhile, the government ordered all airport workers with access to planes and secure areas to submit to new criminal background checks. And crop-dusting planes were grounded for a second day over fears they could be used in an attack.
Regarding the driver's licenses, Herbert Villalobos and another man signed identity papers for the hijackers who commandeered and crashed American Airlines flight 77, according to an affidavit filed in federal court in northern Virginia.
The affidavit by FBI special agent Brian Weidner said that Villalobos, using the alias Oscar Diaz, signed papers certifying that Abdul Aziz Al Omari, one of the hijacker suspects, lived in Virginia.
A second man, "a Hispanic male" who is a confidential witness, signed both a residency certification and an identify affidavit that was used by another suspected hijacker, Ahmed Saleh Al Ghamdi, to obtain a driver's license, the affidavit said.
It said the unidentified man was standing in a parking lot near the Arlington, Va., Department of Motor Vehicles office along with several Hispanic men, including Villalolos, when three Arab men approached him in a van and asked for help in getting Virginia identification cards.
"We are requiring revalidation of all airport IDs to make sure that they are genuine, current and belong with the person they are with," said FAA spokeswoman Rebecca Trexler.
Yesterday, Attorney General John Ashcroft said 352 people have now been arrested or detained in the investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington, and another 392 people were being sought for questioning.
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