Radicals Scoff at U.S. Curbs on ‘Terrorists’
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DAMASCUS, Syria — Radical Palestinian groups Wednesday scorned President Clinton’s executive order freezing their assets and dubbing them “terrorists,” saying they had no assets in the United States to be frozen and were “freedom fighters.”
“We reiterate that we are not terrorists, we are freedom fighters like George Washington and (South African President) Nelson Mandela, and we are not committing aggression against anybody, we are seeking to live in dignity,” said Fathi Shukaki, leader of the Islamic Jihad, whose suicide bombers killed 19 Israelis in a Sunday attack.
Clinton has frozen U.S. assets of 12 Middle East “terrorist” groups that he said threatened the peace process. Two Jewish groups--Kach and Kahane Chai--were included.
Lebanon’s pro-Iranian Hezbollah group, dismissing the assets freeze as a “joke,” said Wednesday that it had no bank accounts in the United States.
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