The White House on Friday announced a continuation of the “national emergency” powers granted to the president under a 1995 executive order that seeks to counter threats from international terrorists. U.S. President George W. Bush authorized a continuation of the “National Emergency With Respect to Terrorists Who Threaten to Disrupt the Middle East Peace Process,” according to a statement from the press office. Executive Order 12947, which first took effect on January 23, 1995, declared a national emergency to “deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States constituted by grave acts of violence committed by foreign terrorists who threaten to disrupt the Middle East peace process,” the statement said. “Because these terrorist activities continue to threaten the Middle East peace process and to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States, the national emergency declared on January 23, 1995, as expanded on August 20, 1998, and the measures adopted on those dates to deal with that emergency must continue in effect beyond January 23, 2007,” Bush said in the statement. The latest extension of the emergency will for another year extend the prohibition on economic activity that in any way benefits foreign terrorists who threaten to disrupt the Middle East peace process.
