Australia listed six senior leaders of the militant Palestinian Hamas group as terrorists on Friday and froze the assets of five charities that it said help fund the organization's activities. The announcement by Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer follows the same action against exactly the same men and organizations by the United States in August. Downer said Friday he had acted because the men and organizations "are involved in terrorism." The six individuals are Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the leader of Hamas in Gaza; Imad Khalil Al-Alami, a member of the Hamas political bureau in Damascus, Syria; Usama Hamdan, a senior Hamas leader in Lebanon; Khalid Mishaal, head of the Hamas political bureau and executive committee in Damascus; Musa Abu Marzouk, deputy chief of the political bureau in Syria, and Abdel Aziz Rantissi, a Hamas leader described as reporting to Yassin.
| Rantissi's also a politburo member. I like Australia more every day... |
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