here's something I found in my mailbox: ___ WASHINGTON (Reuter) - President Clinton has ordered a freeze on the U.S. assets of 12 Middle East ``terrorist'' groups, the White House said Tuesday. White House spokesman Mike McCurry said Clinton had signed an executive order ``to block the assets in the United States of certain terrorist organizations that threaten to disrupt the peace process'' in the Middle East. ``The action will specifically prohibit certain kinds of financial transactions with these groups,'' McCurry said. The groups include Hamas, Hizbollah, Islamic Jihad, Abu Nidal, Black September, the Fatah Revolutionary Council, Kach, the Palestine Liberation Front, and the Islamic Group, McCurry said. He did not name the others, but said there would be more information released at a 2 p.m. EST White House briefing with officials from the Treasury, State and Justice departments and the National Security Council. Under the order, charitable contributions to these groups in the United States will also be blocked, McCurry said. He said Clinton had also frozen the U.S. assets of 18 individuals suspected of involvement in Middle East terrorism, but McCurry did not name them. Clinton signed the order Monday night and it took effect at midnight EST the same day, McCurry said. He said the president acted under the authority of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Clinton plans to discuss the matter in his State of the Union address to Congress Tuesday night, McCurry said. ``One of the things the president will address in the State of the Union tonight is the new world in which we live, in which there are new types of threats to our security and to global security,'' he told reporters in his office. ``We just had a very painful and tragic reminder of that in Israel in recent days, and that's the impact of terrorism,'' McCurry said, referring to a weekend terrorist bombing that killed 18 Israeli soldiers and a civilian. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing. McCurry said the decision was the result of a detailed and lengthy review within the U.S. government of how to combat terrorism. The goal was to make it harder for these groups to finance their activities by cutting off their U.S. sources of support and blocking their access to the U.S. financial system, he said. Clinton is also preparing anti-terrorist legislation, McCurry said. ``We do need additional legislation that would further assist the efforts to combat terrorism, and the president will soon send the Congress a comprehensive anti-terrorism package that would stregnthen our ability to prevent terrorist acts, to identify those who perpetrate violent acts and bring them to justice,'' McCurry said.