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U.S. Blocks Assets of 62 Groups, Persons Linked to al Qaida
The United States said Wednesday it has frozen $24 million of assets held by Aghanistan's ruling Taliban and the suspected terrorist group al-Qaida in what President George W. Bush touted as part of the U.S. fight against ''evil.''
Bush said the funds, blocked by the U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday, belong to 62 individuals and organizations connected with two financial networks that raise funds for accused terrorist Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.
''By shutting these networks down, we disrupt the murderers' work,'' Bush said in a speech delivered at the Foreign Terrorist Asset Tracking Center the Bush administration set up after the Sept. 11 terror attacks that killed more than 4,000 people.
Bush also renewed his call on foreign financial institutions to crack down on terrorist funds or face the consequences.
''If you do business with terrorists, if you support them or sponsor them, you will not do business with the United States,'' he said.
Bush identified the two financial networks closed by the U.S. Treasury as Al Taqua and Al-Barakaat, which he said raises funds and provides communications service for al-Qaida.
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, who joined Bush at the Foreign Terrorist Asset Tracking Center, said the $24 million frozen in the U.S. belonged to the Taliban and al-Qaida and at least $43 million in assets have been blocked worldwide.
O'Neill said Al Taqua and Al-Barakaat tried to funnel their money through ''undocumented, unregulated financial networks'' constructed to avoid detection.
O'Neill said the U.S. is seeking to choke off terrorist funds through an international coalition and 120 countries have blocking orders in force.
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