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Feds block $971,000 of network linked to terrorists

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal officials have blocked approximately $971,000 from a financial network branded by the Bush administration as a banking conglomerate for terrorists, a U.S. Treasury official said Thursday.

Real estate assets belonging to al Barakaat have also been seized, but estimates of their value were not available.

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President Bush announced Wednesday that the Treasury Department had blocked the assets of 62 individuals and organizations connected with two financial networks that operate "at the service of mass murderers."

Bush said offices for the two networks -- al Barakaat and al Taqwa -- were closed in four states. U.S. allies, he said, had also taken steps against the networks. He said the networks handled money for al Qaeda, the organization headed by suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, implicated in the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Bush described al Taqwa as "an association of offshore banks and financial management firms that have helped al Qaeda shift money around the world." He said al Barakaat "is a group of money-wiring and communication companies owned by a friend and supporter of Osama bin Laden."

He said both networks raise and distribute funds for al Qaeda. "They provide terrorist supporters with Internet service, secure telephone communications and other ways of sending messages and sharing information," Bush said. "They even arrange for the shipment of weapons."

Combined, the two networks have been the source of "tens of millions of dollars" in financial support for the al Qaeda network, a senior U.S. official involved in the operation told CNN.

Treasury and Customs agents, acting on warrants based on sealed court affidavits, raided al Barakaat offices Wednesday in Boston, Minneapolis, Seattle, and Columbus, Ohio. Two people were charged in Massachusetts in connection with the crackdown, Attorney General John Ashcroft said.

In addition, assets were blocked and evidence seized at two other "outlets" of the company in Virginia, under provisions of the newly enacted anti-terrorism legislation, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said Wednesday.