LOS ANGELES, Nov 7: Seeking to freeze more assets tied to Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network, President Bush will unveil on Wednesday a new and more significant list of financial targets, from Islamic lending groups to banks in Europe and the Caribbean, White House sources told NBC News.
The directive asks banks in several countries, including Somalia, Liechtenstein, the Bahamas,Sweden, Canada, Austria, Italy and the United Arab Emirates, to seize the assets of an Islamic cash exchange known as Al- Taqua.
In the United States itself, Osama’s financial ties were suspected in another cash exchange, known as Al-Barakaat, that has affiliates in Minnesota, Massachusetts, Ohio and Washington.
Al-Taqua and Al-Barakaat are informal money exchanges - known as hawalas - that investigators believe funnel millions of hard-to-trace dollars to terrorists outside the traditional banking system. Investigators say they suspect that the two hawalas also act as fronts - buying material and supplies shipped off to terrorists.
Bush is not expected to provide a new figure on how much money has been seized to date, and officials said they did not know how much money was involved in the latest cases.
The action adds the names of 62 entities and people to the list of suspected terrorist associates targeted by him in an executive order last month.
Within the United States, the Al-Barakaat affiliates were named and had their assets frozen:
—Aaran Money Wire Service Inc. of Minneapolis.
-Al-Barakaat Wiring Service of Minneapolis.
— Al-Barakaat Boston of Dorchester, Mass.
—Al-Barakaat Enterprise of Columbus, Ohio.
-Al-Barakaat North America Inc. of Dorchester, Mass. (Its branch in Ottawa, Canada was also named.)
- Al-Barakat Wire Transfer Co. of Seattle.
—Global Service International of Seattle.
—Somali International Relief Organization of Minneapolis.
In addition, the United States moved to freeze the assets of two people, with residences in America, Liban Hussein of Dorchester, Mass., and Gerad Jama of Minneapolis. Hussein also has a Canadian address.
