US agents on Wednesday raided offices and froze assets of two "terrorist-supporting" financial networks that officials said provided money, weapons and communications for Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group. US agents on Wednesday raided offices and froze assets of two "terrorist-supporting" financial networks that officials said provided money, weapons and communications for Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group. US officials identified the two networks as Al Taqwa, an association of offshore banks and money management firms that have moved al Qaeda cash around the world, and Al Barakaat, a group of money-wiring and communications companies owned by a friend and supporter of bin Laden.
Authorities also gave an alternative spelling, Barakat, for the latter financial group.
While the most visible face of the war on terrorism has been the bombing campaign launched a month ago on Afghanistan, which has long sheltered bin Laden, President Bush said the financial crackdown was equally important.

"Ours is not a war just of soldiers and aircraft. It is a war fought with diplomacy, by the investigations of law enforcement, by gathering intelligence, and by cutting off the terrorists' money," Bush said in a speech at the US Treasury's financial crimes center in suburban Virginia.
"The entry point to these networks may be a small storefront operation, but follow the network to its center and you discover wealthy banks and sophisticated technology, all at the service of mass murderers," Bush said. "By shutting these networks down, we disrupt the murderer's work."
As part of a global crackdown, U.S. agents closed offices connected to Al Taqwa and Al Barakaat in four US states, in one case posting guards outside a Minnesota money transfer firm used by African immigrants to send money home.
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said US agents had shut down eight Al Barakaat offices in United States. The Treasury Department later put the number of offices shut down at nine. Bureau Report