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American Morning

America's New War: Bush Cracks Down on Terrorist Finances

Aired September 24, 2001 - 11:06   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush this morning announced a financial crackdown on terrorist organizations, 27 of them in all, including some individuals that we might eventually get some information on.

We get details on that and more from our own John King in Washington. Hi, John.

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESP.: Hello to you, Paula. One name on that list, a very familiar name, Osama bin Laden.

You -- as you mentioned, the Bush administration listing 27 entities, organizations and individuals, some of them set up as charities. The Bush administration saying this morning that those are fraud, that those organizations are actually fronts for terrorism.

The Executive Order signed by the president freezes any such assets in the United States. The U.S. government will now get about the business of trying to track down just where that money might be, if it can find it. That has been a problem in the past when it comes to Osama bin Laden.

As the president announced this in the Rose Garden today, he had the Treasury Secretary on one side, Secretary of State Colin Powell on the other. Mr. Bush saying, as the United States acts in this way, it wants other countries to also reach out and freeze the financial network of suspected terrorists and their organizations.

And Mr. Bush said if countries around the world refuse to do that, then the United States will find ways to punish them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have developed the international financial equipment -- equivalent of law enforcement's most wanted list. And it puts the financial world on notice.

If you do business with terrorists, if you support or sponsor them, you will not do business with the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The U.S. Treasury Department will take the lead in that effort here in the United States. Again, Secretary Powell urging governments and banks around the world to crack down as well.

More diplomacy on the president's plate now. Jean Chretien, the prime minister of Canada, due at the White House this hour. Due to meet with the president tomorrow is the Japanese prime ministers. Again, all part of president's effort to build moral, military and financial support for this U.S. effort to combat terrorism.

We'll check in with the president later today. For now, back to Paula in New York.

ZAHN: Thanks, John.

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