US launches crackdown on terror assets

The Bush administration cracked down on Osama bin Laden’s multimillion-dollar financial networks at home and abroad, closing businesses in four states, detaining US suspects and urging allies to help choke off money supplies in 40 nations.

‘‘By shutting these networks down, we disrupt the murderers’ work,’’ President George W Bush said, announcing the first major dragnet of companies, organisations and people suspected of aiding terrorists from US soil.