This article has been posted to DoctorZin’s New News Blog!
Posted on 08/12/2004 1:11:21 PM PDT by BushisTheMan
JOHANESSBURG, South Africa (AP) -- Members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida and other militants are turning increasingly to crime - from dealing drugs to selling knockoff shampoos and pirated CDs - to pay for attacks amid a crackdown on the movement of terrorist funds through world banks, security officials told The Associated Press.
As terrorist cells become more self-reliant, they are calling into question the notion they need an international financial support network to stage attacks, according to the independent commission that investigated al-Qaida's deadliest assault yet on Sept. 11, 2001.
U.S. Treasury officials, who have driven the global campaign to stem terrorist funding, acknowledge the shift and say it is a symptom of their success.
"Treasury's efforts have made it harder and costlier for terrorist groups like al-Qaida to move and raise money," Molly Millerwise, a department spokeswoman, told the AP. "However, as we strengthen our defenses against financial crimes and better safeguard the financial sector, al-Qaida and like-minded groups will resort to other means - such as petty crime, drug trafficking and commodities fraud - to raise and move money."
The warning follows weeks of heightened security in the United States after federal alerts that al-Qaida was surveilling financial targets stemming from arrests in Pakistan and Britain.
U.S. officials believe the 19 hijackers who participated in the Sept. 11 attacks were funded directly by al-Qaida, either through wire transfers or cash handouts. They spent between $400,000 and $500,000 over two years to plan and execute the attacks, according to the 9/11 commission.
Since then, U.S. officials have targeted the individuals and institutions that formed part of what they describe as a vast financial network originally set up in the 1980s to fund the "jihad," or holy war, against Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. These include wealthy individuals who contributed directly to al-Qaida, as well as mosques and Islamic charities believed to have diverted funds to the terror network.
In all, the United States has identified 383 individuals and organizations believed to have bankrolled or otherwise supported terrorist activities, leading to the freezing of roughly $141 million linked to al-Qaida and other groups worldwide.
At the same time, the United States and its allies have destroyed al-Qaida's operational base in Afghanistan, forcing what had been a fairly centralized operation to reorganize into smaller, more autonomous units, U.S. officials say.
Instead of relying on outside funding, these cells depend increasingly on their own community solicitations, tapping local charities, conducting small business operations and often engaging in petty crime, according to a report submitted to the U.N. Security Council at the end of 2002.
Noting the development, the 9/11 commission report warned: "If al-Qaida is replaced by smaller, decentralized terrorist groups, the premise behind the government's efforts - that terrorists need a financial support network - may become outdated."
There is plenty of precedent for al-Qaida's move into ordinary criminal activities.
Colombia's Revolutionary Armed Forces guerrillas traffic in cocaine and heroin to fund their organization. Paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland benefit from sales of counterfeit cigarettes. And America's former Symbionese Liberation Army robbed banks.
Al-Qaida and its affiliates have been linked to the heroin trade in Afghanistan, credit card fraud in Europe and gem smuggling out of Africa - though the 9/11 commission maintains there is no conclusive evidence to support claims the terror network laundered millions of dollars through diamonds before staging the U.S. attacks.
Al-Qaida and others have also tapped into the lucrative trade in counterfeit goods, ranging from knockoff handbags to pirated music CDs, according to Interpol, the organization that coordinates information among law enforcement agencies in 181 countries.
Last year, Danish customs intercepted a container filled with counterfeit shampoos, creams, colognes and perfume allegedly sent from United Arab Emirates by a member of al-Qaida.
Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble sounded the alarm at the first Global Congress on Combatting Counterfeiting, held in Belgium in May. He told the AP pirated goods are an attractive source of revenue for terrorists because it is a low-risk, high-profit crime that is not a priority for most governments and police forces.
Spanish investigators believe Islamic militants accused in the March 11 train bombings in Madrid were involved in drug dealing.
They are said to have traded 70 pounds of hashish and a relatively small amount of money - perhaps a few thousand dollars - for 440 pounds of stolen dynamite from a former miner in the northern Asturias region.
Several of them had had brushes with the police for years, and a parliamentary inquiry is investigating whether the attacks that killed 191 people could have been prevented.
The Madrid bombings were a wake-up call on the need for better coordination between efforts to counter terrorists and criminal syndicates around the world, security analysts say.
"It is no longer really appropriate to view issues of terrorism and organized crime as discrete areas," said Peter Chalk, a terrorism expert with the U.S.-based Rand Corp., an independent think tank. "They are increasingly interconnected, and you can't really separate one from the other - which unfortunately is the tendency of governments these days."
U.S. officials say they are taking the necessary steps, pointing to the FBI's joint terrorist task forces, which bring together representatives from federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
The United States is also working with other countries to confront the new modes of terrorist financing, including helping them monitor imports and exports, and identify the individuals who move drugs and other illegal commodities between nations.
It might be unpopular to say it, but IMHO if they just legalized drugs, and regulated the sale of them like alcohol, this problem would probably die. Not to say that everything will be absolutely hunky-dory here... but the benefits will probably outweigh the costs. It'd be nice to see funding for Al-Qaeda and FARC dry up quite a bit. God knows neither of them need any more money.
If that seems unfeasible, perhaps just legalizing Marijuana would help. It's the no.1 used illegal drug (probably for the world, definitely in this country), it stands to reason that it would at the very least put a big dent in funds, and they do seem to be pushin' it (Al-Q at least, but FARC wouldn't surprise me)...
An oxymoron?
One thing the Taliban were good at was stopping opium production in Afghanistan. Since we defeated the Taliban opium production has gone through the roof - the people there are poor farmers and they are going to grow the crop that makes the most money.
..."turning increasingly to crime - from dealing drugs to selling knockoff shampoos and pirated CDs..."
Islam does not reward hard work. Mohammed only rewarded thieves, crooks and murderers. Islam does the same. Have you noticed all the idleness among the male youth and adults in Muslim countries? No one works for a living.
In rich Muslim countries, third world people are brought in to do the day-to-day labor. Muslims believe that they are a special sect--"the real Chosen People", to whom everyone must bow and pay tribute to.
Yea I was trying to figure out what was newsworthy of criminal terrorist resorting to criminal non-terrorist acts to fund their terrorist related murders.
Its like saying, "OMG! Timothy McVeigh was SPEEDING on his way to the federal building!"
Sarcasm
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