My reading of the reports is that the first demand for money was attempted after the first day, but the perp couldn't get through. That's the message left last saturday.
Al Quaeda is hurting for cash. The Saudi bankrollers are being watched, and American diplomats are in Switzerland trying to freeze their accounts.
There seems to be all kinds of interconnected Islamic financial networks here at home and hooked up overseas.
Dispensing the cash does not seem a big problem at present.
From another thread:
To: sharktrager; js1138
You need to remember that what they can do, is limited by the potential results. Were the funds frozen, the sniper simply returns to his killing.
. . . All anyone would have to do is get the funds out of the final account as soon as they arrived.
There are banks who would accomodate this. Once the funds are out, the chase becomes much harder.
There is also the fact that the $10 million would not have to be transferred all at once to the same account. If he were to have set-up an intricate web of accounts he would increase the work needed to complete the trace, and could abandon any accounts he felt were compromised.
Excellent points here.
If this terrorist action isn't hooked up with the Muslim terrorist network, it's just a matter of time before a real one comes along.
The setup is in place and plenty of real-world research material is now unfolding in Maryland and Virginia.
Here's an article that provokes some thought in the current situation:
Monday November 05, 2001
By JEFF GERTH and JUDITH MILLER The New York Times
WASHINGTON-4 Nov.--For years American officials have suspected that Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network were taking advantage of the free-wheeling financial system of the United Arab Emirates, a tiny Persian Gulf nation that boasts of 47 banks and 105 money changers for its three million people.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, American concerns turned out to be well founded as federal investigators traced nearly half the estimated $500,000 that paid for the hijackings back to the Emirates.
Until now, the United States has been largely unsuccessful in enlisting the Emirates, one of three nations that had diplomatic ties to the Taliban-led government of Afghanistan, as a full partner in its financial war against terrorism. That appears to be changing. Last month [October 2001], dozens of Emirates and United States officials met for more than 10 hours at the Emirates Central Bank to discuss the arcane art of detecting and deterring the movement of money by militant networks.
Among other things, they have agreed to begin discussing how to keep track of "hawalas," the informal banking networks that terrorists have also used to move money.