As Usual, It's All About The Money

In the terrifying hours after the 9/11 attacks, President Bush grounded all airplanes. We don't know how effective that measure was, but the general feeling has been that such a drastic step was a smart move, despite the economic impact.

President Bush also committed to severing the financial lifelines which help terrorists to further their mayhem. But today in the Washington Post, Victor Comras, an attorney and consultant on terrorism financing, cautions that our intelligence is not doing enough.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/03/AR2005060301452_pf.html :

"Since Sept. 11, 2001, the United States and several other countries have touted their success in identifying terrorist cells and cutting off terrorism financing. The Bush administration regularly asserts that al Qaeda is financially weakened and forced to cut expenditures. There is now reason to question these assumptions. The pace of terrorist recruitment and activities appears to be accelerating, not decreasing, and the number of terrorist attacks continues to grow. And evidence is mounting that large sums are still being raised and transferred to al Qaeda terrorists, including the insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. While the fight against terrorism has benefited from increased intelligence, this effort has not been enough to cut off al Qaeda's financing or to put its financial supporters out of business....Several large Islamic charities, despite their designation by the United States and the United Nations as sources of terrorism funding, also continue in operation. The Saudi government pledged to close the al Haramain Islamic Foundation and its branches around the world, and to more closely monitor the outward flow of charitable funds, but there are few indications that it has actually done so. Al Haramain branches remain operational in several countries, while other branches have merely changed their names....It's time for the United States and all countries committed to winning the war on terrorism to tighten the slack on terrorism financing. We must insist that all identified terrorist financiers be put out of business. Only by making the penalties for terrorism financing clear and severe will other well-heeled supporters of terrorist groups be persuaded to stop funding them. We must also hold those responsible for administering charitable funds to the highest standards of accountability. There can be no impunity for permitting charitable funds to flow into the hands of terrorists...."

Following through on cutting off the financial head of this snake is a burden on the banking system. But not taking the essential steps will exact a worse price--a much worse price.

The United States can determine exactly which countries are her true allies by examining each country's commitment to tracking terrorism-funding operations. Let's start by checking out the banking practices of Saudi Arabia, both in the Middle East and here in the United States. And because it is easy to launder money through charity organizations, they should be first on the to-be-checked list.