“Flow of Terror Funds Being Choked, U.S. Says:” -- A Skeptic Responds

By Victor Comras

“Flow of terror funds being choked, US Says” reads the headlines of a June 18th USA today article based on statements of US treasury officials. I wish that it were so, but I am quite dubious.

The article cites a letter from Ayman al Zawahri to Zarqawi asking for $100,000. "Many of the lines (of support) have been cut off," Zawahri purportedly complains. While the funds flowing to Zawahri, somewhere in the mountains of Eastern Afghanistan, may be harder to come by, there is really little indication that al Qaeda and Salafist terrorist organizations generally, are hard up for cash. In fact, there are many indications to the contrary. The pace of terrorist activity around the world continues unabated. The insurgencies in both Iraq and Afghanistan remain strong and are reportedly flush with cash --That may be one of the reasons Zawahri was trying to hit up Zarqawi for additional funds. While we have identified several of al Qaeda’s deep pocket donors, sanctions against these individuals have been minimal and have had relatively little impact on their activities. Such known terrorist financiers such as Youssef Nada, Ahmed Idriss Nasreddin, Yasim al-Kada, Wa’el Hamza Julidan, and others continue, directly or through family and colleagues, to operate major international business networks. It is difficult to see why such meager actions against these financiers will deter other deep pocket terrorist group supporters, as the USAToday quotes US officials as claiming.

The flow of funds to terrorist groups from certain charities also continues almost unabated. This is particularly the case for groups such as Hamas and Hizbollah. In fact the flow of funds to these organizations still has the approval of a great number of countries in the Middle East and elsewhere. And expanding use of the internet by terrorist organizations to solicit funds from their supporters remains a very serious, and little addressed, concern.

In a companion piece, USA today also reports a GAO finding that the international financial community has been slow to focus on the issue of cash movements financing terrorism. In late 2004, an international money-laundering task force urged nations to step up monitoring of cross-border cash transportation and establish sanctions against those who make false declarations, but little new, in fact, is being done to trace or stop such cash transactions.

Curtailing terrorism financing is certainly not an easy task. It has proved so difficult to prosecute cases against suspected terrorism financiers, to freeze or seize their assets, or to trace the flow of terrorism funds. A recent book by former CIA analyst John Cassara highlights many of these problems That’s not to say that we have not had any important successes. We have. But, this must be a constant and unremitting effort, and claims of victory in curtailing terrorism financing are still very premature.

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