Why Following the Money Leads to Terrorists

By Matthew Levitt

The UN has just added three financiers to its terrorism list for providing financial support to al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. This would be heartening news but for the fact that it took the UN more than a year to do this, even though the US Treasury had designated the three Kuwaitis supporters of terrorism, a full 13 months ago.

Does such tardiness matter? Hardly, according to the political scientist Ibrahim Warde, whose latest book The Price of Fear denounces such efforts as a waste of time or worse, ruining innocents and hampering world trade. The hunt for terrorist money is more political grandstanding than effective policy, according to Warde and a host of other academic critics.

Even after six years of following and freezing terrorists' funds, intelligence officials in both the US and Europe warn that al-Qaeda still has both the intention and the capability to conduct potentially devastating attacks. But combating terror finance remains -- and should remain -- central to counterterrorism strategy.

The full article, which appears in today's European Voice, a Brussels-based paper published by the Economist, appears here.

TrackBack