|
Trending Topics
|
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62515-2003Dec13.html
Al-Qaeda's Finances are Ample; Worldwide Failure to Enforce Sanctions Cited
(Washington Post) - Governments around the world are not enforcing global sanctions designed to stem the flow of money to al-Qaeda and impede the business activity of the organization's financiers, allowing the terrorist network to retain formidable financial resources, according to U.S., European, and UN investigators. Several charities based in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan that were reportedly shut down by the governments there continue to operate freely. As a result, al-Qaeda continues to receive ample funding not only to carry out its own plots but also to finance affiliated terrorist groups and to seek new weapons. Several branches of the al Haramain Charitable Foundation, a Saudi Arabia-based organization that in the past raised as much as $30 million a year, remain active. Several offices of the organization were directly implicated in the financing of al-Qaeda, and in May the Saudi government announced that the charity had been required to suspend all activities outside Saudi Arabia.