WP: Al Qaeda's Finances Ample, Say Probers

Worldwide Failure to Enforce Sanctions Cited

Sunday, December 14, 2003; Page A01

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 U.N. investigators.

Several businessmen designated by the United Nations as terrorist financiers, whose assets were supposed to have been frozen more than two years ago, continue to run vast business empires and to travel freely because most nations are unaware of the sanctions and others do not enforce them, the investigators said. Several charities based in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan that were reportedly shut down by the governments there because of the groups' alleged financial ties to Osama bin Laden also continue to operate freely, they said.

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, the investigators and terrorism experts said.

A report released this month by a U.N. panel of experts documented the continued flow of money -- including drug money -- to terrorist organizations and warned that al Qaeda "has already taken the decision to use chemical and biological weapons in their forthcoming attacks. The only constraint they are facing is the technical complexity to operate them properly and effectively" -- rather than a lack of means to acquire them.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62515-2003Dec13.html

How about Afghanistan opium sales being at an all time high?

Because all anyone controls there is the town of Kabul. The Taliban and the warlords run the rest of the country.

I thought I read the other day that the U.S. was gonna get tough on the opium business in Afghanistan. But isn't that kind of a joke when the U.S. can't even control the Taliban or Pakistan and its borders? I understand that the U.N. is pulling out of Afghanistan.

of business, right? So that's what you have here.