http://www.smh.com.au/world/cashstrapped-alqaeda-bends-koran-to-find-funds-20100307-pqna.html
Cash-strapped al-Qaeda bends Koran to find funds PHILIP SHERWELL March 8, 2010 THE three al-Qaeda agents assured the Colombians that they would have no problem moving their shipment of European-bound cocaine through the Islamist badlands of the Sahara. As supporters of the terrorist organisation's North African branch, they would guarantee shipment of the drugs through territory they controlled - so long as they were paid a fee of $2000 ($2200) per kilo. The trio, all from the impoverished desert nation of Mali, thought they were setting up a deal with representatives of Colombia's Marxist FARC guerrillas to smuggle up to a tonne of cocaine. In fact they were speaking to informants for the US Drug Enforcement Administration who secretly taped the meeting in Ghana in a sting operation in December. The three men, who were recorded on tape saying that they were levying ''taxes'' on the terrorist group's behalf, were arrested and extradited to New York, where they are now fighting drug and terrorism charges. Anti-terrorism officials believe the case may be a landmark in the battle against al-Qaeda: it is the first time that anyone linked to the group has faced prosecution for its newest moneyspinning activity, narco-terrorism. The $A2.2 million proceeds would have been a significant cash injection at a time when al-Qaeda is trying to develop new methods of raising money. Across the world, al-Qaeda is turning to drug smuggling and stepping up kidnapping and extortion to plug the gap in its finances caused by a crackdown on its original sources of cash. The trend raises the prospect of a surge in illegal drugs entering the West. When the terrorist group began its activities more than a decade ago, it did not need to resort to criminal activities of a kind which might offend the strict Koranic principles proclaimed by its founder, Osama bin Laden. Deep-pocketed donors, in countries such as Saudi Arabia, and Islamic charities throughout the Middle East, channelled the cash needed to bankroll bin Laden's drive to create a caliphate across the region. Bin Laden's group had previously been able to rely on wheeler-dealers, such as Abdul al Hamid al-Mujil, to solicit donations to the cause of holy war. The 60-year-old Saudi was a regular visitor to Afghanistan during the 1990s and on friendly terms with bin Laden. But in August 2006, Mujil and the Philippine and Indonesian branches of the International Islamic Relief Organisation, which he headed, were designated by the US Treasury as financiers of terrorism. UN member states froze his assets and Saudi Arabia restricted the flow of funds from the charity. Deprived of his largesse, groups such as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (the Arabic name for North Africa) are turning to international crime to provide their cash flow. And for bin Laden, that represents a dilemma. At first he did not want al-Qaeda to dirty its hands with the drug trade. But he apparently was won around by a combination of fiscal necessity and the argument, often voiced on jihadist websites, that the drug trade weakens Western ''infidels'' by feeding their sinful addictions. Al-Qaeda is ''in its weakest financial condition in several years, and as a result, its influence is waning'', David Cohen, the assistant US treasury secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes, told an audience last October. But he warned that it was too soon for ''victory laps''. Telegraph, London Ads by Google
