In a message dated 9/17/01 10:15:13 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>Preston et al:
>
>
>
>I am finishing a detailed article on this subject which I will be posting
>
>when done. For all of my economic research I have never seen numbers this
>
>exaggerated and find them suspect. The US GDP is only $10 trillion. The
>
>world GDP is less than $100. This guy has the idea right but the numbers
>are
>
>way off. The U.S. military budget is only $350 billion per year. It is
>
>impossible that there is $6.5 trillion or roughly 20 times that much in
>the
>
>illegal weapons trade.
>
>
>
>Mike
Preston et
al:
I am
finishing a detailed article on this subject which I will be posting when done.
For all of my economic research I have never seen numbers this exaggerated and
find them suspect. The US GDP is only $10 trillion. The world GDP is less than
$100. This guy has the idea right but the numbers are way off. The U.S. military
budget is only $350 billion per year. It is impossible that there is $6.5
trillion or roughly 20 times that much in the illegal weapons
trade.
Mike
Currently reported as centers of
Islamic fundamentalism, Afghanistan and
Pakistan are major centers of
narcotics trafficking.
http://www.dawn.com/2001/07/23/ebr7.htm
This overlap suggests that links may exist between terrorist
activity, on
the one hand, and narcotics smuggling, on the other.
Complex money
laundering systems throughout Asia exist. These
rely at least in part on
parallel banking systems traditional to those
societies.
According to the article:
"Conservatively
estimated, total narcotic revenues today flowing back to
offshore markets
exceed $ 80 trillion. Add to it about $ 5,400 billion of
annual flight of
capital (evasion of tax and currency laws), as well as some
$ 6,500
billion in illicit arms traffic, and various other categories of
contraband-related funds. The cash flow of the underground economy via the
offshore markets is of the order of $ 153.5 trillion per year. How much of
this remains in the market's deposit base, and how much finds its way back
to "laundered" investments inside various national economies, is difficult
to estimate."
Accordingly, if a terrorist / narcotics link exists,
the funds available to
bin Laden and his cohorts may greatly exceed the
$300 million now currently
reported.
Ironically, one of the
foremost money laundering centers today is Israel.
see, eg:
http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/ites/0501/ijee/fatffacts.htm
Accordingly, Islamic terrorists may have very strange bed fellows
indeed.
Duncan C. Kinder
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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