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The financing of terror is becoming clearer as investigators explore the links between international networks of terrorists such as Qaida. and a plethora of organizations who willingly or unknowingly donate funds to feeder organizations -- organizations which eventually funnel funds to Qaida, who in turn finds creative ways to pass on the funds to their individual terrorist members or cells who then fund their members.
(click on the chart to see a larger, more detailed
image)
A case has emerged recently
(Newsweek reporters Michael Isikoff
And Evan Thomas 1) that seems like pure
fiction.
If one is to believe this article, the wife of Saudi Ambassador to the
United States and member of the Saudi Royal Family Princess Haifa
al-Faisal,
wife of the Saudi ambassador is involved in financial transactions that
helped support, at least indirectly, 9/11 terrorist hijackers Khalid
Almidhar
and Nawaf Alhazmi. The accusations claim she wrote monthly checks
that ultimately went into the accounts of Omar al-Bayoumi and Osama
Basnan,
supposedly an innocent donation to a needy person was used intend for
nefarious
purposes, eventually winding up in the hands of one of the 9/11
terrorists
instead.
In the chart above (click on it to see the details), this particular path is not shown -- a path from the needy person to Qaida or directly to a terrorist member-- no one would believe someone stupid enough to hand traceable funds over to a terrorist, especially in the target country. Yet this may very well have been what happened. And only one person away from the Saudi Royalty. Yet another interesting coincidence -- Terrorists from Saudi Arabia hijack a plane and a little over a year later we find out that the Saudi Royal family may have innocently given them aid? Hard to fight off paranoia that says this is too much of a coincidence. Our great friends the Saudis.
It is sad to see that cynical terrorist supporters simply handed over cash to the 9/11 terrorists, feeling safe in doing so. A true indictment of U.S. anti terror capabilities and enforcement pre 9/11. Or perhaps, the arrogance of the Saudi Royalty in assuming the innocence of the transaction would be believed -- and already we are seeing a nice little spin being put on it -- just a cultural thing some wish us to believe. Right. Just like Martha Stewart's innocent stock deal. Right!
Granted, many wealthy people donate money in a myriad of ways to those who might need it. In our chart, the International Aid Group could be the International Red Cross, the United Way, the Jewish Defense League, the Catholic Youth Fund, or the Christian Benefit Fund. All such organizations try to vet the receivers of their funds, whether the funds are going to another organization or directly to an individual.
So yes, it is easy to see how the wealthy could unknowingly fund a terrorist group. And our chart does not show the international and local drug trade feeding funds into the feeder organizations -- another now well known source of terrorist funds.
But you know, it gets tiring and stretches credulity to extremes. Look, folks. Timothy McVey was a home grown U.S. domestic terrorist. Yep, we have to admit it. Our right wing, anti-government idiots spawned that monster. Yep. We also made a Charlie Manson and Jeffrey Dalmer.
And so the Saudis have their Osama Bin Laden and a host of 9/11 hijackers. However, we haven't seen any evidence even close to showing a person in high office in the U.S. was helping McVey, Manson, or Dalmer. Few would suspect such a thing.
However, we seem to continually run into the footprints of the Saudis. They are found leading to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and even Hamas and Hezbollah in Israeli settlements. Huge donations to organizations known to feed funds to Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and Islamic Jihad. Huge donations to Wahhabi Madrasses in Saudi Arabia that continue to preach the vitriol of anti western Islamic Jihad against the infidels. Of course we are to believe "it's just one of those cultural things."
Just look at the links
in this particular case, they are not only damning, they are right out
of a Hollywood conspiracy film. 
Of
course, the wealthy pattern of making deals and the paths of money as
it
changes hands is as common here as it is everywhere -- people tend to
help
those they know through friends or their investments. There is
nothing
wrong with that. The problem in this case arises from the
multiple
links that appear to indicate a network of support rather than a rare,
one-off donation that went astray. Again one might hear "it's a
cultural
thing", or "once trust is built, it is difficult, perhaps an insult to
inquire further". Perhaps. But perhaps it is also true that
the wealthy must take responsibility for their actions and make sure
there
are periodic checks on where their charity goes. With wealth comes the
responsibility to make sure it is used properly.
Of course the paranoid hawk in us might force us to make another response. "Cultural things my ass". It's time to end the charade once and for all. Take a stand folks. If the Saudis are our only good friend in the Middle East, then not only are we being screwed, we are smiling while it happens. Stupid of us. Let's just say "no" to that kind of stupidity.
It's time we told those in the Middle East who have proven time and time again that they are NOT our friends, that we don't want or need their so called friendship any more.
The Fox News version of this story 7 calls attention to another sobering possibility. Regardless of the Royal family involvement and its repercussions on the U.S.-Saudi relationship, does the "social" care network for Middle Easterners in the U.S. indicate that there is not only a clandestine terrorist support network in the U.S. but it is extremely well funded? And how deep and how well manned is that financial network?
Clearly suppositions such as this require investigation, and just as clearly one would expect the Justice Department to bring some focus on this subject. And in fact, it might be unfortunate that the information about the network was made public at this point before the FBI has had a chance to dig a little deeper.
© Copyright, 2002, Michael Crawford, MILNET