The Economics of Terrorism

" ... The fastest growing economy in the world is the new economy of terror; a sophisticated international economic system that avoids what we think is normal economics. Al Qaeda and most other terrorist groups have developed their own system. Much of which is barrowed from ancient times where the Moslems fervently avoided banks and the Qur'an forbids usury/interest. They teach from child hood in Islamic schools (madrasa's) that the Templars, not the Rothschilds founded the first international banking system around 1100 A.D. in Jerusalem. The Templars were a non-Islamic religious order dedicated to serving the church during the Crusades. They quickly became the world's greatest international banking empire. By 1190 A.D., The Templars had murdered, pillaged and raped the Islamic people. They were allowed to keep the spoils captured from the Muslims. The Templars grew into full-service bankers and that model laid the foundation for the current banking system used today. The Muslims were locked out of that system and had to start their own secret financial and economic system. Hawala was born. Terrorist organizations get much of their cash by what is known as Hawala – an informal Islamic banking and brokering world system. This terrorist trust advances money among members on a simple hand shake, chits, credits and encrypted passwords.

It is believed that the US has intensified its war on terrorism on the financial front, targeting this ancient, informal system of money transfers that officials believe funneled millions of dollars to Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. And is still being used today.
Hawala, has been used for hundreds of years to move money across distances and around legal and financial barriers in South Asia and the Middle East.

Arab traders used it on the Silk Road to avoid being robbed, and now millions of Pakistanis, Indians and others working abroad use the hawala system to send money home to their families.

Billions of dollars flow through this informal and anonymous system, and officials believe that al-Qaeda is using the system to move money to its operatives around the world.

Hawala works as well in remote regions as it does from the back of a jewelry store in LA's jewelry district or in Gallup New Mexico and now with a special thanks to the internet millions of additional dollars move daily. US investigators would do well to research the old ways of the Muslims and culture and learn how they do business and how it is most unlike our systems of the west. In fact they do things almost in the opposite way of the west. In fact a good start would be to learn their language. Particularly damning for intelligence agencies after 9/11 were reports that only a handful of agents throughout CIA spoke fluent Arabic or Pharsi. Though never confirmed officially, sources familiar with the situation in 2001 say that outside the eavesdropping analysts at the National Security Agency, less than a dozen CIA field agents could speak the language spoken by the groups that were the consensus favorites to mount attacks on America.

New agents are hard to find, but Congress and the American public are tired of hearing it.

According to the US government Saudi businessmen pay Al-Qaeda millions in protection money often using some form of Hawala. Al- Qaeda fighters generate cash by protecting drug lords and drug shipments. They have run scams on the Internet designed to swindle Americans (see insert or side bar) and Israelis into false, get rich quick schemes and credit card fraud. Drug money is an important source of capital for the terrorist these funds are also hard to trace. Terrorist finance the cultivation of poppies for harvesting and the manufacture of high grade Heroin and opium. This is then transported by everyone from fishermen to cab drivers and sold on the open world markets. Authorities believe top terrorist operatives work in the Honey trade they control the honey retailers throughout the Arab, Pakistan and Afghan world. Their products also reach other markets globally. I know before the advent of the Federal Reserve and now sustained by terror groups, their sponsors, terror states, many so called charities, drug trafficking and various and sundry legitimate and not legitimate businesses, corporations and other affiliates around the world is becoming known as the Terrorist Economy.

Over the last decade the new economy of terror has merged with the international illegal drug and criminal economy and together they generate a yearly turnover of $1.5 trillion (£0.89 trillion) equivalent to 5% of world GDP. This elusive economic system is the structure that supports and nurtures global terror. ... "