Cables Reflect Tensions Over Terrorism Funding .WikiLeaks cables portray Saudi Arabia as a cashpoint for terrorists

WikiLeaks cables portray Saudi Arabia as a cashpoint for terrorists

update on Wikileaks dispatch exposes Meles Zenawi as a mercenary  and

UAE leader praised Ethiopian invasion of Somalia..These Double Face Arabs are just evil...one hand, Wahhabism AND other hand..You Know The Rest Of The Story..WikiLeaked Cable
 WASHINGTON—Leaked diplomatic cables show continued U.S. frustration with the lack of cooperation from Arab and Muslim countries in fighting terrorism financing, almost a decade after stopping the flow of funds to extremists became a central part of U.S. counterterrorism strategy. While al Qaeda's ability to raise funds has been hampered, and by some accounts is at its lowest level since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, U.S. officials struggle to persuade allies such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to crack down on the illicit financing of other extremist groups. That is particularly important since some of those other groups, such as Lashkar e-Tayyiba of Pakistan, are graduating from regional to global terrorism threats.The latest batch of leaked cables was reported by the New York Times and the Guardian Sunday, a week after the self-described whistle-blower website WikiLeaks started publishing its cache of a quarter-million U.S. diplomatic cables. U.S. politicians continued to take aim at Wikileaks founder Julian Assange over the weekend. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) called Mr. Assange a "high-tech terrorist." WikiLeaks, under virtual fire all week, has an additional cache of sensitive U.S. documents prepared for publication if its website is closed down, the U.K.'s Sunday Times reported.The cables related to terrorism financing include dispatches from 2007, 2009 and 2010. They show that, nearly a decade after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, U.S. officials continue to press countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Pakistan to make fighting terror financing a bigger priority. However, the cables do show notable progress in just a few years. A cable from 2007 reports that President George W. Bush was "quite concerned" and sent a letter to Saudi King Abdullah.A dispatch from earlier this year, in contrast, highlighted Saudi Arabia's "important progress in combating al-Qaida financing emanating from the country.…Al-Qaida's ability to raise funds has deteriorated substantially, and it is now in its weakest state since 9/11. A senior U.S. administration official, while declining to comment on the leaked cables themselves, said, "The U.S. government has made terrorist financing a high priority and raised the issue consistently with countries all over the world, especially in the Gulf, and, as a result of those efforts, we have put substantial financial pressure on al-Qai'da. One of the principal reasons for this progress is an increased prioritization of this issue by Saudi Arabia. In the past 2 years, for example, we've seen the Saudi Arabian government disrupting terrorist financing networks, seeking to delegitimize the practice of funding terrorism, and holding terrorist financiers publicly accountable." Still, there are concerns. Donors in Saudi Arabia, for example, are described in a December 2009 cable from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as "the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups world-wide." Qatar's counterterrorism record is described as "the worst in the region" in the same cable. The Gulf nation last week won the right to host the World Cup in 2022. Kuwait, alone among its neighbors, doesn't have a law against terror financing. Pakistan systematically blocks efforts by the U.S. and United Nations to curtail the financing of extremist groups.The cables illustrate that the battle against terrorist financing is stymied by many of the same forces that have bedeviled it for years. Islamic charities continue to be a significant source of funding for extremist ideologies, despite years of talks about regulating charitable giving in countries such as Saudi Arabia. Mrs. Clinton's 2009 cable singled out three Saudi charities: the International Islamic Relief Organization, the Muslim World League, and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth. "[T]hese groups continue to send money overseas and, at times, fund extremism overseas," the cable says.

Even when foreign governments take the threat of al Qaeda seriously, extremist groups that don't pose a security threat to them are given greater leeway. The cables chide Kuwait and Saudi Arabia for not taking action against the Taliban and LeT, for example.Terrorism is funded by a range of activities, many of which are difficult to target with regulatory measures. The Afghan and Pakistan Taliban, for example, have used drug smuggling and kidnapping to raise large amounts of money in recent years. Kidnapping ransoms bring millions of dollars a year to al Qaeda's North African affiliate. In Yemen, al Qaeda operatives are believed to have staged a 2009 bank robbery that netted $500,000.Importantly, terrorist attacks are cheap, meaning even small amounts of money reaching extremists can have an impact. The October air-cargo plot hatched in Yemen, for example, cost just $4,200, according to an article in the English-language magazine of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. By some estimates, the Sept. 11 attacks cost about $500,000.While the cables primarily detail U.S. frustrations with Gulf and South Asian countries, pushback against the U.S.-led fight against terrorism financing is wider spread. One cable details German Chancellor Angela Merkel's anger with fellow German politicians who voted against measures to track terrorist financing in the European Parliament.A cable from February notes: "the German public and political class largely tends to view terrorism abstractly given that it has been decades since any successful terrorist attack has occurred on German soil."  wsj.com
The Evil Triangle in Somalia: Secessionist Somaliland, Al Shabaab, and Dahabshiil Money Transfer Company