The Role That Cigarette Smuggling Has In Funding Islamist Violence In Africa

Source: UNODC 2009. Credit: Observer graphics

How Cigarette Smuggling Fuels Africa's Islamist Violence -- The Guardian

Contrabrand tobacco is a $1bn trade in north Africa, run by extremists including Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who masterminded the attack on the Algerian gas plant. The trade is highly profitable – and very low risk

For many years Mokhtar Belmokhtar was little more than a footnote in the intelligence reports analysing the increasingly muscular presence of Islamist groups in Saharan Africa.

The man whose al-Qaida-inspired Signed in Blood Battalion led the attack on the In Amenas gas plant in Algeria, in which at least 38 people were killed, was considered a relatively unimportant figure in the political ecosystem of the vast region. But Belmokhtar, who fought for the mujahideen in Afghanistan and the Islamist GIA in the Algerian civil war before becoming a commander in the Mali-based al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), was ambitious.

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My Comment: Cigarette smuggling is big business .... I should know because I live across the river from the Indian reservation of Kahnawake, and they have been involved in the illegal cigarette trade for decades. To say that hundreds of millions of dollars are involved each year is an understatement. I myself was approached years ago to get involved in this trade because of my Chinese contacts .... I refused for the simple that I have zero desire to have the RCMP at my door.

In Africa .... I suspect that the numbers run in the multi-billions .... and the Guardian article raises a legitimate question .... what role do the global cigarette companies have in this trade, and are they (with eyes closed shut) helpng to nurture this trade by not asking the obvious hard questions of who is handling the distribution of their cigarettes, and where are these cigarettes ending up..

Choking Al Qaeda's Money Supply

Security Brief: The 'Urgent' Choking Of Al Qaeda's Money Supply -- CNN

Editor's note: This is the first of a three-part blog series on terrorist finances. In Part 1 we'll look at al Qaeda’s challenging financial situation. In Part 2 we'll examine at the Taliban’s money trail and in Part 3 we'll look at international co-operation (or sometimes the lack-thereof) in tracking terrorist financing. Bookmark our Security Brief section and check back Thursday for Part 2.

The U.S. Treasury Department may not have drones, but don’t underestimate the power of the pen in the battle with al Qaeda. Persistent pressure on the group’s sources of money over the past few years has left it “in significant financial distress,” says US Assistant Treasury Secretary David Cohen. “And we are urgently working to make it worse.”

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My Comment: For all guerrilla, insurgent, and rebel groups .... money is the mother's milk to keep it going. This is a good review from CNN on the importance of money to groups like Al Qaeda .... and is a must read.

Saudis Fail To Halt Terrorism Funding Despite Minor Gains

From Deutsche Welle:

Eight years after the 9/11 attacks on New York, US and European officials say Saudi efforts to stop the flow of funds from Saudi charities and individuals to terrorist groups have improved but failed to halt it.

For the first 18 months after the September 11 attacks, US officials charged that Saudi Arabia, shell-shocked by the fact that a majority of the perpetrators had been Saudi nationals, was dragging its feet on implementing measures to prevent Saudis from funding militant Islamic groups like al Qaeda.

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Previous Post: 1/3 Of Saudis And Egyptians Support Jihad

My Comment: With many supporting Al Qaeda and its ambitions .... it is no surprise that the Saudis have had trouble halting terrorism funding.

Fake Internet Drugs Risk Lives And Fund Terrorism, Warns Journal Editor

Fake Internet Drugs Risk Lives And Fund Terrorism, Warns Journal Editor -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Jan. 28, 2009) — People who buy fake internet drugs could be risking their lives and supporting terrorism, according to an editorial in the February issue of IJCP, the International Journal of Clinical Practice.

Editor-in-Chief Dr Graham Jackson, a UK-based Consultant Cardiologist, has called for greater public awareness of the dangers and consequences of the counterfeit drugs market, which is expected to be worth £55 billion by 2010.

"Harmful ingredients found in counterfeit medicines include arsenic, boric acid, leaded road paint, floor and shoe polish, talcum powder, chalk and brick dust and nickel" he points out.

"In one scheme, Americans buying fake Viagra on the internet were actually helping to fund Middle East terrorism, unknowingly jeopardising the lives of men and women serving in their own armed forces."

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My Comment: This may not be effective in North America or Europe (because of regulation and laws) , but in third world or Middle Eastern countries, the opportunity to buy drugs cheaply will be appealing .... the fact that they are counterfeit is besides the point.

For terror groups and/or for their sympathizers, this is not only a golden opportunity to steal, but to also have the potential to poison thousands.

Are Western Banks Breaking Sanctions

Lloyds Pays $350M To US In Sanctions Case -- Miami Herald/AP

WASHINGTON -- Lloyds TSB Bank PLC has agreed to forfeit $350 million for helping customers skirt U.S. sanctions on business transactions with Sudan, Iran and Libya.

The bank, headquartered in London, admitted responsibility for criminal conduct under a deferred prosecution deal filed Friday in federal court in Washington.

In announcing the settlement, the Justice Department said that as early as 1995, Lloyds falsified wire transfers involving countries or individuals on U.S. sanctions list.

The bank was accused of deliberately removing customer information - a process Lloyds employees referred to as "stripping" - so that wire transfers would pass undetected through filters at U.S. financial institutions.

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My Comment: This is one bank .... it does not take too much to imagine that other banks are doing the same thing.