Financing Terror

A Miami Imam and his 2 sons have been arrested for financially supporting the Pakistani Taliban. 

Watch AP's coverage below:

Wikileaks revealed that Saudi Arabia urged the U.S. to "cut off the head" of the Iranian "snake", or to put it simply, attack and destroy Iran's nuclear program.

A nuclear Iran poses a threat to Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, and the entire world, so the Saudi's are calling on the U.S. to take action. Sounds like a good plan.

However, Wikileaks also show that Saudi Arabia continues to be the chief financial sponsor of al Qaeda and other Sunni terrorist groups.

Now let's get this straight. Saudi Arabia wants the U.S. to get rid of the nuclear program which greatly threatens Saudi Arabia, but finances the training of terrorists, and funds the planning and execution of numerous attacks, which target and threaten the U.S. and American citizens?!? Something doesn't add up here.

This is only the most recent in a string of examples of charities financing terrorism:

“After a week-long trial, a federal court in Eugene, Oregon has convicted Pete Seda, the founder of an Islamic charity accused of funneling $150,000 to Chechen mujahideen.” Read article here.

“The lifeblood of terrorism is money—if we can stop the flow of money to violent extremist organizations, we'll be safer both here and abroad,” U.S. Attorney Dwight C. Holton said.

Are we being effective enough in stopping that flow of money to violent extremist organizations? If this is what we uncover, how much more is there that we have yet to find?

TALIBAN AND IRAN: A MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE GLUED BY A COMMON HATE AGAINST "DANGEROUS AMERICA."

 "We don’t care who we get money from," the [Taliban] treasurer was quoted as saying. He described the relationship with Iran as a "marriage of convenience." Iran is a predominantly Shiite country, while the Taliban is dominated by Sunni Muslims.

 "Iran will never stop funding us because Americans are dangerous for them as well. I think the hatred is the same from both us and Iran. The money we get is not dirty. It is for jihad," the treasurer told Amoore.

"I have to sign off on all the receipts and I have to add up how much each fighter deserves after each operation. I also have to communicate in the Iranian language," the treasurer told the newspaper.

See full article here.

Did you know that only 2o cents on the dollar that you pay at the pump pays for gas? The rest goes to the country where the oil was pumped. No wonder Radical Isamic terrorists aren't experiencing a recession.  ButI have bad news for terrorists worldwide.

The Los Angeles Times reported last week on a push by two California officials to divest from Iran.

[They] are pushing insurers and the state's two major pension funds to sell more than $6 billion worth of holdings in companies doing business in Iran. Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner is expected Wednesday to ask hundreds of state-licensed insurance companies to pull money out of 50 foreign-owned corporations he said are involved in Iran's nuclear, military and energy sectors.

The push follows moves by the Treasury Department to impose sanctions as a way of forcing the regime to curb its nuclear program. The sanctions have largely targeted the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Doha last week that the U.S. feared the IRGC was gradually seizing control of the state, with the potential to transform it into a military dictatorship.

According to RAND the IRGC

[controls] an array of subsidiary companies that have penetrated virtually every sector of the Iranian market—from construction and real estate to laser eye surgery and automobile manufacturing. Reportedly, the IRGC also operates illicit smuggling networks that constitute a vast shadow economy.

Tactics like sanctions and divestment are not failsafe mechanisms, as the regime has found ways to disguise some of its business dealings. Nevertheless, they are important resources to help curb the nuclear threat, when applied to Iranian business interests, as well as when applied to any company doing business with the regime.

You can read the Los Angeles Times article here.