L.A. Times on Terror Financing: Misses Key Reasons Why It's So Hard to Track


The Los Angeles Times runs a story today about the difficulties that the US is having in tracking and shutting down terrorist financial operations.  The story leads with a number of factors impeding both our domestic and international efforts:

The U.S.-led effort to choke off financing for Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups is foundering because setbacks at home and abroad have undermined the Bush administration's highly touted counter-terrorism weapon, according to current and former officials and independent experts.

In some cases, extremist groups have blunted financial anti-terrorism tools by finding new ways to raise, transfer and spend their money. In other cases, the administration has stumbled over legal difficulties and interagency fighting, officials and experts say.

But the most serious problems are fractures and mistrust within the coalition of nations that the United States admits it needs to target financiers of terrorism and to stanch the flow of funding from wealthy donors to extremist causes.

Can anyone spot what's missing?  Anyone?  Sigh  Anyone besides Lisa?

Apparently the Times doesn't think that the media's disclosure of the nature, procedures, and targets of those programs could have a deleterious effect on their effectiveness and foreign cooperation.

Moreover, the Times doesn't think that the House Democrats' refusal to grant immunity to telecom companies who helped the government with foreign intelligence gathering could be interpreted by foreign banks and governments as a warning of might be in store for them if they, too, make the mistake of assisting the US is tracking down terrorist transactions.

And certainly, the House Democrats' refusal to renew the PAA couldn't have any effect on our ability to locate and track new targets for investigation?

No, certainly not.  But we wouldn't want to question their patriotism.

Cross-Posted on View From a Height.


Comments Policy

All comments are owned by whoever posted them and are subject to our terms of use. They should not be assumed to represent the views of NewsBusters.

Viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Just curious, who's Lisa? 

Just curious, who's Lisa? 

Sounds like a Simpsons reference to me

Unfortunately, the LA Times is a lot like Bart.

Who's Lisa?

Lisa Simpson. Doooooh!

"The U.S.-led effort to

"The U.S.-led effort to choke off financing for Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups is foundering because setbacks at home..."

 

So the NYT is considered a "setback" by the LAT?

Lets not cheat all those lawyers out of millions they can get

from all the evil corporations, that spy on you...

WE ARE SCREWED (being sitting ducks) waiting the comming disaster at a city near you.

<wake up>SAVVVE The Whales N' Earth; conserve N' recycle !

IranianUranium<sleep>Infrastructure/repair?/ROFLMAO

 

Funny

It's funny that the Lame Stream Media after covering for the democrats for years now have to cover for themselves. No more intel collection because, why? Media, Leftie, Media, Lefties.

Lately the ultra liberal democrat college (Harvard) came out with a study that shows that the media and politicians (democrats), through support of terrorism and slandering the U.S. have been responsible for up to 10% of the attacks in Iraq and in effect they have the blood of 400 U.S. military personnel and thousands of Iraqi citizens on their hands. Not quite as bad as the 3 to 5 million they got slaughtered in Southeast Asia, but they're working on outdoing their previous traitorous actions. The lack of support/approval of the U.S. congress and the fast approaching failure of the Lame Stream media at least show the 'average' American citizen isn't as stupid as the media and politicians.

 

Old, Retired and glad of it.

Should this be any

Should this be any surprise?  The LAT has no clue how its own finances work.

Out of Touch and Clueless in LaLa Land......Ciao Baby!

These fools don't have ANY notion of the trouble being stirred up in this country by Muslim terrorists and sympathizers, and won't take their collective heads out of the sand until Paramount Studios is vaporized one sunny day.

If you want some really scary reporting to absorb while you're on the can, take a gander at this article.......the real deal and happening as the national media and our elected officials deke and skirt the issue.....too hot to handle POLITICALLY....these worms..... 

Some excerpts:

"Established in January 1963 at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the Muslim Students Association of the United States and Canada, or MSA (also known as MSA National) currently has chapters on nearly 600 college campuses across North America."

"From its inception, MSA had close links with the extremist Muslim World League, whose chapters’ websites have featured not only Osama bin Laden’s propaganda, but also publicity-recruiting campaigns for Wahhabi involvement with the Chechen insurgents in Russia. According to author and Islam expert Stephen Schwartz, MSA is a key lobbying organization for the Wahhabi sect of Islam."

"MSA solicited donations for the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, whose assets the U.S. government seized in December 2001 because that organization was giving financial support to the terrorist group Hamas. MSA also has strong ties to the World Assembly of Muslim Youth."

"Charging that U.S. foreign policy is driven by militaristic imperialism, MSA steadfastly opposes the American military incursions into both Afghanistan and Iraq.[16] The organization also follows the Arab propaganda line in the Middle East conflict and has condemned the anti-terrorist security fence that Israel has built in the West Bank as an illegal “apartheid wall” that violates the civil and human rights of Palestinians."

"MSA has strongly opposed the Patriot Act, which it describes as an “infamous” piece of legislation. The organization’s chapters across the United States have similarly denounced virtually every other national security initiative implemented by the U.S. government since the 9/11 attacks."

 

Nowhere to Run....Nowhere To Hide.....

"Individual Moslems may

"Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith....... , the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome."

 

I wish I had said this but it comes from the mind of Sir Winston Churchhill.

 

Life is too short to be serious

The NYT is THE reason we can't track terror finances.

The story, in fact, that should have closed down the NYT. Leaking national security secrets all for the sake of 'getting' President Bush. My words would net be strong enough to describe these traitors. Of course, it the Republicans owned a pair, they would have made an example of them.

"To beat Violence, You must ignore the focus groups. You must send in the Mossad, turn off the BBC, CNN, and don't look back."