Terrorist Transactions

The lead story in The New York Times this morning, “Cash Flow to Terrorists Evades U.S. Efforts,” reveals our attempts to halt financing to terrorists, through pressures on banks and allied Arab governments, to be close to an utter failure. The revelation comes thanks to a review of the trove of documents provided by WikiLeaks through a source in the U.S. government.

Terrorists, the article explains, rely on a wide variety of measures to finance their operations, including the drug trade in Afghanistan, kidnappings for ransom, wealthy individuals in Arab governments — often solicited during pilgrimmages to Mecca or through ostensible charities — and even bank robberies. The cables provided by WikiLeaks describe pushback from Arab governments, even our staunch ally, Saudi Arabia, who characterized American efforts as heavy-handed and sometimes unfounded.

Though some progress has recently occurred in Saudi Arabia, the article describes the government there as almost completely dependent on tips from the C.I.A. And all these revelations come despite a more optimistic picture painted in the press by U.S. government officials. The situation, instead, seems to be largely intractable.

Sometimes, I admit, it seems like our efforts against the terrorist threat amount to builiding walls of sand against the incoming tide. Though we have been fortunate so far in countering a number of planned attacks, one day, unless the dynamic changes in some way, we will be overwhelmed in a terrible and horrific way.