Finance and Terrorism

In the backdrop of Mumbai blasts that shook India on 7/11, this article attempts to bring to light another dimension of terrorism viz. role of finance in terrorism. There are two types of terrorists; first the ‘jihadis’ and second the super powers, each accusing the other as the fundamentalists and the imperialists. The former terms the latter as global terrorist. Both have different goals but both need funds to achieve their goals. Yet there is subtle difference in the ways they raise their funds. But what is more agonizing is when the means becomes an end in itself.

Finance for terrorism:
• The first suspect arrested following the initial bombing of the World Trade Center on Feb 26, 1993, was a poor, unemployed, illegal immigrant, Mohammad Salameh, who offered US $ 5 million for his bail, which was not granted to him. From where could he have possibly got this kind of money?
• How many people would think that two beautiful plants, the poppy and the coca, funded the 9/11 that ultimately erased the WTC from the US map?
• No commodity other than drugs, man made or nature given, can possibly generate extremely high and fast returns, necessary for funding terrorism. There are possibly less commensurate risks involved in drug trade. The drugs are marketable almost everywhere, with a demand that continues to grow. They are delivered after full payment is made to the dealers; so loss due to credit or logistic risks is minimal.
• Terrorism thrives well when there is some kind of civil unrest due to differences in perception about caste, colour, creed or other societal orders or there is a high level moral decadency in a country.
• The terrorists took direct advantage of USA’s moral degeneracy due to drugs. Post 9/11, the US acknowledged that corruption facilitates illegal drug trade which in turn generates revenues for the terrorists.
• According to an estimate from the US State Department Office for International Narcotics Matters (2001), the production of 1 kilo of cocaine costs about $3,000 and the wholesale price per kilo is about $20,000, whereas production cost of heroin is about $4,000 to $5,000 per kilo and the wholesale price per kilo is $250,000 to $300,000.
• Cocaine production takes place in Colombia, Peru, and especially Bolivia, where it grows fast. Opium is cultivated twice a year in Asia and the Middle East and at least three to four times in Mexico and Colombia because of the tropical climate.
• After Taliban took over Afghanistan, heroin production soared. In 1999, the world production of heroin was estimated at 500 metric tons with 400 tons produced by the Taliban, allowing the availability of funds to execute its purpose worldwide.
• Illicit trade in commodities like diamonds, counterfeit currency, identification papers, pirated CDs/ videos, stolen cars, etc also generate funds for terrorism. But when human beings are commoditized, crimes like abduction and prostitution take place. All of these activities orchestrate multi-million-dollar frauds.
• The above are just a few of the several ways of funding terrorism and the perpetrators may be trying new and more sophisticated ways to raise funds.
Finance in terrorism

In earlier days war was considered to be a legitimate means of imposing one country’s will over of another, after diplomatic overtures failed. The political will of the warring nation could stem from social, religious or other causes but ultimately they are aimed at economic subjugation of the vanquished nation. Through a systematic colonization, the British ensured that the sun never set in its empire. The Roman Empire was built over the ruins of several wars. There is the history of military interventions by the US since 1890 across the globe to prove its supremacy, some of which had catastrophic results. Vietnam, Chechnya and Bosnia are few examples.

As a result of the dire consequences of the two world wars, the League of Nations and its successor United Nations Organization resolved to oppose war of any kind. Rather it resolved that the comity of nations would intervene militarily where one nation oppresses another nation militarily. So the legitimacy of war got shifted from a single nation’s self–proclaimed one to one of proclamation by a united body! But even here there was and is discrimination. Even without the requisite UN proclamation, the US and the UK and the other so-called champions of democracy chose it right to interfere in Iraq.

Terrorism, the proxy war
After the world war, it was the effort of capitalist countries to contain communism from spreading out of Asia, especially the USSR that led to the cold war era. But after the disintegration of the USSR and Russia adopting, directly or indirectly, capitalism the real war turned towards gaining control over the most precious commodity, oil.

Osama, now a foe of USA, was initially a CIA agent who was a pawn at the hands of USA to fight Soviet invasion of Afghan during 1979, during the cold war era. USA wanted to score over Soviet by making Osama the bait that later turned hostile to US on the stationing of American troops in Saudi-Arabia.

After ousting Soviet from Afghan with the help of Egyptians, Lebanese, Turks and others sympathizing with the Muslim brothers in Afghan, Osama returned to his home town in Saudi Arabia to pursue his construction business but was expelled from there on charges of indulging in anti-government activities. He then spent next 5 years in Sudan, but was ousted from there by the Sudanese government, under US pressure. Finally he took refuge in Afghanistan. In Osama’s view US is the global terrorist. The Islamists view America (Christians) as a supporter of Jews determined to exterminate the Muslims.

Israel has violated countless UN resolutions and amassed weapons of mass destruction; America supports Israel yet it singled out Iraq for alleged amassing of weapons of mass destruction, which turned out to be a hoax. The real war was for oil.

The power of Oil
US ranks number one amongst the top ten oil importing countries. While America's daily oil production is some 9 million barrels, its daily consumption exceeds 20 million barrels. After the Gulf countries, Russia, Latin America and some African countries have most of the oil reserves of the world. Unfortunately the US concentrates its efforts at controlling the oil market. It tries to create feud between oil producing neighbours-Kuwait and Iraq- and supplies military armaments to such feuding nations and in the process the US has made its economy war-dependent and has perpetual trade deficit.

China, on the other hand, is the second largest consumer of oil but its economy excels with a growing trade surplus despite high oil prices. The day the US Administration thinks that it can create wealth for its nation, the soaring oil prices notwithstanding, through other means of fair trade, it can certainly help reduce tension caused due to selling of war making machinery to nations that do not have tolerant neighbours.

What happens when the means becomes the end in itself?
• A terrorist is born, when initially an oppressed wants to counter the oppressor in a combat, and thereby mobilizes funds and resources for the cause. Gradually when the terrorist realizes that he can get whatever funds he desires (needed or not), the means becomes the end. Hence funding, from an initial means of sustaining terrorism in support of whatever ‘ism” becomes a goal in itself.
• The super powers sponsor/create an environment conducive for war like situation as a means to create wealth for their citizen. If not oil, it could be some dispute over territory between two neighbours. For example, when India complained of Pak sponsored terrorism, USA never took a stand against Pakistan. Instead it used the dispute between the two neighbours to sell more war arsenal to both. How serious the US and the G-8 nations are when they condemned the Bombay Blasts, only time will tell!
• But the risk of great danger to humanity lies when the terrorist group, the faceless organization, converts its means to an end in itself. Even if the US is criticized globally for its policies, it has a face; a face of a nation, a super power, a friend, a foe or an ally. In an open world, its citizen and outsiders speak for it, against it, point a finger at it or even reprimand it for it’s polices. And US itself takes cognizance of the sweet n sour global opinions about it. But the jihadi terrorists don’t have a face, they are just scattered and it’s difficult to even quarantine them, eliminating them may be a bizarre thought. They do not follow the principles of war or adopt the scientific methods of aiming war only against military targets, leaving the innocent civilians from the attacks. And hence jihad is the worst form of terrorism. Whom to point at, whom to rebuke?

A matter of perception
Call it the tussle for power or the animosity between religions, it all depends how we perceive the divide. The world can learn a lesson from Indian history of tolerance-Ahimsa. India follows the path of righteousness and bears the brunt of terrorism. India does not have territorial ambition and does not adopt terrorism to create wealth for itself. Man made peace may not reign in this earth, but nature will show its eternal way. After all borders are temporary and can be obliterated by a Tsunami or an earthquake, just the way it happened in India’s consanguineous neighbourhood.