Al-Qaida receives most of its money from funds diverted from Islamic charities, two Sept. 11 commission members said.
"Al-Qaida relied on well-placed financial facilitators who gathered money from both witting and unwitting donors, primarily in the Gulf region," Slade Gorton and Lee Hamilton said in a statement prepared for joint testimony before the Senate Banking Committee.
Although the commissioners said it would be impossible to cut off all funding, "tracking al-Qaida financing is an effective way to locate terrorist operatives and supporters, and to disrupt terrorist plots."
The commissioners rejected charges that American businesses and organizations have aided terrorism funding.
"The U.S. is not and has not been a substantial force of al-Qaida funding," Gorton said.
the commissioners said al-Qaida's resources have decreased dramatically in the past few years because of the U.S. war on terrorism, "but, as long as al-Qaida retains access to a viable financial network, it remains a lethal threat to the U.S.," Gorton said. |