Al Qaeda has to cope with less money

LA Times via Houston Chronicle:

Financial support for al-Qaida and the size of its operating budget have plummeted in the three years since the Sept. 11 attacks, but the network "continues to fund terrorist operations with relative ease," according to new findings released Saturday by the commission that investigated the strikes.

The report from the panel also says that the Saudi government provided lackluster cooperation in the effort to staunch the flow of money to al-Qaida for two years after the attacks, but began to respond more aggressively after several al-Qaida strikes in the kingdom last year.

Al-Qaida's annual budget appears to have shrunk from about $30 million a year before the Sept. 11 attacks to as little as a few million dollars per year now, the commission reported. Funding for the terrorist network has shriveled during that same period, partly because of the more aggressive stance by Saudi Arabia, the report said.

But the financial shortfalls have not caused a commensurate decline in al-Qaida's capabilities because the attacks it sponsors are relatively inexpensive, it has shed high-cost obligations including its prior support for the Taliban government in Afghanistan, and the network can still find funding from solid supporters, the report said.


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