Follow the terrorism money

? Follow the money. We heard this during Watergate. We heard this during Iran-Contra. It is the watch phrase for all sorts of nefarious activities. It is the watch phrase in the fight against terrorism.

The Bush administration has announced that it is waging a war on terrorism on several fronts. (We have previously explained that to call this a war is to give legal standing to the terrorists. It is not a war.) These include military operations, intelligence and counter-intelligence operations, diplomatic efforts and educational and economic activities.

It is the last of these that holds the greatest prospect for ultimate success, because global terrorism cannot be conducted without a regular and substantial flow of funds. Ironically, much of the terrorist money comes from the United States.

Because oil is fungible, it does not matter if the United States buys it from an ally or enemy. If the United States buys oil from Mexico, a friend, then another oil consumer, who might have purchased from Mexico, will buy it elsewhere, say from Iraq, an enemy. And what does Iraq’s Saddam Hussein do with that oil money?

He is theoretically limited to selling just enough oil to meet the food and medical needs of his nation. But we know that he is using much of the money to develop weapons of mass destruction. He is also the only world leader to openly support terrorists, which is what happened when he offered $25,000 to the family of every suicide bomber who attacks Israelis.

The Bush administration is trying to find a smoking gun that links Saddam and his oil dollars to al-Qaida terrorists. Although there is substantial circumstantial evidence plus a reported meeting between an Iraqi intelligence officer and Mohammed Atta, the leader of the Sept. 11 terrorists the material gathered has not been acknowledged as sufficient to confirm the Saddam-terrorist connection.

But Iraq only has the second-largest pool of oil reserves in the world. The largest is in Saudi Arabia, America’s longtime ally in the Arab world. It is a strange alliance. After Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, its forces spilled over into Saudi Arabia, where the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division stopped them. The ensuing Desert Storm campaign to free Kuwait was as much a campaign to protect Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is a kingdom ruled by one family. Women are without rights. The laws are medieval. The country is militarily weak. So, like other small, rich regimes in history, it buys protection. In 1990-91, it bought it from the United States.

But it also buys protection from the Arab world by supporting and funding efforts against Israel. That funding has carried over to international terrorists. The al-Qaida network operating in Afghanistan received money from Saudi sources, if not directly from the Saudi government. The majority of the Sept. 11 suicide attackers were Saudi nationals.

But, as with Saddam Hussein, the smoking gun showing direct Saudi payments to terrorists is hard to come by, even though logic and circumstances show such activities to be unmistakable.

So, in the fight against international terrorism, the United States needs to follow the money, even if the road leads to a Middle Eastern friend.

Prediction: The Bush administration will continue to emphasize aspects other than economics in the “war” on terrorism.