Funding Evil, Updated: How Terrorism is Financed and How to Stop It [Paperback]

Rachel Ehrenfeld (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 16, 2005

By terrorism expert Rachel Ehrenfeld, uncovers the clandestine and sinister ways that Islamic terrorist groups finance their global network. Terrorist have grown increasingly savvy in ways to bolster their financial power. Dr. Ehrenfeld's investigation also details how these undected billions are spent to bring about chaos and destabilization. Funding Evil offers realistic and provocative strategies for winning the war on terror.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Conservative analyst and pundit Ehrenfeld contends that our image of terrorism is all wrong. Rather than shadowy cells of young, religious martyrs, the true face of terror, she says, is an international network of corrupt state leaders, superwealthy contributors, and drug and crime kingpins. Without money, especially laundered U.S. dollars, there would be no terror, and this lively, well-documented primer reveals the sources, the amounts and the armed terror organizations they support. Not surprisingly, the author of Narco-Terrorism is at her best on the ironies of the West's appetite for drugs, which terror groups exploit for funding, arms and recruiting those who would undermine a degenerate Western society. Some readers might be alienated or distracted by the author's exhaustive yet fascinating description of the activities and funding of the PLO, Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which takes up nearly half the book. Reigniting the drug war and supporting Israel are Ehrenfeld's clear national security priorities, as are other policy initiatives like regime removal and economic sanctions for states sponsoring terrorism. But the Bush administration and a succession of U.S. and Western leaders are taken to task for "a willful blindness" to the role of the international oil and drug trades in funding terror and for "lacking the political will" to confront Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and other states for their "anti-Western agenda." Ehrenfeld's prescription for ending terrorism might depend on an unrealistic hope for immediate international cooperation, but this timely expos‚ should heat up public demand for real progress in the war on terrorism.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld is the director of the New York–based American Center for Democracy and the Center for the Study of Corruption & the Rule of Law. Her previous books are Evil Money: Encounters Along the Money Trail (HarperCollins in 1992, SPI, 1994) and Narco-Terrorism: How Governments Around the World Used the Drug Trade to Finance and Further Terrorist Activities (Basic Books, 1990 and1992). Dr. Ehrenfeld is a commentator and consultant on the problems of terror financing, international terrorism, political corruption, money laundering, drug trafficking, and organized crime and the connections that binds these groups together. She is currently working on a new book on the Islamist penetration of the U.S. and Western economies. Dr. Ehrenfeld has lectured on these issues in many countries, and has advised banking communities, law enforcement agencies, and governments, including the U.S. Defense Department’s Threat Reduction Agency. She testified before the European Parliament on how the Palestinian Authority uses aid money to fund its terrorist activities, provided evidence to the U.K. Parliament on the corruption of the P.A., and testified before the U.S. Congress on terrorism related issues. Dr. Ehrenfeld’s articles appear in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times, the National Review, the EUObserver, the Jerusalem Post, the New York Sun, and the Los Angeles Times. She frequently serves as an expert commentator on television and radio news programs, including "The O’Reilly Factor," Fox News, CNN, ABC, NBC, and MSNBC.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing; Expanded edition (February 16, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566252318
• ISBN-13: 978-1566252317
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #978,552 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 84 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Following the Money Trail September 15, 2003

By David Frankfurter

Format:Hardcover

If fanaticism is the heart of modern terrorism, then finance is its lifeblood - British Chancellor Gordon Brown November 24, 2002

Even the most devastating terrorist attack carries a surprisingly low price ticket. The organizers of the September 11 attacks are reported to have received change from their $500,000 stake money. Killing tens and injuring hundreds - whether in a Bali nightclub, a Jerusalem bus or a car bomb in India - sometimes costs less than a good meal. Nevertheless, the infrastructures of international terrorist networks cost billions of dollars.

Funding Evil, the latest book by Dr Rachel Ehrenfeld, director of the American Center of Democracy, details the organizations and their methods. Ehrenfeld shows the links and similarities between terrorists as diverse as The Hizballah, the many Palestinian terrorist groups, Tamil Tigers, Colombian narco-terrorists and radical Islamic terrorism around the world.

As US Attorney General John Ashcroft has said "Terrorists cannot terrorize without money...Those who knowingly finance terrorist organizations are just as dangerous and just as responsible as those who carry out the ultimate acts of terrorist violence." Funding Evil details how this funding of terror has taken place, exposing the state sponsorship, corruption, drug trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities that have allowed these organizations and their leaders to amass fortunes and feed the spreading tentacles of terror. Ehrenfeld's timely book doesn't stop there, but recommends practical steps that can be taken to curb it.

Dr Ehrenfeld is a world expert in the topic, having lectured around the world, written copiously and been invited to make submissions and statements to world policy making bodies concerned with terrorism and its funding. It is clear that world leaders are slowly taking note of Ehrenfeld's advice, with the latest actions taken against the Hamas organization being one small step along the path.

Just this month, action has been taken against the Palestinian Relief and Development fund (known as Interpal), amid charges by the US Treasury that the London based charity - which raises between 3 to 5 million dollars a year - has been used to hide the flow of money to Hamas. The funds of the charity have been frozen, and will only be released under the tight scrutiny of the UK Charities Commission. Interpal's chairman, Ibrahim Hewitt is quoted as saying "We've been told this is for our own protection, so that any money going through can't be hijacked along the way." Hopefully these actions will ensure that funds collected for charitable purposes will end up helping their intended recipients - the Palestinian people who are in the most critical need ever, having been ignored by the Arab world, and having international aid and their livelihoods diverted into a war to the death with Israel that they have been unable to win. While up until recently, Europe carefully differentiated between the `political' and `military' wings of Hamas - a distinction long denied by the Hamas itself - Ehrenfeld's message is slowly being accepted by the countries at the forefront of the fight against terror. Removing any lingering doubt about the link between the charitable, political and military arms of these terrorist organizations, the Palestinian Authority itself just froze the 39 bank accounts of nine Islamic charities, in order regain control of rogue terrorist organizations that it unleashed in October 2000.

One of Ehrenfeld's long time recommendations, which she details in her book, is for donor countries to insist on the introduction of democratic norms and behaviors by recipient regimes, in order to qualify for ongoing support. Recently, after a very public campaign in which Ehrenfeld actively participated, the US and EU applied pressure to the Palestinian Authority. As a direct result, the PA has catalogued their visible financial assets and now claims to flow all public funds through a single, centralized bank account. Certainly the above clampdown on Islamic charities is also part of this process. Today's newspapers report that the Palestinian Authority has succumbed to American pressure and ordered its schools to take down posters glorifying suicide bombers before the start of the new school year.

These steps are just a start, but they do show a pragmatic determination to directly address the sources of funds of terrorist organizations. The Palestinian model also shows that these ideas can work if applied with consistency and courage. The question is whether there is the political will to apply these standards to other rogue regimes, where the political stakes may be higher.

Funding Evil is not just essential reading for policy makers and academics, but helps us all understand the dynamics of terrorism, its collaboration with criminal organizations to undermine democratic societies, and what we should expect our leaders to do to stop it.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Draws a map between sources of funding and terrorist results August 10, 2004

By Midwest Book Review

Format:Hardcover

Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld is a world authority on narco-terrorism, providing commentary on the topic and consulting on the problems of international terrorism, political corruption and drug trafficking; so she's the perfect choice to author Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed-And How To Stop It. Many experts may claim terrorism doesn't require money and while individual acts can be low-budget, global terrorist efforts require money to work. Dr. Ehrenfeld here draws a map between sources of funding and terrorist results.

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Libel laws in the internet zone August 13, 2005

By Alyssa A. Lappen TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

A dramatic episode in the annals of publishing history began early on January 23, 2004, when Rachel Ehrenfeld received an email from a London law firm threatening to sue her for libel for statements in this 2003 book concerning Saudi billionaire bin Mahfouz. Nine months later, his action was filed in London-where British laws make libel especially difficult to disprove.

Ehrenfeld's offense? Her book reports that bin Mahfouz, the former chairman of Saudi Arabia's largest bank, National Commercial Bank, had allegedly deposited "tens of millions of dollars in London and New York directly into terrorist accounts-the accounts of the same terrorists who were implicated in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in which 224 people were killed, including twelve Americans, and more than four thousand were injured."

The book implicated bin Mahfouz in transferring from the bank's Zakat (charity) Committee some $74 million to the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) and to the Muwafaq "blessed relief" Foundation. Muwafaq in turn allegedly deposited funds directly with al Qaeda. Finally, Ehrenfeld also indicated that much of the funding for terrorism emanates from the Saudis, and from the bin Mahfouz and al Rahji families, who allegedly funnel the monies through a host of "charitable" institutions.

The reporter based her account of bin Mahfouz' alleged miscreance on a variety of reports from reputable journals and magazines, lawsuits, government documents, and data from public and anonymous government officials, among other sources. Although he denies any connection with terrorists, bin Mahfouz is among the targets of 10 lawsuits by the families of the September 11 victims, seeking damages of more than $1 trillion.

In Rachel Ehrenfeld v. Khalid Salim a bin Mahfouz, the author responded by seeking a declaratory judgment that her assailant could not prevail against her in the U.S. on libel charges arising from her 2003 book, Funding Evil. The case was assigned to Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Casey, who is also handling the bulk of the 9/11 lawsuits.

Ehrenfeld's attorney, Daniel Kornstein, considers her suit as important as New York Times v. Sullivan-the 1964 case in which the courts decided for the first time "the extent to which the constitutional protections for speech and press limit a State's power to award damages in a libel action brought by a public official..."

In the U.S., where Ehrenfeld lives and works (and her book was published) her allegations seem reasonable and should therefore be free speech protected by the First Amendment. Undeterred by U.S. law, however, the sheik reportedly sent emissaries at all hours to threaten Ehrenfeld. "You had better respond," his agent told her on March 3, 2005, in delivering some documents from the British action. "Sheik bin Mahfouz is a very important person and you ought to take very good care of yourself."

In Britain, libel laws place the burden on the defendant. Law courts require a reporter to prove the truth of his or her written allegations. In her defense, she must call to testify original sources--including government officials both public and anonymous. Given the impossibility of getting former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (among others) on the stand, Ehrenfeld chose not to respond in Britain at all. Consequently, she lost the British case by default in May.

Bin Mahfouz is no stranger to U.S. courts of criminal law. In 1992, for example, he paid $225 million (including a $37 million fine) to escape criminal charges in New York involving his role as chief operating officer of the shuttered Bank of Credit and Commerce International. Its New York and London branches were closed, and BCCI was implicated by the Central Intelligence Agency for laundering drug money and supporting international terrorists. In settling, Bin Mahfouz admitted no wrongdoing.

Nevertheless, in October 2001, according to former national security advisor Richard Clarke, the U.S. Treasury Department listed Yasin al Qadi as a designated terrorist for his financial support of al Qaeda. Qadi headed Muwafaq, a Saudi "relief organization" that Clarke said "reportedly transferred at least $3 million, on behalf of Khalid bin Mahfouz, to Usama bin Laden [sic] and assisted al Qida [sic] fighters in Bosnia." So testified Clarke before the Senate banking committee on Oct. 22, 2003.

"Sullivan established the modern ground rules of libel actions and they have been in place since 1964," says Kornstein. Those standards, very friendly to reporters and writers, have put the onus of proof on libel plaintiffs. In this case, 23 copies of a book published in America were picked up in a foreign jurisdiction, which was used to seek judgment against an American. "The question is," Kornstein concludes, "do the Times Sullivan rules mean anything in a world so dependent on the Internet, instantaneous communication and international process that did not exist in 1964." Do they carry the same weight they were meant to carry 40 years ago?

Among those supporting Ehrenfeld in an amici filing with the U.S. District Court in New York are Amazon.com and the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Her legal expenses are expected to top $300,000--although she has to date received no financial backing from the publishing industry. According to the friends of the plaintiff,

"Rarely in the history of the United States have the principles underlying our First Amendment - the need for vigorous, open debate, particularly of matters of such vital public concern as the book at issue here - been more important. The energy, drive and credibility of our investigative journalists and book authors are critical to understanding and coping with international terrorism and other threats to our society. The dangers of foreign litigation against publishers, authors and journalists become more acute daily, in direct proportion to our society's increasing reliance on the Internet for dissemination of information and publications."

Anyone who cares about free speech should read this book.

--Alyssa A. Lappen