Analysts: al-Qaida awash in funds despite meltdown

The meltdown in the global financial system may spare al-Qaida. Buoyed by years of record oil revenues in the Gulf and Afghanistan's booming drug trade, al-Qaida and other Islamic terrorist groups are thought to have access to strong potential funding sources — and thus might dodge fallout from the global crunch devastating others. Yet all is not lost in the effort to rein in money for terror groups. One principal reason the groups may avoid fallout now is because they've been forced to pull away from banks, relying instead on less-efficient ways to move money. Those methods — including hand-carrying money and using informal money-transfer networks called hawalas — likely will shield extremists from the current banking system turmoil. But the methods also are slower and less efficient ways to move money — and thus could... [read full story]