Maybe I'm all wet but being just an average person with old fashioned way of looking at things. Call me simple minde but have a real solution to stop or at very least slow down choke off terror threat.

As the US is one of the largest economy and so much is driven by the dollar. Why can't the Government and Federal Banking just step in and totally cut dollar transactions with any and all countries that have terrorist activity or has supported terrorist actions. Simplely put no dollars in or out in any form.

Seems to me if you stop the funding it will not take long to run out of ammunition or food. Many of these countries will change quicklt. And same goes for any company no matter where they are, if they support in anyway cut funding. I know at first will be hard on some but in long run will be better for all. There is no way to win over these folks as long as we are fueling their agenda.

Ok now I guess I'll hear every reason under the Sun as why not, but in real terms this fastest way to get their attention and rest of folks supporting their activities. That old saying follow the money is true. And why not just stop the money flow dead in its tracks.

If you have been following me so far, then you going to love how our Homeland Security is handling this effort. Wasteful Pursuit of Terrorist Money.

orginal article from Washing Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/23/AR2005082301174.html

"In recent speeches, Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, has called on the country to begin making "tough choices" in the prosecution of the war on terrorism. His refreshing acknowledgment of the need to allocate limited resources more effectively should prompt all those involved in our anti-terrorism campaign to reassess their priorities."

The result is massive waste. A recent study by the International Institute for Economics concluded that the anti-money-laundering system cost approximately $7 billion in 2003, or more than the entire budget of the Transportation Security Administration, and rests on "assumptions that do not look particularly plausible." Supporting that view, the government's own study concluded that financial institutions generally "lack the information and expertise to detect terrorist financing."

The bad news is that government regulators continue to emphasize requirements that financial institutions are ill-suited for and that provide little demonstrable gain. Billions could be saved if government regulators heeded Chertoff's call for tough choices and focused their limited resources on enforcing the customer identification and information-sharing requirements rather than the rest of the anti-money-laundering morass.

Once again the Federal Government and Homeland Security is wasteful and hung up on details that never produce results. But sure cost us all. Keep in mind Homeland Security is same branch over FEMA. And we all know how that storey plays out. Good intentions do not get the job done. Action is what gives results.

Tracking Terrorist Money -- Too Hot For U.S. to Handle?

By Lucy Komisar, Pacific News Service. Posted October 4, 2001.

read this report from Oct 2001 :

http://www.alternet.org/story/11650/

Tracking of terrorist money puts government to the test

Former federal prosecutor Charlie Intriago, publisher of Money Laundering Alert, is skeptical of the federal government's ability to find, freeze and seize money that supports terrorist networks.

By ROBERT TRIGAUX

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 18, 2001 http://www.sptimes.com/News/111801/news_pf/Columns/Tracking_of_terrorist.shtml

What I'm telling you is nothing new, the government or political leaders, and the media have know all these things for years. And needless to say, nothing has been done effectively to stop the funding of terrorist activities. Are we just going to sit back as FEMA did during last years Hurricane Katrina and Rita and see people and major parts of the country and life styles fall.

Follow the Money

How John Kerry busted the terrorists' favorite bank.

By David Sirota and Jonathan Baskin

Two decades ago, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was a highly respected financial titan. In 1987, when its subsidiary helped finance a deal involving Texas oilman George W. Bush, the bank appeared to be a reputable institution, with attractive branch offices, a traveler's check business, and a solid reputation for financing international trade. It had high-powered allies in Washington and boasted relationships with respected figures around the world.

All that changed in early 1988, when John Kerry, then a young senator from Massachusetts, decided to probe the finances of Latin American drug cartels. Over the next three years, Kerry fought against intense opposition from vested interests at home and abroad, from senior members of his own party; and from the Reagan and Bush administrations, none of whom were eager to see him succeed.

By the end, Kerry had helped dismantle a massive criminal enterprise and exposed the infrastructure of BCCI and its affiliated institutions, a web that law enforcement officials today acknowledge would become a model for international terrorist financing. As Kerry's investigation revealed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, BCCI was interested in more than just enriching its clients--it had a fundamentally anti-Western mission. Among the stated goals of its Pakistani founder were to "fight the evil influence of the West," and finance Muslim terrorist organizations. In retrospect, Kerry's investigation had uncovered an institution at the fulcrum of America's first great post-Cold War security challenge.

BCCI and the bluebloods

Kerry opted in 1989 to take the same information that had been coldly received at the Justice Department and bring it to New York District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, who agreed to begin a criminal investigation of BCCI, based on Kerry's leads. Kerry also continued to keep up the public pressure. In 1990, when the Bush administration gave the bank a minor slap on the wrist for its money laundering practices, Kerry went on national television to slam the decision. "We send drug people to jail for the rest of their life," he said, "and these guys who are bankers in the corporate world seem to just walk away, and it's business as usual...When banks engage knowingly in the laundering of money, they should be shut down. It's that simple, it really is."

the complete article is here::

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0409.sirota.html

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a Kerry fan at all but he sure had this one right. Like everything else in Washington, nothing happens unless you make someone mad. Guess these guys at BCCI crossed his path.

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