Al-Qaida has sharply stepped up its financial activity in recent weeks, suggesting leaders are reasserting control and may be seeking to finance more attacks against American interests, a U.S. official says. The increased flow of money corresponds with a recent increase in communications between surviving al-Qaida members. The communications, detected by U.S. intelligence, have occurred between small groups of al-Qaida and some Taliban allies. Much of the activity is centered in northwestern Pakistan - near the Afghan border - although some money and communications are going elsewhere. The activity suggests some known al-Qaida leaders are re-establishing control over surviving elements of the terrorist network. U.S. intelligence has detected a significant boost in money transfers within al-Qaida to people who could use it to prepare attacks on American interests.
It's expected that they'll try real hard to reconstitute, and the money flow should lead the intel guys to the details of the surviving network, assuming the hemorrhoids giving out information like this can control their impulse to compromise sources and methods. The "al-Qaeda" leadership is firmly tied to Fazlur Rehman's Jamaat-e-Ulema-Islami. Being clerics, they have their hands on Binny's money, whether he's alive or dead, and apparently on his address book, too. So my guess would be they're the new "high command." |