Qaeda's new low key mantra to bypass US' global financial dragnet

Lahore, Aug 25 : Contrary to the US and its allies' belief that the international terror group Al Qaeda was being run on a network of wealthy financiers to fund their terror activities, it has been noted that Qaeda's strategy had increasingly turned to local cells that run extremely low-cost operations and generate funds through criminal scams.

The aim of the strategy was to bypass the global financial dragnet set up by the US and Europe to hunt for wealthy financiers and freeze their bank accounts, said a report in The Washington Post.

After the 9/11 attacks on America's twin towers that cost around five lakh dollars, Qaeda has managed to keep a low profile and "many of the its bombings and assaults since then in Europe, North Africa and Southeast Asia have cost almost one-tenth as much, or even less," added the paper.

The cheap plots are evidence that the US government and its allies fundamentally miscalculated in assuming they could defeat the network by hunting for wealthy financiers and freezing bank accounts, the paper quoted many US and European counter-terrorism officials as saying.

According to the paper, during their trial in London eight men accused of planning to blow up airliners bound for the US two years ago, have told the courts how they shopped at drugstores for "ingredients to build bombs that would have cost 15 dollars apiece to assemble".

Similarly, the cell responsible for the 7/7, 2005, transit bombings in London needed only about 15,000 dollars to finance the entire conspiracy, including the cost of airfare to consult with Al Qaeda supervisors, according to official British government probes, added the US daily.

ANI