The Price of Fear: The Truth behind the Financial War on Terror / Edition 1

by Ibrahim Warde

Overview

When the State Department claims to have struck a blow at the heart of the international terrorist finance network, even the most hardened of commentators takes the statement at face value. But as Ibrahim Warde argues in this myth-shattering book, the post-9/11 series of financial crackdowns initiated by the U.S. government has had virtually no impact on terrorism. This is because, as he demonstrates, these actions are based on a fundamental misconception of how terrorism works. Warde shows how operations such as the 9/11 attacks were actually financed, and he brilliantly juxtaposes the reality of shoestring budgets and envelopes of cash against the prevailing fantasy of a buzzing transnational network of seamless electronic transfers.

Copub: I.B.Tauris Books

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520258150
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	11/04/2008
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Ibrahim Warde is Adjunct Professor of International Business at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He is a contributor to Le Monde Diplomatique and the author of Islamic Finance in the Global Economy.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements v

Introduction: The Fog of Financial War vii

Part I The Mythology of Terrorist Financing

1 Fantasy, Fiction, and Terrorist Financing 3

Part II Rules of Financial Engagement

2 Framing the Guilty: The Financial Terrain 23

3 The Flawed Money Laundering Template 35

Part III Narrative and Dynamics

4 Money and the War on Terror Narrative 53

5 The Usual Suspects 63

6 Dynamics of the Financial War 77

Part IV War and Consequences

7 Targets and Collateral Damage 93

8 "Gated Finance" and Other Contradictions of the Financial War 107

9 The Question of Islamic Charities 127

Part V Assessments and Recommendations

10 "Catastrophic Successes": Assessing the Financial War 153

11 Rethinking Money and Terror 163

Epilogue: The Last Happy Warriors 183

Notes 197

Index 253