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Saudi Arabian donors largest funders of al-Qaida, Taliban, LeT: WikiLeaks | Saudi Arabia is the world's largest source of funds for Islamist militant groups such as the Afghan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba a diplomatic cable unveiled by the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks has revealed. "More needs to
be done since Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qaida,
the Taliban, LeT and other terrorist groups," The Guardian quoted a secret December
2009 paper signed by the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as saying. Her
memo urged United States ’ diplomats to redouble their efforts to stop Gulf money
from reaching extremists in Pakistan and Afghanistan , saying, "Donors in Saudi
Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups
worldwide." Three other Arab countries are listed as sources of militant money:
Qatar , Kuwait and the United Ar groups that have raised funds via Saudi Arabia
. One cable details how Pakistani militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which
carried out the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, used a Saudi-based front company to
fund its activities in 2005. Militants seeking donations often come during the
hajj pilgrimage- "a major security loophole since pilgrims often travel with large
amounts of cash and the Saudis cannot refuse them entry into Saudi Arabia ". Washington
is critical of the Saudi refusal to ban three charities classified as terrorist
entities in the US . "Intelligence suggests that these groups continue to send
money overseas and, at times, fund extremism overseas," she said. The other major
headache for the US in the Gulf region is the United Arab Emirates as the Afghan
Taliban and their militant partners, the Haqqani network, earn "significant funds"
through UAE-based businesses, according to one report. The Taliban extort money
from the large Pashtun community in the UAE, which is home to one million Pakistanis
and 150,000 Afghans, and also fundraise by kidnapping Pashtun businessmen based
in Dubai or their relatives, the paper said. "Some Afghan businessmen in the UAE
have resorted to purchasing tickets on the day of travel to limit the chance of
being kidnapped themselves upon arrival in either Afghanistan or Pakistan ," said
the report. There is little information about militant fundraising in the fourth
Gulf country singled out, Qatar , other than to say its "overall level of CT co-operation
with the US is considered the worst in the region". The funding quagmire extends
to Pakistan itself, where the US cables detail sharp criticism of the government's
ambivalence towards funding of militant groups that enjoy covert military support,
the paper said. The cables show how before the Mumbai terror seige, Pakistani
and Chinese diplomats manoeuvred hard to block UN sanctions against
Jamaat-ud-Dawa
(JuD). But in August 2009, nine months after sanctions were finally imposed, US
diplomats wrote: "We continue to see reporting indicating that JUD is still operating
in multiple locations in Pakistan and that the group continues to openly raise
funds".
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