OUR GANG

Osama & gang hit hard times (OWEN MORITZ, May 24th, 2003, New York Daily News)

Terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden, whose personal fortune was once pegged at $300 million, is nearly broke, and his dwindling army of Al Qaeda operatives are strapped for cash, according to U.S. News & World Report.

Bin Laden squandered his fortune years before he masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the magazine said, citing an intelligence windfall.

Instead, Al Qaeda's finances have been built on a foundation of charities, mosques, fund-raisers and businesses, most with Saudi connections, according to the magazine. [...]

The United States' relentless anti-terrorism campaign has turned up a trove of secret Al Qaeda documents, led to the assassination and capture of Bin Laden's key lieutenants and exposed his operation as less than sophisticated.

The organization's computer files are rarely encrypted, the magazine said, and when they, are U.S. officials have broken the codes easily. Phone calls are rarely encrypted.

"They continue to make basic tradecraft mistakes," said one official. "And one of them is you never talk over the phone."

There's an understandable desire, in the wake of 9-11, to believe that these folks are evil geniuses, but in truth they are not now and never were a realistic threat to the United States. They are a lethal annoyance, one we should deal with ruthlessly, but not inflate to the point where we terrorize ourselves. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 24, 2003 12:22 PM