South American Terrorist Funding

RADICAL Islamic groups in the Middle East are getting between $US300 million and $US500 million ($A490 million and $A816 million) a year from various criminal networks in Latin America, a top US military commander said.

General James T Hill, commander of the US Southern Command in Miami, said much of this money comes from drug trafficking, arms dealing and other illegal activities. Southern Command oversees US military relations in Latin America.

Hill said the funds are sent abroad from several Latin American areas with large Middle Eastern populations, such as the "triple frontier" between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, and Margarita island off the coast of Venezuela.

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Top al Qaeda suspect Khalid Shaikh Mohammed spent nearly three weeks in Brazil in December 1995, visiting a region with many Arabs, Brazilian police told CNN on Saturday.

International and regional intelligence officials said the area Mohammed visited in Foz de Iguacu, along Brazil's porous border with Argentina and Paraguay, has been a source of funds and a haven for terrorist groups, including some believed to work closely with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

Police data show that Mohammed, the terror network's reputed operations chief, was in Brazil from December 4-25. He entered the country via Sao Paulo from Pakistan and left for Holland from Rio de Janeiro, police said.

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[mlee97]

Having worked in Bolivia, Columbia, and Peru, and almost killed by the (C.I.) - Shining path terrorists in 1992 in Lima, I'm fairly familiar with the terrorist organizations in S.A., and I'm sure that the Author of your article has taken great liberties in his assesment. There is NO WAY any muslim comunity or crime connection could muster that much money. Those numbers are not much smaller than the Top Cartels can muster. And thats all together!

I'd wait 'till I saw something like that confirmed with something other than a news reporter's wild stories.