In more than 100 receipts left in a building occupied by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in Timbuktu earlier this year, the extremists assiduously tracked their cash flow, recording purchases as small as a single light bulb. The often tiny amounts are carefully written out in pencil and colored pen on scraps of paper and post-it notes: The equivalent of $1.80 for a bar of soap; $8 for a packet of macaroni; $14 for a tube of superglue.
Other al Qaida groups do the same. What's the point? According to the AP:
The terror group’s documents around the world also include schedules for corporate training sessions, spreadsheets with salaries, public relations directives, philanthropy budgets and letters from the equivalent of a human resources division.
Taken together, the evidence suggests that far from being a fly-by-night, fragmented terror organization, al Qaeda is attempting to behave like a multinational corporation, with what amounts to a companywide financial policy across its different chapters.
It's also a control mechanism. As for the big picture:
The picture that emerges from what is one of the largest stashes of al Qaeda documents to be made public is of a rigid bureaucracy, replete with a chief executive, a board of directors and departments such as human resources and public relations. Experts say each branch of al Qaeda replicates the same corporate structure.
...
An inordinate number of receipts are for groceries, suggesting a diet of macaroni with meat and tomato sauce, as well as large quantities of powdered milk. ...They record the $0.60 cake one of their fighters ate, and the $1.80 bar of soap another used to wash his hands. They list a broom for $3 and bleach for $3.30. These relatively petty amounts are logged with the same care as the $5,400 advance they gave to one commander, or the $330 they spent to buy 3,300 rounds of ammunition.
The group also records its charitable donations:
They set aside money for charity: $4 for medicine “for a Shiite with a sick child,” and $100 in financial aid for a man’s wedding. And they reimbursed residents for damages, such as $50 for structural repairs, with a note that the house in question “was hit by mujahideen cars.”
CNN today had a news report on AQAP, with some officials and experts saying they believe the group is going to try more strikes on America, probably via airplane flights. The report said there are hundreds of Americans who left the U.S. to fight and train alongside them. Their speculation was these Americans might not be on a U.S. no-fly list, and if they get from Africa to Europe, it might be easy for them to catch a flight to the U.S. and blow up the plane.
And maybe this is just the FBI's new sales pitch to members of Congress for sting operations like this one -- if we don't stop these teenagers before they leave, they could come back as trained suicide bombers and blow up their plane.
