How Boko Haram is beating U.S. efforts to choke its financing

[Nuclear Unicorn]

How Boko Haram is beating U.S. efforts to choke its financing

(Reuters) - When Washington imposed sanctions in June 2012 on Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, he dismissed it as an empty gesture.

Two years later, Shekau’s skepticism appears well founded: his Islamic militant group is now the biggest security threat to Africa's top oil producer, is richer than ever, more violent and its abductions of women and children continue with impunity.

As the United States, Nigeria and others struggle to track and choke off its funding, Reuters interviews with more than a dozen current and former U.S. officials who closely follow Boko Haram provide the most complete picture to date of how the group finances its activities.

Central to the militant group’s approach includes using hard-to-track human couriers to move cash, relying on local funding sources and engaging in only limited financial relationships with other extremists groups. It also has reaped millions from high-profile kidnappings.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/01/us-usa-nigeria-bokoharam-insight-idUSKBN0F636920140701?irpc=932

People put too much faith in the latest high-tech gee-whiz. Killing has always been -- and always will be -- a very primitive endeavor. It will always descend to two warriors meeting each other face-to-face in the most brutal of contests. Cloaking it in airs of civilization (which is really nothing more than pretending war can be fought from a distance and on the cheap) does little more than set one's self up for a very rude surprise.

[msongs]

1. maybe the Islamic world could use its $$ trillions to take care of Boko Haramists - nt

[Nuclear Unicorn]

2. They are taking care of Boko Haram. Just not the way you and I would prefer.

All that money the couriers are smuggling isn't coming from cashed in annuities.