AQIM funds mother Al Qaeda

According to Moroccan terrorism expert Mohammed Benhammou, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (the Islamist term for North Africa) is doing well enough financially that it’s able to pump money back into the global Al Qaeda network.  This was reported by Magharebia in a Nov. 10 article entitled “Al-Qaeda looks to Sahel for new funding sources.”

As Al Qaeda’s money dries up in the Middle East, the timing for Bin Laden couldn’t be any better.  Relations between AQIM and Al Qaeda itself haven’t always been great.  But within the last month, Bin Laden went out of his way in an audio recording to endorse AQIM’s attacks against French nationals work and rebuild bridges with AQIM.

Kamel Rezzag Bara, an adviser to the president of Algeria, says that $150 million euros have been paid in ransoms (or fida’ in Koranic parlance) in the Sahel over the past five years.  That sounds like a good reason for Bin Laden to make kissy with AQIM.

Meanwhile, the West has yawned at the requests of African nations to stop lining AQIM’s pockets with ransom payments.