Hawala

Abstract

Within days of the 9/11 attacks, American authorities prepared to wage war on terror on both financial and military fronts. As the Taliban fled Kabul in the face of advancing American forces, US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill announced he was forging a global alliance through which 'we are going to pursue the financiers of terrorism like they've never been pursued before.' His target, however, was as shadowy as al-Qaida itself: the informal system of international money transfer known as hawala.