White House officials announced today the signing of an agreement to coordinate efforts with the various members of the GCC in preventing financing from reaching terrorist organizations active in the Middle East.
At least that’s the hope, White House officials say they believe this is more comprehensive than previous efforts, because every single signatory of the deal is individually responsible for prosecution of terrorist financiers under the pact. Of course, this is not the first time they’ve tried to make such a deal.
Previous efforts to convince all the nations in the GCC to help curb terror financing out of their countries have repeatedly been negotiated since 9/11, and every time they were reached with the same hope it would finally cut off the massive flow of funding to terrorist groups that comes out of these states, especially Saudi Arabia.
The expectation of prosecutions by the nations in question appears to be wishful thinking, of course, as there have been more than a few situations in which funding for terrorist groups has been funneled out of government-linked figures, as the 9/11 Report’s infamous 28 pages showed. Being a member of the royal family, or a high-placed tribal leader in many of these countries makes prosecution all but impossible.