Book Review: The Washing Machine — Money Laundering And Terrorist Financing Soils Us - Page 4

Nick also looks at other pioneers in Global terror such as the IRA of Ireland, the LTTE of Sri Lanka and the PKK of Turkey. He acknowledges the difficulty of terming some groups as terrorists when they seem to be fighting for their own rights of self-determination. The means adopted however, and the channels, such as heroin, arms and diesel, have other purposes, and effects - to the worse for society, more often than not.

In the third section of the book, he studies the lucrative and very large black markets in diamonds, drugs and cigarettes. I will only quote a piece from the diamonds section that sums it all up, at least for me:

"The diamond trade is built on fantasies and bluff. The fantasy that diamonds are scarce was created by De Beers which controls the supply with an iron grip. The bluff involves the bargaining between dealers over every deal, the leap into the unknown taken by every cutter when he buys a diamond,...The dream means lives are lost and livelihoods are made to bring tiny, useless stones from remote riverbeds to the ring finger of the majority of married women in the West...The more that diamonds have become the criminal's best friend, the more they have served the goals of corrupt politicians and terrorists in countries where they are mined."

He next looks at 'bad banks' - the channels that actually facilitate and create the means for money laundering and terrorist financing. The willingness of large commercial banks like Citibank to service criminal clients and corrupt government heads is explored. Dirty clients mean that cents on every dollar we withdraw from an ATM are blood- or drug-stained. He touches on corruption even in high places, such as details of the 'Casablanca sting', run by the DEA, which exposed drug connections high in the Mexican government until it was shut down prematurely on orders from the State Department.

The Hawala, or unofficial financial system used to transfer money between Western and Eastern/Asian/African economies is studied. It's benefit as a means to transfer funds for simple workers, as well as it's potential and actual use by terrorist financiers is described. The recent case of Hemant Lakhani, subject of this week's "This American Life" on NPR, convicted of arms trading by the US Government is a case in point, although not mentioned in the book. These petty financiers often enough are unable or choose not to distinguish between sources of funds, or discriminate against the ultimate destination or purpose. This makes them witting or unwitting henchmen of the global villains. The 'laundering footmen' are the true 'baby smurfs' of the global washing machine.

Article Author: Aaman Lamba

Aaman Lamba is a Blogcritics editor, as well as the Publisher of Desicritics.org, a Blogcritics network site covering media, politics, culture, sports and more with a global South Asian focus

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