In order for terrorists to conduct criminal acts they require three things: Ideology, weapons and finance. Over the past months while the country has been struggling with terrorists, our media has continued to focus attention on the first element — ideology — totally ignoring the other two.
It is true that by defeating the terrorists’ ideology we might be able to defeat their actions, even in the presence of the other two factors. It is, however, of even greater importance to pursue aggressively the other two crucial elements — weapons and finance. The terrorists cannot possibly succeed without those two.
Following one terrorist attack a few months ago after which large caches of weapons and explosives were found, a senior security official was asked about the source. His reply was inconclusive, saying that all possibilities had to be investigated. In the end, it was found that the weapons had in fact come from outside.
As for sources of finance, one security official said there were leads and hints and that charity collection boxes may have been one source.
From all the discussion, it is evident that the focus has been on the terrorists’ ideology rather than on their finance and weapons — both of which are absolutely necessary for them to carry out their operations. These two continue to be a mystery.
At one time, I thought that withholding details about the sources of those two was because there was not enough information but later, I saw an extremely important statement from Prince Miteb ibn Abdullah, assistant deputy commander of the National Guard for military affairs. He said the source of the weapons was known and he denied that they had come from inside the Kingdom. In other words, since the security authorities know the source of the weapons, they must also be aware of who is providing the financing.
I would like to suggest respectfully to Prince Miteb that as long as terrorists target every citizen and resident of the Kingdom, the security authorities have no option but to release all the relevant information available to them. It is time we vigorously pursued the sources of both the money and the weapons. That would be in the interest of all of us.
