Modern Jihad : Tracing the Dollars Behind the Terror Networks

This text aims to propel the reader into the netherworld of illegal organizations.

From the Contras to Al Qaeda, Loretta Napoleoni maps out the arteries of an international economic system that feeds armed groups the world over with an endless supply of cash.

Chasing terror money, she takes the reader from CIA headquarters to the smuggling routes of the Far East, from the back rooms of Wall Street to Hawala exchanges in the Middle East.

The "economy of terror" that Napoleoni identifies is a 1.5 trillion-dollar fast-growing economic system.

It is made up of illegal businesses such as arms and narcotics trading, oil and diamonds smuggling, as well as charitable donations, profits from legal businesses and an intricate system of finance.

Most importantly, Napoleoni reveals the interdependency between economies run by armed groups and western economies.

This ranges from the consumption of narcotics to the production of arms, and from the recycling of illegal money to speculation on the stock markets, as occurred prior to 9/11.