To the Point

Financing Terrorism

President Bush and the experts agree that networks like al Qaeda cannot be stopped until their financial infrastructures have been destroyed. Shutting down these worldwide financial networks may prove the most critical and most difficult aspect of controlling international terrorism. Moving from the military field into the financial arena, we learn about drugs, diamonds, and charities, like the Holy Land Foundation, which shut down last week for giving aid to suicide bombers in Israel, a charge that supporters hotly deny. What happens when humanitarian donations fall into the wrong hands? Why aren't official actions subject to judicial review? We hear more from the Southern California Council on American Islamic Relations, an author of several books on terrorism, and the ACLU of Southern California. Newsmaker: Is Somalia Next in the War on Terrorism? - The hunt for Osama bin Laden continues in Afghanistan, but the Bush administration already is considering where to go next. Stephen Fidler, US diplomatic editor of The Financial Times, reports that UN officials have been meeting with Somali warlords who have moved into the governmental vacuum of that failed state. Reporter's Notebook: New York City Three Months After September 11 - It's been three months to the day since September 11. Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Laurie Garret lives in New York. She takes us to where the damage was worst and the impact greatest, then finds hope in the city's new billion-dollar mayor and an unlikely alliance that's expected to help rebuild New York.