Lugar calls for focus on terrorist's money

WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- The United States and its allies should put renewed focus on disrupting the financial support for al-Qaida and its franchises, said U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar.

Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in an opening statement for a hearing on confronting al-Qaida that disrupting terrorist financing would contribute to the global fight against Islamic insurgents.

Lugar pointed to the latest U.S. national intelligence estimate that said extremists continue to plan large-scale attacks on the United States and its interests worldwide.

"A loose network of extremist al-Qaida cohorts has sprung up across the globe," he explained. "Its affiliates have aligned their actions and rhetoric with the core al-Qaida leadership in Pakistan to gain notoriety and financing."

He praised the latest efforts to arrest, kill or otherwise disrupt terrorism, but cautioned that was not enough to solve the problem.

Instead, Lugar suggested, the United States and its international partners should focus more on terrorists' money, which he said was a key recruitment and planning tool.

"Consequently, one of the most important aspects of combating al-Qaida is the international effort to identify and eliminate its sources of finance," he urged.