This books propels the reader into the center of illegal organizations, and explains how they fund their activities. From the PLO to Al-Qaeda to the IRA, Loretta Napoleoni maps out the arteries of an international economic system that feeds armed groups the world over. She follows the money and gets to the truth of 'the new economy of terror' - a 1.5 trillion dollar system - and assesses the full extent of the role of the West in devloping the economies of armed organizations.