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Illegal Poaching Funds Militant Groups

US lawmakers to probe $10B wildlife trade in hearings this week

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted Mar 2, 2008 6:35 PM CST

(Newser) – Shipments of African contraband such as ivory, tiger parts, and rhino horn are funding militant groups and perhaps terrorists, Newsweek reports. After the theft of $1.3 million in ivory in Chad last year and a reported rise in contraband smuggling, US lawmakers have become interested: A House hearing on the wildlife trade is scheduled to start next week.

Poaching is now a $10 billion market, with large-scale animal killings that fund militias such as Janjaweed, which carries out strikes in Darfur. For them, “it’s untraceable money,” said an animal welfare expert. Evidence of a terror link is anecdotal, “but with the amount of money it would provide, even anecdotes are a huge cause for concern," a US official said.

The horn of the Budapest Zoo's southern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) calf, named Layla, is seen at her first birthday in Budapest, Hungary, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2008. White rhinos have been devastated by Janjaweed poaching. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky)
The horn of the Budapest Zoo's southern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) calf, named Layla, is seen at her first birthday in Budapest, Hungary, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2008. White rhinos have been devastated...   (Associated Press)
An elephant performs a mock charge at a water hole in this May 27, 2005 file photo, in Kenya's Tsavo East national park. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)
An elephant performs a mock charge at a water hole in this May 27, 2005 file photo, in Kenya's Tsavo East national park. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)   (Associated Press)
A one-year-old Bengal Tiger Banti looks for water at the Nehru Zoological Park in Hyderabad, India, in this May 12, 2007, file photo. Poaching has savaged India's tiger population, which a century ago was believed to number in the tens of thousands. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A)
A one-year-old Bengal Tiger Banti looks for water at the Nehru Zoological Park in Hyderabad, India, in this May 12, 2007, file photo. Poaching has savaged India's tiger population, which a century ago...   (Associated Press)
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