have proved more adept at making money than investing itthe islamic state for instance has become perhaps the wealthiest militant group in history by wringing cash from the people it rules looting bank vaults and smuggling oil yet its success appears to have left it vulnerable it has taken in so much money that it has had to resort to physically stockpiling cash in warehouses 10 of which have been struck by american warplanes since the summerthe haqqani network a taliban faction that is especially close to al qaeda is believed to have poured money into real estate in afghanistan pakistan and the united arab emirates a european official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence said the haqqanis are believed to have been hit hard by the real estate crash in dubai united arab emirates a few years agostill despite the occasional bursting bubble real estate appears to have been a relatively safe investment particularly in south asia where there is little regulationyou can show up with a suitcase full of cash and buy a house said gretchen peters who runs the satao project a consulting firm that focuses on organized crime and terrorism its not like there is an irs moneylaundering unit thats going to come for youat the time bin laden wrote the letter to his general manager the two had been discussing the 5 million ransom which was paid by the office of president hamid karzai of afghanistan to free an afghan diplomat that al qaeda had been holding unknown to the qaeda bosses about a fifth of the ransom was inadvertently provided by the cia which bankrolled a secret fund for the afghan leader with monthly cash deliveries to the presidential palace in kabulal qaeda had the money in hand by the time bin laden sat down to write his general manager in december 2010 bin laden clearly wanted nothing to do with united states dollars which many islamist militants fear could expose them to the long reach of american justiceas for the ransom money for the afghan prisoner i think you should use onethird of the money to buy gold and another third to buy euros he wrotethe remainder bin laden said should be used to buy kuwaiti dinars and chinese renminbi also known as yuan with about a third kept in local currencies to cover daytoday expenses when you do spend this money use the euros first then the dinars the yuan and then the gold he wrotebin laden had specific instructions for how to acquire the gold it should be bought in coins or bars which he referred to as 10 tolas a common denomination for gold bars in south asia coins are minted in several countries he wrote naming switzerland south africa and the united arab emiratesbut bin laden was nothing if not paranoid by then at one point he feared that an iranian dentist had implanted a tracking device in one of his wifes teeth and he