The Council of Foreign Relation task force report on Terrorist Financing (PDF) had this to say about al Qaeda and Osama:
Al-Qaeda differs from traditional, state-sponsored terrorist groups in one critical way: it is financially robust. Having developed multiple sources of support, it is free from the control of any government and able on its own to maintain its organizational infrastructure, communications systems, training programs, and operations. As such, it historically has been able to operate from failed or dysfunctional states. Indeed, when it was headquartered in Sudan and then Afghanistan, the al-Qaeda terrorist organization provided important financial support to its host state—instead of the other way around. Building al-Qaeda’s financial support network was Osama bin Laden’s foremost accomplishment, and the primary source of his personal influence.
(See "Global Guerrilla Financing" for more)
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