August 15, 2002

Where Do Terrorists Get Their Money?

New York, NY - While it is a well known fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers that flew commercial airliners into the World Trade Center on September 11th were from Saudi Arabia, it is less known that Saudi rulers use oil dollars to fund Wahabism, a fundamentalist sect of Islam, which is responsible for radicalizing the Muslim world.

Citystreets has developed a campaign that intends to bring attention to the role of oil dollars as a funding source for terrorism. The first piece in the campaign is a commercial called "AK47-redux". Created by New York based Think Tank 3, "AK47-redux" is a parody of the US Government's $150 million dollar effort to tie drug use to the war on terrorism through public service commercials released by the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"What's needed in the war on terrorism, and has not been forthcoming from Washington, is a national energy policy that reduces our countries oil use." Said Harris Silver, founder of Citystreets.

Economists agree that it is our nation's dependency on oil that provides the economic means to Arab states bent on destroying western civilization. Even New York City, which has a comprehensive public transportation system, still has a million cars entering Manhattan every day.

Lessening dependence on oil would spur investments in public transportation and dovetail nicely with Citystreets goal of making New York City the safest pedestrian city in the world.

Watch "AK-47" commercial.