Terror comes cheap

last updated 8 January 2015

London

The London subway bombings last July cost less than $500 to carry out, the BBC reported this week. The attacks, which killed 52 people and injured hundreds, were carried out by four suicide bombers on three subway trains and a bus. Investigators estimated that the bombers’ total costs, including paying for their explosives, were just a few hundred British pounds. Terror experts said the increasing cheapness of terrorism is making the international emphasis on preventing terror financing moot. “If you look at 9/11, which cost only $500,000 to execute, and then you look at all the subsequent attacks that have taken place, going from Bali to Istanbul to Madrid to London,” said economist Loretta Napoleoni, “we actually see that the cost of the attacks is decreasing exponentially.”