Our no-doc loan was made for YOU

An article published today in the conservative FrontPageMagazine.com claims there's a "growing trend of terrorist associations with mortgage fraud rings in the U.S."

Some of the connections drawn seem tenuous. In some instances, prosecutors won convictions on mortgage fraud charges, but were unable to prove links to terrorist groups.

The story, by Patrick Poole, acknowledges this problem while simultaneously dismissing it. "With the difficultly of gathering sufficient evidence to conduct a case sufficient to convict on terrorism charges, federal authorities have not hesitated to look at the illegal means by which these individuals have financed their plans for jihad against the US," Poole writes.

Although proceeds from mortgage fraud schemes have undoubtedly been put to all sorts of nefarious purposes -- including terrorism -- that doesn't mean there's a meaningful trend. Even the editors of FrontPageMagazine felt compelled to put a question mark on the story's headline: "Mortgage Fraud Funding Jihad?"

Hmmm... As long as we're throwing question marks around, how about this: Could it be that all of us play a much bigger role in funding jihad when we fill up our gas tanks?
--Matt Carter, Inman News

All rights reserved. This content may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this content without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.