Counter Terrorism Policy of the Un

Back in the day, terrorists mainly relied on state sponsorship. Things have significantly changed nowadays; terrorists

The USA PATRIOT ACT was formed in order to obstruct terrorist financing and inhibit money filtering. This act is also set up to ensure that any illegal funding detected by reported in order to protect the financial well-being of The United States from transnational terrorist groups. Although the intentions of this act seem principled it is not enough to impede terrorist financing. The International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism was embraced by the UN in 1999 (Ehrenfeld). Within this preamble members of the United Nations agreed to uphold the articles contained in order to combat terrorist financing. Other methods of opposing terrorist funding are through the use of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (OIA), who gather intelligence and provide its details with other non-government agencies to warn them of possible pressures from extremist groups (Allgov.com). The Afghan Threat Finance Cell (ATFC) was launched in Iraq and was created in order to detect terrorism financing. Even with a vast number of agencies, organizations, and written legal documents outlining the techniques in which to combat transnational terrorism financing there is still so much illegal activity that slips

Terrorism has been creating havoc across the globe for the entirety of recorded history. Today, with the invention of the Internet and different computer programs, these radical groups that enact these deadly attacks are able to change the way they operate through the use of technological advances to further their onslaught on humanity. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation defines terrorism as “the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.” (International vs. Domestic Terrorism). Every person on the planet can be affected by terrorism, regardless of religion, gender, or race. Throughout history radical groups who become obsessed with their own opinions and beliefs try to force others to believe in their views through displays of violence and terror. Contrary to modern beliefs that terrorists are only radical Islam groups like Al Qaeda and Isis, but in reality almost every group of people from Christians to even environmentalists have enacted radical terrorist attacks. Terrorism, like technology, is not exclusive to industrialized nations or countries but is available to anyone with the right resources. These technologies are used throughout the world to connect average people to others and is almost always used for good. Terrorist organizations take advantage of new found communications

ISIS obtains such a profuse amount of money that they are wealthier then several actual countries. ISIS has grown from a violent growing cell to a violent growing state. But fighting a war to establish a caliphate is expensive, especially when the U.S is trying to flip the bill. According to some estimates, they have placed Isis’ income to 3 million dollars per day. The Government has begun to examine and understand how ISIS raise their money. Isis has revenue coming from multiple areas such as: capturing cities, capturing oil feeds and refineries, as well as donations. Surprisingly, a majority of their funds come from ransoms, kidnappings and, unorganized crime extortions.

Terrorist organizations require a profound amount of cash, as they need to purchase weaponry, supplies, and each recruit needs to be well fed and equipped.

Financing of this terror groups is the largest challenge that is facing the war against terrorism. Other than just blacklisting countries that sponsor terrorism, the United States should completely ban these countries and cut down any relation or connections that it may be having with these countries. This will help in regulation of who comes in and out of the US borders, and it will also restrict individuals who come in as a tourist and end up posing terror threats to civilians. The other countermeasure

Also, another way of combating state sponsored terrorism is using sanctions like restricting government assistance, a ban defense exports and sales I believe they are talking about ITAR, International Traffic in Arms Regulations. Miscellaneous financial restrictions are another sanction that I mentioned earlier. Also, the people or countries that trade with countries that sponsor

Terrorists gain money through illegal activities such as front companies, drug trades, and kidnappings. Terrorist leaders such as Osama Bin Laden have been known to own chain stores throughout the Middle East, using them not only for money laundering but as a safe route to move and store weapons (Kaplan). In addition to this, these organizations tend to share in illegal oil profits and loot banks and market goods. Not only are these methods illegal, they are unethical, too. Kidnapping has been found to produce high profits for many of these groups. Holding hostages for ransom forces desperate family members into giving away huge sums of money in order to keep their loved ones alive. While the ways in which groups like these attain their money is disturbing, families are desperate to feed their children and themselves. On the other hand, many people are unaware of these illegal methods and know only of the charities that support the terrorist organizations. Charity is a big aspect of Islam, and there are thousands of charities through the Middle East. While as few as a hundred charities may sponsor terrorism, these are some of the wealthiest charities (Kaplan). The high amount of money flowing into these organizations leaves little for the rest of the population who have almost no way of attaining income at

When one is coming to understand terrorism and all of its components, a generally accepted definition is hard to come by because it tends to be described through the “subjective outlook of the definer” (Ganor, 2002). This idea has best been described as saying that “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” (Laqueur, 1987). For example, Osama Bin Laden, the man who is most known in the development of the plans for the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, was most likely seen as a freedom fighter in the eyes of those in support of Al-Qaeda, while Americans and people all around the world viewed his actions as one of a terrorist. Terrorism is not this tangible object that can be defined as one thing and is applied

As history, has shown us, as time progresses things begin to change. We can take that same aspect and apply it to terrorism. Terrorism has shown that it can change as history progresses as well. Typically, terrorist groups are organized by a hierarchy. Now, terrorist organizations are cell-orientated(McEntire,2009). That means they resemble a network of many groups(McEntire,2009). In the past, terrorism was supported by states; however, terrorist have become more independent when it comes to gaining money to support what they stand for (McEntire,2009). Next, before it was easy to differentiate between crime and terrorism, now it is more difficult since terrorist relay on crime to raise money(McEntire,2009). McEntire, also states, that the

In the past, terrorism used to be funded by state organizations or by crime. Since terrorism does not operate in one state and cannot collect taxes, it is now better financed through both legal and illegal sources. “More than $140 million in terrorists' assets have been frozen across some 1,400 bank accounts worldwide, but experts say terrorist groups have become increasingly adept at eluding detection through use of cash, sophisticated laundering operations, or legitimate front companies” (Kaplan, 2006). Terrorism has found ways to keep a steady flow of income and to stay undetected.

In the third part of the study, the scope of international co-operation studies will be investigated during the struggle against terrorist financing. Struggle Against Terrorist financing include international organizations such as the International Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the European Council, the European Union, the G-20, the Egmont Group, the Wolfsberg Group and the Basel Committee on Banking Regulations. Organizations' studies will be

Similar to many successful enterprises, terrorist groups have always diversified their revenue stream by relying on various forms of criminal activities to fund their operations. Terrorist groups are being forced to converge with organized crime to integrate local criminal activities in order to fund international terrorism. According to Steven D 'Alfonso, author of Why Organized Crime and Terror Groups Are Converging, D 'Alfonso notes that there is “evidence of Hezbollah establishing a strong base in Latin America over the past decade or more and working with Mexican DTOs [drug-trafficking organizations] to launder money, finance terrorism and smuggle people” (D 'Alfonso, 2014). Other diversified revenue streams of terrorist groups

"International and Domestic Terrorism Organizations and their supporters engage in a myriad of crimes to fund and facilitate terrorist activities. These crimes include extortion, kidnaping, robbery, corruption, alien smuggling, document fraud, arms trafficking, cyber crime, white collar crime, smuggling of contraband, money laundering and certainly drug trafficking."

In 2015 Oldrich Bures took a critical look at the state of CTF and AML in a post 9/11 era. Bures (Ten Years of EU’s Fight against Terrorist Financing: A Critical Assessment, 2015) cited the perfect quote from the EU’s Revised Strategy on Terrorist Financing (2008) “financial tools, used proactively, are highly beneficial in the identification of terrorist networks and development of counter-terrorist intelligence.” When looking at CTF and AML operations it is imperative to set the criteria to judge an effective program. It needs to be comprehensive, selective and smart. The program needs to cover a wide variety of platforms that could be used for terrorist funding. It needs to be able filter the data effectively. A program is not very