Terrorism is an act of violence, usually done in the public sphere, which is used to incite fear in a population in order to coerce change in public opinion or a government’s position on an issue. In many parts of the world, groups wage war with their countries, either to separate from the government or to overthrow it entirely. Sometimes these people are treated unfairly by their government, and their struggles are justified. Other times, these groups use violence against both military and civilian targets, terrorizing innocent bystanders to get what they want—these groups are terrorists. Often, though, it is difficult to tell the difference.
Today, several major countries—notably the United States and United Kingdom—are involved in
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The main payment systems to transfer funds to finance the global Islamic terrorism are through the traditional banking channel: wire-transfers and the hawala. Heads of terror groups operate in a different fashion, using higher value and higher risk methods of financing like drug trafficking in Afghanistan and diamond smuggling in Africa.
Some countries provide safe haven to terrorist groups, while also failing to curb the funding they receive through private donations to ‘charitable organizations’ for carrying out jihad. Iran, for example is alleged to be an active sponsor of Hizballah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Curbing the supply of funds to these organizations has been a major part of past efforts to counter international terrorism. The effectiveness of existing legislations and treaties and need for and nature of further measures are issues that need to be discussed.
Intelligence
Gathering of correct and reliable information about possible planned activities, methods, resources, bases etc of terrorist organizations is crucial to prevention of terrorism. The right information at the right time can help avert disastrous attacks, saving countless lives. Most nations have extensive mechanisms and organizations in place to collect intelligence to protect their citizens, such as the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), British MI5, Russian FSB, Israeli Mossad etc. the 27 members of the EU all have financial intelligence units, acronym
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.
Back in the day, terrorists mainly relied on state sponsorship. Things have significantly changed nowadays; terrorists
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
It is the United States’ biggest allies- Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia- who for years now, have been helping fund Islamic terrorist activity (Watson, 2014). The worst defender is Kuwait; the government has done very little to stop the flow of cash. According to Rogin (2014), senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Andrew Tabler stated, “‘Everybody knows the money is going through Kuwait and that it’s coming from the Arab Gulf. Iraq.’’’ Detailed reports demonstrate Saudi Arabia and Qatar for funding various Syrian terrorist Kuwait’s banking system… are a major conduit for money to extremist groups in Syria and now groups; which has paved the way for ISIS and many others.
Terrorist funding is a vital fragment of what allows the smooth transition of missions and acts of violence to take place. The money acquired goes into planning and executing assignments and operations. Funds are needed in order to provide radicals with adequate training, food and lodge, firepower and weapons, passports with different identities as well as communication support. The members of terrorist groups have to rely on funding in order to fulfill sustainment capabilities as well being able to function on a day to day basis. Many of them have families to support and the use of terrorist funding often goes back to the member’s families as contribution of their services and volunteerism to their cause whether political or religious.
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
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
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
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
Donations from charities and other organizations are the leading source of funding for terrorism. “Charities and philanthropic organizations have also been used to move funds and are sources of al Qaeda funding” (Forest & Howard, 2013, pg. 14). Some of these charities and organizations are trying to promote Islam through legitimate programs; such as for schools, medical supplies, and orphans; but many are raising funds with the direct intent of supporting terrorism. Terrorist organizations move the money from charities through informal banking systems, money order or cash services, and even regular banks. Another way
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
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 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
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