Terrorist Financing: On Deterring Terrorist Operations in the U.S.

In the first days of the “war on terror,” before the United States had launched air “Money is the lifeblood of terrorist operations,” Bush said at the time. probably deterred terrorists from using the international financial system.
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This pioneering branch was the first to be trained in counter-terrorism techniques. Its name was changed to Special Branch as it had its remit gradually expanded [3] to incorporate a general role in counterterrorism, combating foreign subversion and infiltrating organized crime. Law enforcement agencies , in Britain and elsewhere, established similar units.

Counterterrorism forces expanded with the perceived growing threat of terrorism in the late 20th century. Specifically, after the September 11 attacks , Western governments made counter-terrorism efforts a priority, including more foreign cooperation, shifting tactics involving red teams [5] and preventive measures.

Most counter-terrorism strategies involve an increase in standard police and domestic intelligence. The central activities are traditional: New technology has, however, expanded the range of military and law enforcement operations. Domestic intelligence is often directed at specific groups, defined on the basis of origin or religion, which is a source of political controversy. Mass surveillance of an entire population raises objections on civil liberties grounds. Homegrown terrorists , especially lone wolves are often harder to detect because of their citizenship or legal status and ability to stay under the radar.

To select the effective action when terrorism appears to be more of an isolated event, the appropriate government organizations need to understand the source, motivation, methods of preparation, and tactics of terrorist groups. Good intelligence is at the heart of such preparation, as well as political and social understanding of any grievances that might be solved. Ideally, one gets information from inside the group, a very difficult challenge for HUMINT because operational terrorist cells are often small, with all members known to one another, perhaps even related.

Counterintelligence is a great challenge with the security of cell-based systems, since the ideal, but nearly impossible, goal is to obtain a clandestine source within the cell. Financial tracking can play a role, as can communications intercept , but both of these approaches need to be balanced against legitimate expectations of privacy.

Since the UK's terrorism laws have been regularly reviewed by a security-cleared Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation , whose often influential reports are submitted to Parliament and published in full. One of the primary difficulties of implementing effective counter-terrorist measures is the waning of civil liberties and individual privacy that such measures often entail, both for citizens of, and for those detained by states attempting to combat terror.

This is how terrorists finance their attacks | World Economic Forum

Examples of these problems can include prolonged, incommunicado detention without judicial review or long periods of 'preventive detention'; [13] risk of subjecting to torture during the transfer, return and extradition of people between or within countries; and the adoption of security measures that restrain the rights or freedoms of citizens and breach principles of non-discrimination.

Many would argue that such violations could exacerbate rather than counter the terrorist threat. Amnesty International included a section on confronting terrorism in the recommendations in the Madrid Agenda arising from the Madrid Summit on Democracy and Terrorism Madrid March 8—11, Democratic principles and values are essential tools in the fight against terrorism. Any successful strategy for dealing with terrorism requires terrorists to be isolated. Consequently, the preference must be to treat terrorism as criminal acts to be handled through existing systems of law enforcement and with full respect for human rights and the rule of law.

While international efforts to combat terrorism have focused on the need to enhance cooperation between states, proponents of human rights as well as human security have suggested that more effort needs to be given to the effective inclusion of human rights protection as a crucial element in that cooperation. They argue that international human rights obligations do not stop at borders and a failure to respect human rights in one state may undermine its effectiveness in the international effort to cooperate to combat terrorism. Some countries see preemptive attacks as a legitimate strategy.

This includes capturing, killing, or disabling suspected terrorists before they can mount an attack. Another major method of preemptive neutralization is interrogation of known or suspected terrorists to obtain information about specific plots, targets, the identity of other terrorists, whether or not the interrogation subjects himself is guilty of terrorist involvement. Sometimes more extreme methods are used to increase suggestibility , such as sleep deprivation or drugs.

Such methods may lead captives to offer false information in an attempt to stop the treatment, or due to the confusion brought on by it. These methods are not tolerated by European powers. United Kingdom case that such methods amounted to a practice of inhuman and degrading treatment, and that such practices were in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights Article 3 art.

The human security paradigm outlines a non-military approach which aims to address the enduring underlying inequalities which fuel terrorist activity. Causal factors need to be delineated and measures implemented which allow equal access to resources and sustainability for all people. Such activities empower citizens providing 'freedom from fear' and 'freedom from want'.

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This can take many forms including the provision of clean drinking water, education, vaccination programs, provision of food and shelter and protection from violence, military or otherwise. Successful human security campaigns have been characterized by the participation of a diverse group of actors including governments, NGOs , and citizens. Foreign internal defense programs provide outside expert assistance to a threatened government. FID can involve both non-military and military aspects of counter-terrorism.


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A study found that "governance and civil society aid is effective in dampening domestic terrorism, but this effect is only present if the recipient country is not experiencing a civil conflict. Terrorism has often been used to justify military intervention in countries like Pakistan where terrorists are said to be based. That was the main stated justification for the U. It was also a stated justification for the second Russian invasion of Chechnya. Although military action can disrupt a terrorist group's operations temporarily, it sometimes doesn't end the threat completely.

Thus repression by the military in itself particularly if it is not accompanied by other measures usually leads to short term victories, but tend to be unsuccessful in the long run e. However, new methods see the new Counterinsurgency Field Manual [20] such as those taken in Iraq have yet to be seen as beneficial or ineffectual. Police, fire, and emergency medical response organizations have obvious roles. Local firefighters and emergency medical personnel often called "first responders" have plans for mitigating the effects of terrorist attacks, although police may deal with threats of such attacks.

Whatever the target of terrorists, there are multiple ways of hardening the targets to prevent the terrorists from hitting their mark, or reducing the damage of attacks. One method is to place Hostile vehicle mitigation to enforce protective standoff distance outside tall or politically sensitive buildings to prevent car and truck bombing. Another way to reduce the impact of attacks is to design buildings for rapid evacuation.

Aircraft cockpits are kept locked during flights, and have reinforced doors, which only the pilots in the cabin are capable of opening. UK railway stations removed their rubbish bins in response to the Provisional IRA threat, as convenient locations for depositing bombs. Scottish stations removed theirs after the 7 July London Bombings as a precautionary measure.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority purchased bomb-resistant barriers after the September 11 terrorist attacks. As Israel is suffering from constant shelling of its cities, towns and settlements by artillery rockets from the Gaza Strip mainly by Hamas , but also by other Palestinian factions and Lebanon mainly by Hezbollah , Israel developed several defensive measures against artillery, rockets and missiles.

These include building a bomb shelter in every building and school , but also deploying active protection systems like the Arrow ABM , Iron Dome and David's Sling batteries which intercept the incoming threat in the air. Iron Dome has successfully intercepted hundreds of Qassam rockets and Grad rockets fired by Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. A more sophisticated target-hardening approach must consider industrial and other critical industrial infrastructure that could be attacked.

Terrorists need not import chemical weapons if they can cause a major industrial accident such as the Bhopal disaster or the Halifax Explosion. Industrial chemicals in manufacturing, shipping, and storage need greater protection, and some efforts are in progress. Industrial shipments of chlorine, widely used in water purification and the chemical industry, travel in 90 or 55 ton tank cars.


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To give one more example, the North American electrical grid has already demonstrated, in the Northeast Blackout of , its vulnerability to natural disasters coupled with inadequate, possibly insecure, SCADA supervisory control and data acquisition networks. Part of the vulnerability is due to deregulation leading to much more interconnection in a grid designed for only occasional power-selling between utilities. A small number of terrorists, attacking key power facilities when one or more engineers have infiltrated the power control centers, could wreak havoc. Equipping likely targets with containers i.

The technique was apparently used on a limited scale by British authorities in the s.

This is how terrorists finance their attacks

The idea has been suggested more recently as a deterrent to suicide bombings in Israel. In North America and other continents, for a threatened or completed terrorist attack, the Incident Command System ICS is apt to be invoked to control the various services that may need to be involved in the response. ICS has varied levels of escalation, such as might be needed for multiple incidents in a given area e. National response, for example, might be needed for a nuclear, biological, radiological, or large chemical attack.

Fire departments , perhaps supplemented by public works agencies, utility providers e. Again under an incident command model, local police can isolate the incident area, reducing confusion, and specialized police units can conduct tactical operations against terrorists, often using specialized counter-terrorist tactical units. Bringing in such units will normally involve civil or military authority beyond the local level. Emergency medical services will triage, treat, and transport the more seriously affected victims to hospitals, which will also need to have mass casualty and triage plans in place.

Public health agencies , from local to national level, may be designated to deal with identification, and sometimes mitigation, of possible biological attacks, and sometimes chemical or radiologic contamination.

How Saudi Arabia Financed Global Terror

Today, many countries have special units designated to handle terrorist threats. Besides various security agencies , there are elite tactical units , also known as special mission units , whose role is to directly engage terrorists and prevent terrorist attacks. Such units perform both in preventive actions, hostage rescue and responding to on-going attacks.

Countries of all sizes can have highly trained counter-terrorist teams. Tactics, techniques and procedures for manhunting are under constant development. Most of these measures deal with terrorist attacks that affect an area, or threaten to do so. It is far harder to deal with assassination, or even reprisals on individuals, due to the short if any warning time and the quick exfiltration of the assassins. These units are specially trained in tactics and are very well equipped for CQB with emphasis on stealth and performing the mission with minimal casualties.

The units include take-over force assault teams , snipers , EOD experts, dog handlers and intelligence officers. See Counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism organizations for national command, intelligence, and incident mitigation. The majority of counter-terrorism operations at the tactical level, are conducted by state, federal and national law enforcement agencies or intelligence agencies. In some countries, the military may be called in as a last resort. Obviously, for countries whose military are legally permitted to conduct police operations, this is a non-issue, and such counter-terrorism operations are conducted by their military.

See counter-intelligence for command, intelligence and warning, and incident mitigation aspects of counter-terror. Some counterterrorist actions of the 20th and 21st century are listed below. See list of hostage crises for a more extended list, including hostage-taking that did not end violently. March 30, the Manawan Police Academy in Lahore attack — 8 gunmen, 8 police personnel and 2 civilians killed, 95 people injured, 4 gunmen captured.

Plaza Cinema Chowk attack — 16 policemen, an army officer and unknown number of civilians killed. As many as people injured. The scope for Anti-terrorism systems is very large in physical terms long borders, vast areas, high traffic volumes in busy cities, etc. In this environment, the development of a persistent Anti-terrorism protection system is a daunting task. Such a system should bring together diverse state-of-the-art technologies to enable persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, and enable potential actions.

In part, this reflects the changing dynamics of terrorism as witnessed in the developed world, from high intensity sophisticated attacks to more low-tech, low-cost and lone actor attacks. Such a shift in tactics mimics the evolutions in terrorism funding and highlights the need to consider longer-term strategies to inhibit the rise of terrorism. However, as the loss of its self-proclaimed caliphate has shown, the group's strategy of self-funding in controlled territory has left them susceptible to any action that impinges on its territory.

By early , the coalition had destroyed more than 2, oil extraction, refinement and sale sites. The Iraqi government has also shut down banking systems within ISIL-controlled territory to restrict payments to government workers in these areas. It is highly likely its revenue will decline further. However, the global threat posed by the group remains, particularly in light of the trend towards more low-cost attacks.

The September 11 attacks were highly sophisticated in their planning and implementation. The more recent attacks using vehicles, such as the Nice truck attack, were similarly inexpensive to conduct. This shift towards inexpensive attacks reflects a shift in tactics.

A study of 40 terrorist cells that plotted or carried out attacks in Western Europe between and found that most plots were self-funded. This estimate includes all costs associated with the attack such as travel, communication, storage, acquiring of weapons and bomb-making materials.

Counter-terrorism

The United Nations Security Council has long recognised the need to combat the financing of terrorism. Resolution and Resolution both sought to quell terrorist power. Their low cost renders them harder to detect during the preparation stage. This trend shines a light on the need for greater attention to be given to the many complex issues associated with terrorism beyond the more frequently-discussed military and security responses.

This includes better understanding the drivers of terrorism recruitment. A recent analysis of former members of various extremist organisations in Africa found that over half of respondents were motivated to join as they perceived their religion as under attack. Former fighters also cited low levels of trust in government institutions and high levels of animosity towards the police, politicians and the military.

Individuals whose expectations for social mobility and economic welfare have been frustrated are at a greater risk of radicalisation. Thus countries where a highly educated population remains largely unemployed or underemployed may be breeding grounds for extremist ideology.