Terrorist Finance (merged thread)

[davidbfpo]

Just spotted and not read a new RUSI report 'Making Information Flow: Instruments and Innovations for Enhancing Financial Intelligence':https://rusi.org/sites/default/files...ation_flow.pdf

[davidbfpo]

An Indian commentary asks whether a "cashless" society will reduce terrorism and found - to my surprise - this:

a “cashless economy” need not be “terror-free”. In November 2014, CNBC conducted a survey of the 10 top “cashless” societies. It found Belgium to be the world’s top cashless society with 93 per cent non-cash consumer payments and 83 per cent debit card use. France was second, then Canada, the UK, Sweden, Australia, Holland, the US, Germany and South Korea. Unfortunately, Belgium and France were also the worst victims of indigenous and trans-border terrorism.

Then citing FATF and US reports states:

Detecting terror financing through legal channels is an extremely onerous task, as the US Treasury and FATF reports would indicate.

Link:http://indianexpress.com/article/opi...ption-4390492/

[davidbfpo]

Another RUSI report on 'Lone-Actor and Small Cell Terrorist Attacks: A New Front in Counter-Terrorist Finance?' and in summary:

As the threat from lone-actor and small cell terrorism evolves, this paper examines the financing of both disrupted and successful plots since 2000 in Great Britain, France and Australia. These plots often require minimal amounts of funding, making proactive identification through financial means challenging. Nonetheless, this paper highlights a number of key themes that warrant further investigation, showing the potentially disruptive role that financial intelligence can play.

Link:https://rusi.org/publication/occasio...-front-counter

Now to starting reading it, so may be a comment later.

[davidbfpo]

Spotted this book last week and might one day get to read it: 'Threat Finance: Dismantling the lifeline of Organized Crime and Terrorism' by Shima D. Keane, published in 2013 by Gower. It is very expensive alas, so a library copy one day.

One review via the publisher I expect is by "Hal" McMaster:

This book provides a lucid education on the often inconvenient realities of serious economic crime and identifies with clinical precision the reasons why it sometimes seems beyond the practical capabilities of the law to deal with it. What makes it so important, however, is Dr Keene's ability to mobilise the difficult thoughts that need to be thought if modern democracy is to survive the corruptive threats of crime and terror and their ability at the more sophisticated levels to exploit the modern accommodations of international finance and cyberspace with apparent impunity. The challenge, so vividly described here, can appear overwhelming; but the lasting influence left by this seminal work is the conviction that it will be more adequately met if some of the current cosy thinking on this subject in relevant fields of influence can be turned on its head.

Link to Amazon UK:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Threat-Fina...threat+finance

It is far cheaper via:https://www.amazon.com/Threat-Financ...threat+finance

[davidbfpo]

Professor Peter Neumann, Kings College London ICSR, has a scathing review of CT financing activity in Foreign Affairs 'Don't Follow the Money: The Problem With the War on Terrorist Financing'

Here is one passage:

More than a decade and a half into the war on terrorist funding, policymakers must recognize the drawbacks of their current approach. Financial tools cannot stop lone attackers from driving cars into crowds, nor can they do much when groups such as ISIS hold territory and earn most of their income from within it. Policymakers need to acknowledge that the war on terrorist financing, as it has been conducted since 2001, has often been costly and counterproductive, harming innocent people and companies without significantly constraining terrorist groups’ ability to operate. Unless governments find ways to revolutionize how they share information with the financial sector, most of the current procedures for identifying suspicious transactions will continue to be little more than costly box-ticking exercises.

Link:https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2017-06-13/dont-follow-money?

Quite a few sources cited appear here already.

[davidbfpo]

Encountered a reference to this monograph (82 pgs) this week; it claims to be intelligence-based, using interviews rather than open sources and is not an academic study. The editor, Aimen Deen, is a former AQ jihadist and a short BBC profile in 2015 helps:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-31700894

The author(s) explain:

We have divided the study into three themes: theology, history and methodology. Since Jihadists such as al-Qaeda, the Taliban and their supporters consider fundraising for Jihad to be an act of worship just like Jihad itself, then comprehending the theological basis of Jihadist fundraising will add clarity and depth to the understanding of the concept. Historical background will illuminate the path that Jihadist finance took to evolve throughout the years. And the methodology of Jihad fundraising and then the movement of funds across borders will shed light on ingeniously simple methods adopted by Jihadist fundraisers to avoid detection by authorities worldwide.

Link:http://www.fived.org/images/files/Holy%20Money.pdf

I asked a SME for an opinion on its value:

Yes, it very much is. Much of the reporting on this subject has been tactical and not very good tactical at that

[davidbfpo]

The link below is to a 2002 House of Commons report on Northern Ireland 'The continuing threat from paramilitary organisations' and the section on financing, even if dated it has value and note was after the 1997 Good Friday Agreement and an end to hostilities.
Link:https://publications.parliament.uk/p.../978/97806.htm