Terrorist Finance (merged thread)

[Jedburgh]

....Perhaps it is just me, but the title seems to be reminiscent of the Murder Inc. of depression era Organized Crime. In that case, organized criminality became an industry, almost unto itself. Of course there were supporting funds, such as the ubiquitous prostitution, extortion and 'rum running'. Nevertheless, it is possible that there is an undercurrent of political economy. This may be worth exploring in a separate thread. Are we dealing with an entire economic movement, and if so is it more like the advent of the automobile industry, and part of the existing structure, or is it more like communism and antithetical to existing economics? Should this be discussed elsewhere, or has it already been?

The point that has been made thus far in the thread is that there is no all-encompassing, world-wide "economic movement" financially supporting terrorism. Each terrorist organization has to be examined in its own unique context, i.e. like the case study RAND completed a few years back looking at the LTTE and diaspora support.

There have also been a few outstanding studies of how former violent leftist organizations shifted funding after the fall of the Soviet Union - many just fell apart, some dropped the ideology and shifted to become plain ol' criminal enterprises, a small number managed to blend various aspects of illicit funding with continued operations, often with a bit of a different focus.

There is certainly value in exploring financial support to various specific terror organizations. Perhaps it may be better to discuss the issue in the specific regionally-focused forum where the group in question operates (i.e. Jemaah Islamiyyah in Asia-Pacific, Hezballah in the Middle East, or the FARC in the Americas.)

[marct]

Hi Ted,

The point that has been made thus far in the thread is that there is no all-encompassing, world-wide "economic movement" financially supporting terrorism. Each terrorist organization has to be examined in its own unique context, i.e. like the case study RAND completed a few years back looking at the LTTE and diaspora support.

Quite true. What we appear to have is a rise in micro-economic networks, some of which are being used by terrorist organizations, some of which have no bearing on them, and some of which may be partially used by them.

Personally, I think it is important to differentiate between systems, system components, actors within those systems and the motivations (tactics) of those actors, and this distinction may prove useful. I've been working with a mature student for a couple of years now (she works for our federal government) looking at the manipulation of social programs by "terrorist" organizations (sorry, but you know I have a problem with that label ).

So, let me give you a case in point....

Some years back (about 1993-4) Canada let in a large number of Somali refugees (~6,000), concentrated in Ottawa and Toronto on humanitarian grounds. I'm not sure how much all of you know about the refugee system in Canada, but it is much closer to that of Europe than that of the US: subsidized (or free) housing, welfare checks, medical and dental care, etc. Pretty soon, it was discovered that a fair amount of the money being paid out in social welfare payments was being sent back to family members in Somalia through informal banking systems, usually with a 10-15% carrying charge. Some of this money ended up being used to buy weapons, which is not surprising if you know anything at all about Somalia .

All of this is technically "legal", but some of the money ended up in the hands of groups and individuals who are considered to be "terrorists". Was this a "plot to defraud the Crown"? Nope, it was an extension of the clan system which requires that all clan members aid others in the clan - a very ancient system. There have been systematic attempts to defraud the Crown (and other Western governments), but there is certainly no overarching mastermind behind them .