Transnational Threats Update
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Transnational Threats Update Volume 2 • Number 13 • December 2004 “Defending our Nation against its enemies is the first and fundamental commitment of the Federal Government. Today, that task has changed dramatically. Enemies in the past needed great armies and great industrial capabilities to endanger America. Now, shadowy networks of individuals can bring great chaos and suffering to our shores for less than it costs to purchase a single tank. Terrorists are organized to penetrate open societies and to turn the power of modern technologies against us.” President George W. Bush, 2002 National Security Strategy CONTENTS including those of the Takfiri movement, among the European Muslim youth; and the difficulty of Terrorism........................................….1 monitoring and penetrating the movement. Drug Trafficking……...………………...2 Terror Financing................................ 3 The core principle of the movement, “taquyya,” War on Terror..................................... 4 advocates deception by blending into non-Muslim Transnational Threat Trends………...5 cultures by adopting Western lifestyle and habits. This does not prevent the Takfir followers from recruiting among immigrant Muslim communities. Terrorism The combination of these factors makes it especially hard to tackle the threat posed to European countries Rising Threat of the Takfiri Movement to that already lack a clear strategy to fight terrorism. Europe and Beyond The Takfiri influence impacts many countries. It is The killing of the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh estimated that up to 50,000 of the 1 million Muslims last November brought the problem of Islamist in the Netherlands sympathize with extremist extremism to the fore of Europe’s attention. The Islamist ideas. Last year, French authorities arrested attacker was an alleged member of the Dutch more than a dozen suspected Takfiri affiliates. Islamic cell known as the Hofstad Network, which Moroccan and Jordanian officials have also been is believed to be affiliated with Al Qaeda and is part after Takfiri followers. Some of the September 11 of the radical Islamist movement al-Takfir wa al- instigators and attackers, for instance, Mohammed Hijra. The Takfir movement, born in the 1960s, Atta, Ramzi Yosef, and Khalid Shaikh Muhammed, appeals to militant Islamist groups like Al Qaeda by were believed to be Takfiri supporters. Ayman Al- inspiring them with its extremist ideology directed Zawahiri is also a Takfiri member. against societies seen as corrupt and meriting reprisal. Although there is no clear indication of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s membership in the Takfiri sect, his Although one has to be careful with linking the beliefs are generally in line with the Takfiri tenets. Takfiri canons directly with terrorist networks, it is The Takfiri threat to Europe appears to be possible to see the influence of the movement on particularly acute because of the alienation and present-day Islamist terrorism to some degree. The increasing frustration of its swelling Muslim threat of the movement to Western European community and the lackluster attempt of the countries is alarming for three reasons: the growth European authorities to address Islamist extremism of the Muslim immigrant population in Europe and in their respective countries. The killing of van Gogh their alienation from mainstream European prompted the Dutch authorities to adopt a law societies; the popularity of extremist ideas, banning foreign terrorist groups, but it also triggered Transnational Threats Initiative • Center for Strategic and International Studies 1800 K Street, NW • Washington, DC 20006 • Tel: (202) 775-3282 • Fax: (202) 785-1688 • http://www.csis.org/tnt 2 societal intolerance toward Muslims, which may Islamic Fundamentalist Cells Preaching Wahhabi worsen the delicate situation. It appears that Islam in Macedonian Capital European countries have yet to draw up a common strategy to address the issue of Islamist extremism. Though there has been no official police reaction, (Combined Dispatches) Claude Monique, international terrorism adviser and European institutions’ consultant, has confirmed to Animal Rights Extremists Seen as Serious the Macedonian newspaper Vest the existence of Al Threat to UK Economy Qaeda-inspired/related cells in Macedonia. The Macedonian capital, Skopje, is said to have a number A report by the London-based Aegis Defense of fundamentalist cells that preach the extreme and Services reported twin threats to the economy. It often violent form of Saudi-inspired Wahhabi Islam. stated that animal rights “terrorists” in the United Kingdom could do as much damage to the economy Sources have corroborated that the intention of these as a single large-scale terrorist attack. cells is to “infiltrate impoverished and poorly educated environments, which are told that the The report also stated that animal rights extremism state’s intention is to undermine their religion and was expected to become a growing economic threat prevent them from having children. Cells that are over the course of 2005. “Single-issue terrorism and located in the city glorify the mujahideen fight animal rights extremist terrorist activity in Europe before the believers, disseminating written materials will grow with more ambitious strategy…and there to those who are literate, asking them to worship are fascinating parallels between the economic Islam through blood…,” according to the Vest agenda of al-Qaeda and animal rights extremist article. networks,” the report said. The presence of these fundamentalist cells has Currently at stake is an annual investment of up to provoked a strong sense of fear among the local ₤16 billion in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology population. The population has witnessed these research and development industries, according to organizations’ violence directed against members of Domonic Armstrong, director of research and the local Muslim community when entering intelligence at Aegis. In addition, three large mosques, trying to impose their foreign and extreme companies with a history of heavy investment in doctrine on their long-practiced traditional form of Britain have revealed fears regarding intimidation. Islam. “As the UK government and industry fail to act effectively against ARE (animal rights extremists), Brussels has warned of the dangers of these cells, so the activists will maintain their momentum in citing Claude Monique’s assertion that Skopje Mufti establishing effective offshoots in a number of Zenun Berisha maintains close ties with Al Qaeda European countries, especially Italy, the and shares the common strategic goal of establishing Netherlands, Sweden, and Russia,” the Aegis report terror camps and cells. (Combined Dispatches) states. As the ARE groups become more successful, “their morale will rise and they will be tempted to Drug Trafficking target major multinational corporations. Share prices will be significantly eroded in targeted Influx of Foreign Drugs Threatens Russian companies, and in the secondary and tertiary firms National Security associated with them.” Examples of actions undertaken by animal rights The Russian Federal Service for Drug Control extremists in 2004 include hundreds of Animal announced that Moscow authorities had broken up Liberation Front activists trained in the Kent 38 organized criminal gangs involved in drug countryside area to kill and break the law. ARE trafficking in the last six months. Regional experts groups made more than 100 attacks on the homes of have estimated that roughly 10 tons of heroin alone Huntingdon Life Sciences laboratory workers. are sold in the Moscow area every year, though some (Combined Dispatches) estimates are significantly higher. Despite specific Transnational Threats Initiative • Center for Strategic and International Studies 1800 K Street, NW • Washington, DC 20006 • Tel: (202) 775-3282 • Fax: (202) 785-1688 • http://www.csis.org/tnt 3 yet meager attempts by Russian authorities to crack laundering adds to frequent bank failures in Latin down on drug trafficking, systematic corruption and America, which had been largely due to external loose border controls have done little to disrupt the shocks. flow of drugs into the region. Among the ten countries with the highest rates of The head of the Russian Service for Drug Control, money laundering, five were in Latin America and Viktor Cherkesov, said that Russia is particularly one in the Caribbean (Argentina, Colombia, Haiti, concerned about Central Asia. “We tightened Paraguay, Nicaragua, and Bolivia). Ecuador is not on control over the Armenian-Georgian, Armenian- the list, but its financial institutions also suffer Iranian and Belarusian sectors of the border. The greatly from money laundering. The negative effects latter is a major conduit for synthetic drugs from of laundering range from a weakened private sector Europe,” he said. and a loss of tax income to the corrosion of the “integrity of financial markets as well as countries’ Cherkesov expressed dismay regarding how the reputations.” (Combined Dispatches) counter-drug trafficking operations have not been successful in stemming the flow of heroin and Terror Groups Clone Cash Machine Cards opium from Afghanistan. However, law enforcement forces from member states of the France’s top antiterrorism judge, Jean-Louis Collective Security Treaty—Russia, Belarus, Bruguiere, said radical Islamic cells in Europe were Armenia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan— using intricate technology to “clone” card details of recently