Ch F-X ang PD e w Click to buy NOW! w m o w c .d k. ocu-trac Tracking Terrorist Financing By Michael E Gray 1 Ch F-X ang PD e w Click to buy NOW! w m o w c .d k. ocu-trac Introduction As the war on terror has entered it seventh year, efforts to dismantle terrorist financial networks remains an essential part of the strategy. More than 140 millions dollars in terrorist assets have been frozen. Some 1,600 bank accounts have been seized world wide. Terrorist groups have become increasingly adapted to eluding detection through the use of cash, shell companies and money laundering operations. Charities donations and informal money transfer centers (hawals) are strongly embedded in the Islamic culture have made it extremely difficult in tracking down terrorist financial links. Another fact to be considered by law enforcement is that terrorist operations can be accomplished at a relatively low cost. A good example of this is the 2005 London train bombing cost $2,000, the 2004 Madrid mass transit bombing was $10,000-$15,000, the 2002 Bali nigh club bombing was $50,0001 and the 9/11 World Trade Center attack was $400,000-$500,0002 What methods are used to fiancé these operations? Charities. At once time they were the main source of operating capital along with donations from wealthy individuals according to the CFR 2002 Task Force Report. The 2004 report does state that Saudi Arabia has taken some steps to rectify this. In the Islamic culture there are numerous charities out there and we can not monitor all of them3. Illegal Activities. A good source of income comes from the drug trade.4 Illicit Drug Trade Terrorist groups are currently interacting with transnational organized crime syndicates, especially narcotics cartels. Peruvian Shining Path and Colombian FARC guerrillas have provided mercenary security support for narcotics production and trafficking lines in South America, and there is strong evidence that the Palestinian PFLP-GC has been using infrastructure in Lebanon to support drug trafficking. In return, these terrorist groups receive enormous amounts of money, more so than in “traditional”fund-raising operations such as kidnapping and bank robbery— operations that are far riskier than supporting narcotics trafficking. 1 United Nation Report on terrorism 2 911 commission report pages 169-172 3 Roberts O Collins Alms for Jihad 4 Loretta Napoleoni expert on terrorist financing 2 Ch F-X ang PD e w Click to buy NOW! w m o w c .d k. ocu-trac Furthermore, this interaction offers smuggling routes long established and tested by crime syndicates for drug and arms running, potentially providing terrorists with logistical infrastructure to clandestinely move people, arms and materiel5. Currently, however, the objectives and methods of terrorist groups remain significantly different that those of transnational organized crime syndicates. Terrorist groups generally seek an overthrow of the status quo, using spectacular operations that seek to attract the attention of the world. Transnational criminal organizations derive their power through a low profile, working within the existing structure, seeking not to attract the attention of “legitimate”powers. However, criminal syndicates do work for money, and there is no clear reason, given the right price, that such syndicates would not lend their logistical, communications, and transportation infrastructures to support terrorist operations. This holds two important implications for US counter-terrorism strategy. Firstly, if terrorist groups increasingly interact with organized crime syndicates, they may evolve organizationally, to adapt to such interaction. Such an organizational evolution would require a re- thinking of infiltration and targeting strategies as terrorist organizations come to resemble more closely, for example, the narcotics cartels in South America. Secondly, there is a trend of increasing lethality of terrorist attacks. The logical end of this trend is, of course, terrorist use of WMD [weapons of mass destruction]. If terrorist interaction with transnational crime syndicates is successful enough— especially with narcotics traffickers— the infrastructures of these interactions might be robust enough to provide terrorists with real opportunities for WMD proliferation, including the introduction of a weapon of mass destruction into the United States. The implications of such an infrastructure are obvious. Just how much of a group's financing comes from drugs varies widely, Mr. Thompson6 said. "With the Islamic fundamentalists, it is maybe 25 to 30 per cent. It's probably the single biggest money earner." The drugs trafficked by Islamic terrorists include marijuana from Lebanon, but more commonly they distribute heroin. Afghanistan is one 5 Neal A Pollard Director Terrorism Research Center Terrorism and Organized crime Report 2004 6 John Thompson DEA spokes person 3 Ch F-X ang PD e w Click to buy NOW! w m o w c .d k. ocu-trac of the largest growers of opium poppies, the source of heroin, 86% of the world’s opium is grown here. Even Osama bin Laden7 may have his hands in the drug trade. According to a Russian report, Bin Laden has bankrolled Chechen gunmen in Dagestan with funds generated from heroin trafficking. The importance of illegal drugs to the financing of terrorism raises an obvious question. If illegal drugs are the single largest source of funding for terrorism, can you hurt terrorism by legalizing drugs? "Probably," John Thompson said. "In fact I think you could hurt it considerably." Drug policy activists have long argued that by banning drugs and putting them into the black market, Western nations have fuelled mayhem. "We have to look at the ways that our drug policies are enriching terrorist organizations just the way that they're enriching organized crime," said Eugene Oscapella8, an Ottawa lawyer and a founding member of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy. So far, that reconsideration hasn't happened. The G8 and the United Nations have discussed the problem of terrorist financing over the past several years, but they have never discussed drug prohibition in that light. The G8 went so far as to explicitly refuse to talk about drug legalization. This is typical for the UN Instead; they have focused on fundraising among expatriate communities and other, lesser sources of financing. British Prime Minister Tony Blair9 insisted that in striking back at terrorism, the West would have to cut off the money that pays for terrorist atrocities. There's little question that the drive against terrorism will be sweeping, taking in all the "roots and branches," including financing. But Mr. Thompson doesn't expect world governments to seriously consider whether they might cut off much of the money flowing into terrorist hands by abolishing drug prohibition. In some countries this there main source of revenue. "This is a sacred cow. It's going to be hard to kill." Refer to charts in appendix for details. 7 Russian Intelligence Report on drug trafficking 8 Founder of Foundation for Drug Policy in Canada 9 UK Prime Minister 4 Ch F-X ang PD e w Click to buy NOW! w m o w c .d k. ocu-trac Coupon and Welfare fraud is another way that these groups are financed. Coupon redemption fraud has been a favorite financing target by terror cells and their sympathizers operating within the United States. Since 1986, terror operatives working within the U.S. have used Coupon Redemption as a method of financing operations here and abroad. This is well documented in various indictments and investigations over the years. US vs Adam Bahhur10 In 1988 in South Florida, a $186 million dollar coupon fraud investigation was revealed. During an undercover sting operation by industry and law enforcement that was captured on video tape, the ring leader, Adnan Bahhur, pounded his chest to the undercover operatives and claimed that his uncle is George Habash, the leader of the PLFP (Palestine Liberation Front), the military arm of the PLO. Habash was a close associate of Saddam Hussein, the Dictator of Iraq. When Bahhur was arrested, he recanted his claim to a relationship with Habash and his association with the PLFP. Where did the $186 million go? At the time of his arrest, many of his associates and co-conspirators, grocery store owners from across America, most Middle-Eastern men, came to Hollywood, Florida to reap additional financial gains from the coupon fraud scheme. The U.S. Postal Inspector and Broward County Sheriff’s Office conducted a raid that was captured on video. This was the first indication of a national network of coupon fraudsters with alleged ties to terrorist operations. Years later, in 2003, Bahhur continued his criminal enterprise in other cities in the Midwest. He was convicted of various crimes in Tennessee and spent some time in the Federal lockup. He’s back out on American streets living and doing business in South Florida, today. 10 Trial Transcript, Indictment and newspaper accounts 5 Ch F-X ang PD e w Click to buy NOW! w m o w c .d k. ocu-trac AYOUB / WORLD TRADE CENTER From 1989 through 1996 in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, another coupon fraudster, the “King of Coupons”, Radwan Ayoub, generated more than $100 million from his coupon fraud enterprise. His network stretched across America, from the Northeast, into the South, the Midwest and Texas. His claim to fame is that his coupon fraud operations used a specific storefront in Brooklyn, New York, “Hamada Video”, this was the main operations building for the 1993 bombers of the World Trade Center. This location was used by Ayoub to ship all of his fraudulent coupons after the packages were received from cutting houses throughout the Northeast. The “Hamada Video”storefront was the main meeting place for the planners of the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993.