Problems with Tracking Terrorists Financing - Research Paper Example

Problems with Tracking Terrorist’s Financing Affiliation Terrorism has existed for centuries although its purposes and the tactics used have tremendously changed with time. The world of terrorism has been gradually, yet steadily evolving and its intensity have been felt more tremendously in the current times. Unlike during the past where it was much easier to track and apprehend and if possible stop an act of terrorism, the change in times has completely left nations and people at a much greater threat of becoming victims of such acts. The growth in technology has transformed many systems, such that, traditional methods of doing things have been completely abandoned by many. Therefore, when terrorists chose to go back to traditional methods of carrying out their financial transactions, like using cash instead of electronic cards or so, it becomes difficult for the authorities to track such activities. Moreover, terrorists have adopted new techniques of helping them carry out their activities without getting suspected. This paper will broadly look into the findings brought forward in a research done by Torrey Carpenter about the difficulties that national government authorities encounter while trying to identify the financiers of terrorists. He will also suggest a possible solution to the identified problem, present various critics that relate to the problem as well as provide a discussion on the implications that the problem pose. Introduction There exist many definitions of terrorism depending on an individual’s point of view. According to one theory, it can be considered to be the illegal use of power or aggression against people or properties with intentions of threatening or pressurizing a government or its society to extend particular political or social goals. According to various law enforcements, Torrey discovers they acknowledge that acts of terrorism can either be domestic or international. Under domestic terrorism, the action is based and carried out within a country and is executed by the country’s own citizens without any outer or foreign enforcers. On the other hand, international terrorism, which is usually linked to foreign groups or governments, involve invasion by the foreign terrorists into a target country. Terrorism has no boundaries and, therefore, any nation around the world is vulnerable to it. He acknowledges that the act, whether carried out internationally or locally, requires a lot of funding, and up to now, the mystery about who funds the terrorists have not been solved. Since it is an act that involves a lot of damages, be it direct or collateral, who actually supports these actions and what have the organizations investigating this problem found out so far. Problems Associated with Tracking Terrorist’s Financiers Torrey Carpenter indicates that the biggest difficulty that the investigation bodies experience is that terrorist groups have remained aware of governments attempts to perplex their activities and amend their functions accordingly. Therefore, terrorist financing regularly changes, which, in general, keeps terrorists a step ahead of the law enforcers. Also, he says terrorists have more and more depended on unlawful activities such as forging or smuggling, so as to make revenue, which tend to be hard to be traced through the financial systems. They, also, have started to depend more on cash, hence making it hard for the authorities to determine any of their paper trails. For example, his finding reveals that most the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s al-Qaida association financing in Iraq is usually taken into unsuspecting countries via couriers transporting cash. Another terrorist activity, he states, whose funding relied wholly on money is the London attacks in July 2005. He accepts that these forms of terrorism that involve cash funding with no traceable paperwork or electronic details prove hard for the law enforcers to capture the perpetrators. In addition, the London attacks brought into the limelight a new advancement in the terrorist financing, that is, the use of local sources of organizing and financing the attacks. The bombings had been perpetrated in Britain by its citizens who, according to reports, had raised all the needed money locally in order to carry out the attacks. However, since the perpetrators had only used cash and had not been involved in any movement across the national borders, it was hard to trace their financial operations (Marcuse, 2006). Another problem that Torrey Carpenter offers is that the implementation of new commercial laws has also proven hard. He states that according to the British Bankers Association, United Kingdom banks use about $430 million every year to respond in accordance with the anti-money laundering and anti-terror policies. Also, experts claim that the U.S. Department of Treasury is besieged by the number of questionable activity information it receives, which since 2001, have grown to some 350 percent (Marcuse, 2006). Solutions Since terrorist connections go beyond national boundaries; he Mr. Carpenter suggests that it would be advisable and of great importance if states improved their international collaboration. He protests that up to now a sound and agreed definition of what terrorism really has not been identified yet, this translates to the lack of coordination among various entities. For example, he argues, United Nations General Assembly has attempted for more than a decade to consent on the meaning of terrorism, which would assist in supporting a comprehensive agreement outlawing the practice. He also says that if other global organization that is devoted to information-sharing can be formed, it can assist in tracking and apprehending the criminals. It will provide a platform in which individuals can freely report any suspicious activity or persons. Lastly, he concludes that it would also be of great benefit if there would be a global court whose obligation would be to administer the terrorism blacklist of persons or associations, would ensure that the court have only a single focus. Therefore, there would be more emphasis and contribution towards dealing with the issue other than having numerous disruptions from other cases. In addition, the government should upgrade their methods of dealing with the activity by coming up with new and more efficient strategies that would help curb it. It is because, terrorists seems to change their activities always, making the authorities lag behind in efforts for tracking them. Therefore, he says, according to (Karolyi, 2008) the same measure and speed as well as the frequency in which these individuals or groups tend to change their methods of carrying out their activities, so should the law enforcers or any assigned organizations. Critics Opinions about the Terrorist Financing Tracking Problem After the police had invaded a London mosque about eight years ago in their hunt of a radical Islamic priest, they discovered counterfeit passports, huge chunks of cash as well as laminating equipment. Torrey Carpenter indicates, according to the haul, information of which was only lately made public, speaks a lot about a significant progression in the endowment of terrorism. What used to be a global network funded by indefinable donors and managed by Al Qaeda financial managers, he adds, has currently split into a collection of contracts that support themselves mainly through crime. According to what the experts say, he reveals that this progression is, to some degree, as a result of the dynamic international effort. He also pinpoints that it was deployed since the 9/11attack, to spit up the Al Qaeda network and stanch the cash liquidity that supported the terror attacks. However, he acknowledges that it can also be as a result of lowered cost of increasing terror attacks. Approximations suggest that the 9/11 American attacks may have cost as much as $500,000 to carry out. By significant difference, the 2004 bombings in Madrid are alleged to have rated no more than $15,000, and the London attacks are estimated to be about $2,000. The attack involved four bombs, a few train tickets, a number of phone calls, a little gasoline and four rucksacks (Karolyi, 2008). According to Napoleoni, the author of Modern Jihad; Tracing the dollars behind the terror networks, she acknowledges that the ways in which terrorism is financed at the present time have changed significantly (Renee, n. d). She noted, according to Mr. Carpenter, that in the recent past, about five years ago, there were vast transfers of funds that passed through the global financial systems. She adds that currently, the system has changed, whereby; people are speaking about few individuals friends who contributed about a thousand pounds to plan an attack. Therefore, he indicates that it is surprisingly noteworthy that the unit price for terrorist funding has utterly gone down, putting the terrorists in a position where they don’t require another huge attack like the 9/11 one. Rather, he states, they are in a position where they can carry out a lesser activity while at the same time generating the same panic among citizens. However, Gus Hosein, who is an antiterrorism specialist at the London School of Economics, Torrey carpenter reveals that the specialist offers a different perspective on the issue. He claims that the persons or organizations responsible for tracking terror funding have not adjusted their methods or strategies of doing so accordingly. He argues that terrorism have changed, and now the activities are carried out cheaply, yet every policy involved in scrutinizing these financial transactions, as well as crack, them down are still fixated on larger sums (Godinho, 2010). However, due to the ongoing international efforts attention on the big money that assisted in financing the 9/11 attack and the establishing of terrorist cells in Europe, Al Qaeda has moved on. Torrey declares that terrorists are no longer waiting Osama bin Ladens financiers to sign out the cash. Rather, he says, the terrorists have become independent and now collect the funds for themselves. Their means of accumulating these funds include the fraud of various types, minor crimes, illegal transfer of money and assets across unchecked borders, ID theft and money laundering. Another expert states the recurrent transformation that the terrorist groups undergo, whereby, they believe they have to form and maintain income flows in order to survive. However, if the terrorists were to remain in the lawful world, he suggests that one is likely to end up following in the footsteps of the individuals who operates illegal businesses. Nevertheless, he says, the coalition between terrorists and structured crime is more and more lucrative; although the thriving terror cells will at all times require laundering money in order to acquire someplace safe to keep it until when a need arise. Examples of such sites may include purchasing an asset for cash or investing endowing in trusts that have a potential of making an income. The secret for the law enforcers, he suggests, is to trap the dirty money at the position in which it attempts to enter the legal system. The points should be the frontier in the fight on terror and may include integration of companies, fiduciary trusts, bankers as well as lawyers. The individual are the ones who will, at some point, assist in modifying the systems, depending on the desired basis, monthly or weekly. He concludes that coalition enables them to purchase assets or properties that are transportable, hence, making one have their moneys wherever they may go (Godinho, 2010). Implications of the Solution Torrey offers facts about the 9/11 American terrorist attacks that shocked the world into action to fight terror funding. He says more than 130 states have signed on to a UN principle expecting governmental action and financial administration to identify the dirty money. Also, numerous numbers of charities and persons have been blacklisted both by personal jurisdictions and by the United Nations. Moreover, he adds, hundreds of millions of dollars have ended up getting frozen due to suspicions that they might be involved with the illegal activity (Hosenball, 2002). Moreover, various countries, such as the US, formed devoted finance units for terrorists in efforts to regulate the activities. Such groups include the Financial Intelligence and the US Treasury’s Office of Terrorism. Some countries, however, in efforts to monitor and control the activities have come up and passed laws that place financing of terrorism as an individual crime. However, he offers, it should be noted that most of these ideas originated from a variety of proposals provided in October 2001 by the Paris-based think tank, Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) (Marcuse, 2006). Torrey Carpenter, after an interview with a leading policy analyst at the FATF, Vincent Schmoll, confirms that, according to the analyst, the proposals have taken on a definite "moral authority" with states that might, if not, drag their feet, lists the major places where development has been made. The areas include freezing properties, notification of mistrustful dealings by financial organizations. In addition, more development have been seen in mounting efforts to deal with the unofficial money transfer system, known as hawala, which functions beneath the formal financial systems radar. However, just like any other inventions, there have been issues with various initiatives. For instance, Torrey suggests, banks anxiety towards avoiding a black mark for allowing suspicious money through the net have keenly filed their suspicious activity records, consequently creating a mass of formalities for weighed-down financial investigators. As a matter of fact, he says various approximations put the quantity of filings in the US only at 13 million every day (Shahin, El-Achkar & Shehab, 2012). Since the efforts to stop these financing are global and Islamists generally tend to be more involved with terror activities, the Islamic charities have been concerned. They protest resentfully about being picked on, for example, Interpal, which is a charity organization based in London that assist in financing Palestinian social projects. The body complains America blacklisted it, yet it had already been cleared in Britain. He adds that, one of its employees states that it is impossible for them to acquire any donations in US dollars, something that poses a significant hindrance to receiving funds. Although charity forms an essential pillar in the Islamic beliefs, intelligence chiefs have long suspected that alms sometimes end up financing terrorists (Shahin, El-Achkar & Shehab, 2012). Torrey’s interview with Gordon Brown, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, reveals how the Chancellor proposes that the sole solution lies with a cohesive action, if the issue revolves about putting it all together. Amongst a chain of procedures laid out, was an objective to bring national specialists together in a unit that would work towards cracking terror finance. The suggestion was based on the idea of their working together would work in a similar way that wartime mathematicians teamed up in solving the Nazi Enigma cipher. Conclusion In conclusion, Torrey Carpenter admits that terrorism funding problem is viral, and lack of finding a practical solution has led to its growth as well as kept the terror acts functionally. He adds that, the fact that up to now there is no precise agreed on the definition of terrorism appears to have contributed a large deal. He proposes it is because when decisions necessary for dealing with the issue, everyone present their own perspectives, which proves hard and takes time before coming to a conclusion. However, he adds, if governments represented in every country took the issue seriously and joined hands in trying to put the problem under control, and then there would be visible improvements. In addition, he says that the organizations that have been put in place for dealing with the issue should take their roles more seriously. Lastly, he concludes that if all people worked collectively, the weak and the strong in the society, then it would be just a mall while before the problem is solved. References Godinho, J. (2010). When Worlds Collide: Enforcing United Nations Security Council Asset Freezes in the EU Legal Order. European Law Journal, 16(1), 67-93. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0386.2009.00499.x Hosenball, M. (2002). Freezing the Terrorist Cash Stashes. Newsweek, 140(11), 6. Karolyi, G. A. (2008). An Assessment of Terrorism-Related Investing Strategies. Journal Of Portfolio Management, 34(4), 108-123. MARCUSE, P. (2006). Security or Safety in Cities? The Threat of Terrorism after 9/11. International Journal Of Urban & Regional Research, 30(4), 919-929. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2427.2006.00700.x RENEE, M. (n.d). Interview: Loretta Napoleoni discusses the Islamic banking system and its role in funding terrorism. Morning Edition (NPR), Shahin, W. N., El-Achkar, E., & Shehab, R. (2012). The monetary impact of regulating banking and financial sectors by FATF on non-cooperative countries and territories. Journal Of Banking Regulation, 13(1), 63-72. doi:10.1057/jbr.2011.17 Read More