Money launderindg and terrorism financing - Essay Example

From the process of establishing an anti-money laundering enforcement initiative, there comes out the counter-terrorism financial enforcement regime. Separating terrorists from their money is undeniably a critical component of the war on terrorism. As many now more fully appreciate, attacks like those of September 11 necessitate money to construct and maintain terrorist training camps, to buy weapons, communications equipment, and forged documents, to move personnel and materiel, to bribe government officials and establish front companies, and to pay for operatives' rent, food, and other basic necessities, along with special activities like flying lessons.

More often than not, the terrorist money trail originates or leads overseas. For the purpose of stemming the tide to transnational crime, governments and international organizations continued their active efforts to increase regulatory and criminal enforcement of various laws in 1998. Such efforts were reflected in the criminalization of business and financial transactions, the imposition of new due diligence measures on the private sector and the concomitant weakening of privacy and confidentiality laws, strengthened penalties for non-compliance with regulatory efforts, and new law enforcement techniques (undercover sting operations, wiretapping, expanded powers to search homes and businesses, and controlled deliveries (Zagaris 1999).

Transnational crimes involve money laundering which weaken economies and destabilize governments that are blamed on crime cartels, tax havens, and new techniques like cyber laundering. Though some would claim that it is not always a crime and immoral (Morris-Cotterill 2001), by definition alone, money laundering involves hiding, moving, and investing the proceeds of criminal conduct. In such a case, legal money can even become illegal if by moving it violates a country's foreign-exchange controls or other financial regulations.

Correspondingly, all foreign-exchange transactions out of a certain country must be reported to their respective central bank otherwise the exported money becomes illegal. International Human Rights Protection Throughout the world, proactive policing has produced transformations in international criminal cooperation law particularly in the development of a financial enforcement regime. As a result of the September 11 terror attack, the United States and the European Union formed a close cooperation in cutting off terrorists from their sources of funding.

It includes the issuance of blocking assets of 21 identified people as members of the Basque group ETA. The collaboration between the EU and US symbolizes a new and extremely important chapter in the financial war against terrorism (as cited in Dettmer 2002). The seizing of assets to the identified terrorists is considered a crucial element in any long-term operations in taking down Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network along with other terrorist groups. This effort of collaboration also strengthen the protection of human rights to both parties from another potential terror attack.

After the September 11 Following the fateful terrorist attack on September 11 is the tracking down of terrorists that lead to a search for the means of uncovering the