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Terrorist Finance, Informal Markets, Trade and Regulation: Challenges of Evidence Regarding International Efforts

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Evidence-Based Counterterrorism Policy

Part of the book series: Springer Series on Evidence-Based Crime Policy ((SSEBCP,volume 3))

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Abstract

Terrorism is not a new problem, and politically motivated offending has been ­handled in a variety of ways from ancient Greece to modern times (Passas, 1986). The process of globalization and the cross-border movement of ideas, information, people, goods, and capital, have brought terrorism to the fore of public, media, and government attention. Policymakers, scholars, and others have increased their efforts to understand, detect, and prevent this phenomenon, which defies scientific and universal definition (National Research Council, 2002). A necessary and important piece of this puzzle involves the financing of terrorist activities. In the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, DC (hereafter “9/11”), countering of terrorist funding took center stage as a focus of global law enforcement and policy (Giraldo & Trinkunas, 2007; Naylor, 2006; Passas, 2008; Pieth, Thelesklaf, & Ivory, 2009; Warde, 2007).

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Notes

  1. 1.

     Sources: Personal interviews with investigators and prosecutors from the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Turkey, FBI; UN Monitoring Team reports; on Jordan: Air Security International; on Chechnya: Shamil Basaev statement; on US East Africa embassy and Bali bombings, National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the US, 2005: 27–28.

  2. 2.

     MSBs include money transmitters, check cashers, issuer of traveler’s checks, money orders or stored value, sellers or redeemers of traveler’s checks, money orders or stored value, currency dealing or exchange. Updated information is available at http://www.msb.gov/.

  3. 3.

     

  4. 4.

     When it comes to gold, for example, there are reported links with FARC and AUC in Colombia, al Qaeda, Jemaah Islamiah and Chechen separatists, while Echo Bay, a gold company made of security payments or “resource taxation arrangements” with Filipino militant groups including Abu Sayyaf (see Snell, 2004).

  5. 5.

     Although smuggling can occur in conjunction with diversion, the latter can also be done without smuggling at all. The most sophisticated form involves proper documentation and paperwork with goods imported and declared at Customs (e.g., as “returned US goods”).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

    Nikos Passas Ph.D

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  1. Nikos Passas Ph.D
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Correspondence to Nikos Passas Ph.D .

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  1. Center for Evidence- Based Crime Policy, Criminology, Law, and Society, George Mason University, University Blvd. 10900, Fairfax, 20110, Virginia, USA

    Cynthia Lum

  2. School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers University, Washington Street 123, Newark, 07102, New Jersey, USA

    Leslie W. Kennedy

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Passas, N. (2012). Terrorist Finance, Informal Markets, Trade and Regulation: Challenges of Evidence Regarding International Efforts. In: Lum, C., Kennedy, L. (eds) Evidence-Based Counterterrorism Policy. Springer Series on Evidence-Based Crime Policy, vol 3. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0953-3_11

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