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Recommended: Terrorist motivations
Over the years, the old adage that people determine the successes and failures of an organization has been proven to be true many times over. In terrorism and criminal organizations this simple statement echoes so loudly among the many conspirators. Approaching this issue is very difficult, many variables arise that must be examined to get to the core of problem. Getting to the core is easier said than done, we must take a hard stare at the political, religious, and ideological goals of terrorist organizations. Stepanova in “PONARS Policy Memo No. 393,” argues that as terrorism is rarely the only form of violence practiced by armed groups, illicit drug business is rarely their sole source of funding. (1) All terrorist organizations are involved in illicit finance in some shape, form or fashion.
Terrorist groups use drug money for self-financing, particularly to enable the acquisitions of arms, materials, and equipment. Many of today’s capabilities arise from a continued reliance on illicit activities, methodologies, and processes that are appropriate to enable terrorist’s functions. The similarities between terrorist groups and criminal structures lie in the methods used to accumulate funding and launder money. Money laundering possess several decided advantages that enables terrorist and criminal organizations to overcome the limitations on our capabilities to counter their illicit activities. The greatest difference between terrorist and criminal organizations lie in the nature of their respective ultimate goals, which determines the way they spend their funding.
Illicit finance supports two basic types of terrorist groups; The Traditional and Non-traditional. Traditional organizations are categorized because of...
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...nd methodology focused on breaking down the link between the two may get the details right while focusing on important factors that need to be conveyed in order to provide a true sense of the uncertainties of both organizations. In closing, there are many ways to attack this issue, but as an intelligence community we have to approach it strategically. We must hold these organizations accountable, accountable for death and destruction that their illicit activities have been responsible for globally.
Works Cited
1. “Illicit Drug Trafficking and Islamic Terrorism as Threats to Russian Security, December 2005 :http://csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/pm_0393.pdf, 165
2. Ibid., 166
3. Ibid., 169
4. Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing: Definitions and Explanations, accessed May 4th 2014, http://www1.worldbank.org/finance/assets/images/01-chap01-f.qxd.pdf, Page I6
Colombia’s trade agreement with the United States opened new doors to foreign direct investment and growth in the manufacturing and industrial sectors. One major issue that Colombia deals with is that a major sum of that money and investment goes through what is called money laundering; which is a method used by criminals including FARC to clean the money that they made through the drug trade or illicit weapons trades. Due to the restrictive Colombian currency controls and tax laws, a black market to exchange currency has existed for decades for Colombian businessmen. As banks around the world became stricter about money laundering laws, Colombian traffickers began avoiding using the legitimate bank system and started infiltrating the black peso exchange to launder their drug money. This sophisticated method would eventually become known as the Black Market Peso Exchange, and is still one the most successful money laundering methods ever devised. “Fanny Kertzman, the former chief of Colombian Customs, says the black peso exchange launders almost $5 billion dollars of drug money a year for the Colombian traffickers”. Raymond Kelly, Commissioner of the US Customs Service stated that it’s the ultimate nexus between crime and commerce, using global trade to mask global money laundering. “Money Laundering is a gateway for the drug traffickers, FARC
The business process of the Mexican drug cartels is not easy, but is a very simple method. Step one is the drugs are produced in Mexico. Step two is the drugs are smuggled across the boarder. Step three is the drugs are distributed to the drug dealers in the U.S. Step four are the drug dealers sell the drugs and U.S. cash dollars are made. It is a simple four-step method, but the process of the four steps comes with a lot of trouble, risk, and violence.
Organized crime is a collective result of the commitment, knowledge, and actions of three components: (1) Criminal groups, who are core persons tied by racial, linguistic, ethnic or other bonds; (2) Protectors, who are persons who protect the group’s interests; and (3) Specialist support, which are persons who knowingly render services on an side-job basis to enhance the group’s interests. In order to thrive, an organized crime group needs many different elements. First, it needs an ensured continuity of members, clients, supporters, funds, etc. Additionally, it needs structure, criminality, violence, memberships based on common grounds, and a willingness to corrupt a power and profit goal. Generally, mafia organized crime groups disguise themselves behind the ownership of a legitimate business to avoid questioning from the Internal Revenue Service (I.R.S.) regarding any financial sources. The ille...
The United States has had a long-standing policy of intervening in the affairs of other nations when the country has thought it within its best interests to do so. Since the 1970’s the United States has tried to impose its will on other nations to combat the most pressing political enemy of the day often linking the war on drugs to the matter to stoke support both domestically and abroad. In the times of the Cold War, this enemy was communism and the government tried to make the connection of the “Red Dope Menace” insinuating drug links with China, Castro’s Cuba, and the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. However, as the world has evolved and communism’s prominence has waned, there is a new enemy whose existence has become intertwined with the drug war. That enemy is terrorism. The connection has gone so far that politicians and journalists have coined a new term to describe the link calling this new problem of our time “Narco-terror.” This paper will examine US efforts to control the drug trade and fight terrorism in Colombia, Peru, Afghanistan and the desired and often undesired consequences that have come about because of those efforts.
Human trafficking has been entwined into the structure of governments, arms trade, drug trade, and even spreads as far as terrorism. For many years it has been a fact that the money that has been made by selling other humans to the highest bidder. It is also known that the organized crime operations generate one of the most profitable resources to the organization. These organizations use this money for theirs or other’s crime and end up in the hands of drug lords. Drug lords, in order to promote their own business give money to support terrorist groups and activities. Security after September 11, 2001 has recognized human trafficking as a national and international security risk.
In today’s world there is a huge problem with terrorism and organized crime. Now when a lot of people look at terrorism and organized crime some would think that the two are different and yet in a way they are different but they are the same in a way to. For example terrorism is the use of violence and intimidation for the purpose of political gain (dictionary.com. n.d.). Now organized crime is considered to be the illegal behavior which is carried and planned out by a group of people. Now both of these things are considered to be a crime and are carried out by a group of people in order to achieve their goal of intimidation, money laundering, and chaos. Yet, they are different because terrorism uses violence or the threat of being violent against innocent civilians in order to accomplish their mission. Unfortunately, an organized crime group is a conspiratorial enterprise that is engaged in illicit activities in order to generate money but not to scare or harm civilians.
The problem of transnational criminal organization poses some unique challenges to the law enforcement community. The scope of these organizations’ activities and personnel creates exponentially more work for law enforcement than relatively isolated or contained criminal acts by individuals or small groups. Random and personal crimes committed by individuals can usually be handled by police at the local level, as the investigation is limited to the known crime (or crimes) that have been committed and reported. In these cases, identifying and apprehending the perpetrator is possible through investigation of the evidence of the specific instance of crime. This is not the case with large criminal organizations. The scale of criminal activity committed by transnational criminal enterprises dwarfs those committed by lone “local” offenders. Organized criminal enterprises have a pattern of wide-scale criminal activity on a daily basis that involves the participation of many individuals. Transnational criminal organization are somewhat like the mythological nine-header Hydra – when one of its heads was cut off, it would quickly grow back. So, in order to any impact on the organizations as a whole, law enforcement must target their leadership and coordinate their arrests. To achieve this end, law enforcement must work meticulously to identify the entire scope of the criminal enterprise’s operations and map of it organization – identifying key personnel and associates. Not only that, but in the course of this intelligence gathering, law enforcement must also gather credible evidence that will help bring about a conviction in court. A main analytical technique that can be used against transnational criminal organization is network ...
Anderson, James H. “International Terrorism and Crime: Trends and Linkages.” James Madison University. http://www.jmu.edu/orgs/wrni/it.htm (8 Mar. 2002).
Anand, A. (2011). Combating terrorist financing: Is Canada’s legal regime effective? University of Toronto Law Journal, 61(1), 59-71. Retrieved from http://library.mtroyal.ca:2078/journals/university_of_toronto_law_journal/v061/61.1.anand.html
Herman, E. & Sullivan, G. O.1989. The Terrorism Industry: The Experts and Institutions That Shape Our View of Terror. New York: Pantheon.
President’s Commission on Organised Crime 1984, Interim Report to the President and Attorney General, The Cash Connection: Organized Crime, Financial Institutions, and Money Laundering, viewed 28 March 2014, https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/166517NCJRS.pdf
According to Jay Albanese organized crime is a continuing criminal enterprise that is rationally working to produce profit through illicit activities based on demand, where its existence is kept through force, threats, and corruption (Albanese 2004). When looking at transnational organized crime, we are looking at crimes that involve crossing national borders and individuals who work within more than one country to complete illicit business endeavors. I argue that political and systemic issues as well as outside influences leave weaker governed countries more exposed to the risks of transnational organized crime. I will be exploring four different areas related to this topic in order to understand why these countries experience an abundance of transnational crime; how it has become available through globalization, whereby the world has become an increasingly smaller place; factors that allow for countries to become more susceptible to criminal activity; the international moral panic that allows for policy control and global influence; and a link between organized crime and terrorism and its use to larger countries. This is an important topic because as the world shrinks our connection to one another grows and the influence one faces may cause repercussions upon all of us one day.
Terrorist organizations have been committing atrocities against innocent civilians throughout the world for hundreds of years. Terrorism has evolved in many different forms and from various motivations such as religious protest movements, political revolts, and social uprisings. Regardless of the motives for terror, the problem is the financing of terrorism and terrorist organizations themselves. Recent global terrorist attacks using high technology and extensive networks have shown that money is essential to provide the means behind all terrorist activities. Individual terrorists plan terrorist operations and require resources to live, prepare, and implement their plans. The use of money laundering and financial support schemes are the root of the cause. If money laundering were curtailed or even eliminated, and financial supporters of terrorism were identified terrorism would decrease dramatically. To achieve these goals would take monumental efforts. The United States, United Nations and all sovereign nations would need to take cooperative action that has never been accomplished. Terrorism, its' history, concepts, reasoning, methods, and financial roots are object of this research.
Money laundering is the routing of illegal profits from bank to bank to disguise its existence. The illegal profits are usually made through activities such as drug trafficking, prostitution rings, illegal arms sales, and various other things. Unfortunately money laundering is a serious crime that is still prevalent in the United States and other countries. The Russian mafia, the Triad or Chinese mafia, and the Columbian drug cartel are just a few of the groups that partake in money laundering. No one knows exactly how much money is laundered yearly but it is estimated to be about $100 billion in the United States. The United States is not the only country affected by these numbers. The estimated amount of laundering is 2% - 5% of the world’s GDP, between $600 billion and $1.5 trillion dollars annually. Although there are hundreds of ways in which to launder money, some are more lucrative than others. For example, the Black Market Peso exchange, gold, and digital cash are some of the more common ways to launder money. Making it harder to crack down on money laundering is the fact that many countries do not have money-laundering laws in place like the United States does. These other countries make it possible for this illegal activity to carry on, and are only hurting themselves because money laundering creates a direct negative effect on their economy. If these nations want to fight money laundering they will need to implement laws against it. Banks could be one of the most useful tools in stopping the laundering of money.