The U.S. military in Iraq is targeting locally based financiers in an effort to stymie the cash flow that sustains the insurgency, while on the other side of the world, a sophisticated international effort tracks down potential donors to terror groups. In response, the enemy is simplifying and diversifying its finances to make them tougher to crack. It’s all part of a complex and subtle drama that plays out mostly behind the scenes in Iraq.
“Financiers are a huge part of this insurgency,” says Colonel Jon Lehr, commander of the 4th brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, deployed north of Baghdad. Acting on tips and other intelligence, in October Lehr’s soldiers nabbed a man that he describes as “a significant financier.” Lehr says the arrest has contributed to a reported fifty-percent decline in bomb attacks on U.S. troops in his area.
The arrests are the pointy tip of a counter-finance operation whose back-end is represented by the U.S Treasury Department’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, which was launched in 2004 in part to identify and shutter Islamic “charities” funneling popular donations to Al Qaeda. The office’s mission has expanded to include other extremist groups, including some operating in Iraq.
The Treasury has been fairly successful in shutting down the electronic bank transfers that extremists used to move money around the world, according to Paul Cruickshank from New York University’s Center on Law and Security. So the bad guy simply stopped using them. “Now they use traditional systems to get money around,” Cruickshank says.
Read more in the latest issue of Defense Technology International.
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I wonder who is financing the kidnapping gang in Iraq that is going to air a live beheading in a few days of the 10 saudi capurees… They wear all black and are armed with m-16s. That’s right, american guns. Who funded that? or are they a part of the police training initiative? I saw the terramax trucks article. Right on. Less humans driving cause less casualties.
[...] The listing is part of Treasury’s six-year-old counter-terrorism campaign, which aims to freeze terrorist assets and block the flow of funds from financiers to extremist cells. In July President Bush expanded Treasury’s mandate to include targeting Iraqi insurgent groups and their supporters. Prior to that, the U.S. successfully pressured Egypt to block Al-Zawra from its state-owned satellite TV network. The “pro-insurgency” station “broadcasts graphic videos of insurgent attacks against U.S. forces, advocates violence against Shia, and calls upon Iraqis to unite and take up arms against Coalition Forces.” [...]
[...] The U.S. military and Treasury have targeted financiers in a bid to financially starve the Iraq insurgency. A similar effort has succeeded in draining Al Qaeda’s coffers, according to an article in West Point Sentinel journal (pdf!). But the bad guys adapt fast: Budding, local terrorist cells are increasingly self-funded through the proceeds of criminal activity, use of personal funds or government welfare benefits. Some of these cells have connections to Al Qaeda’s senior leadership but are independently and locally funded; others operate on their own in “leaderless” communities with only virtual connections to Al Qaeda. [...]