Ten Years Of Eu's Fight Against Terrorist Financing : Case Analysis

The definition of the European Union (2013) characterizes terrorism as an premeditated act with the aim of “seriously intimidating a population, or unduly compelling a government or international organization to perform or abstain from performing any act, or seriously destabilizing or destroying the fundamental political, constitutional, economic or social structures of a country or an international organization” (European Union, 2002, p. 4).

Using the concepts of security, terrorism and risk learnt in this unit, critically evaluate the record of global counter-terrorism measures since the 9/11 attacks.

So far, terrorism has been a key obstacle to many foreign nations, as they are struggling to prevent terrorist attacks. From the year of 1997 up to the year of 2003, international terrorist attacks have gone from less than 500 to almost 3000. Overall, global terrorism has grown by almost 1200% from 1997 to 2003. (Johnston 1). This massive increase in terrorism reflects on other nations' lack of control of the safety of their nation. These statistics also show that something needs to be done to protect the

The homeland security mission and goals face many roadblocks and challenges in today’s world. The Quadrennial Homeland Security Review lists six strategic challenges which the Department of Homeland Security feels are of exceptional concern to the nation. Of these outlined challenges I believe that transnational criminal organizations

has aided the NSA and FBI in identifying and intercepting terrorist plots in the past. Following

Brian Jenkins (1998) offers a practical solution to the problem: terrorists are not typical criminals. They commit crimes for political purposes. When captured by security forces, they are not usually prosecuted as terrorists but charged with the crimes they commit. Terrorists strike targets for political purposes in a given situation, using crime as an incidental tactic. When terrorists cross national boundaries, they become international terrorists. Furthermore, terrorists are not exceptionally creative; they use a limited array of weapons and tactics.

235). The war on terrorism is not always fought by conventional means. Law enforcement at all levels of the government faces other terrorist forms of attacks such as cyber warfare. Cyber warfare or cyber terrorism can greatly damage our government; therefore, the intelligence community and law enforcement should partner up to find methods in preventing, preparing for, and responding to cyber-attacks. We must not forget the importance of communities and building positive rapport with them, because they are our eyes and ears towards combating foreign and domestic

The Department of Homeland Security in the U.S. is mandated to deal with terrorism problem that has a long history in the U.S. Terrorism has been a threat to U.S. security since the 1800. Terrorists continue to use powerful secret communication strategies and unexpected tools to achieve their intention in the U.S. soil. For example, the 9/11 terrorism attack that killed the highest number of American citizens in history succeeded because terrorist used hijacked passenger planes to perform the attack (Lutz and Lutz, 2013). Although the most notorious terrorism activity in the U.S. soil was performed by Islamic extremist, several other groups among them black militancy, anti-liberal, anti-government, Jewish extremist, fascist extremists, and Palestinian militancy among others have been reportedly caused a terrorist activity in the U.S. in the past and their continued existence still remain a major threat to the U.S. security (Lutz and Lutz, 2013). The counter-terrorism policy administered through the Bureau of Counterterrorism aims at partnering with local security agents, multilateral organizations, non-state actors and foreign governments to defeat local and global terrorism. The policy employs high level of coordinated strategies in securing international partnership to document and monitor and act appropriately to Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) as emerging organizations that coordinate international terrorist

Terrorism has been an issue of great concern in the United States and the world in general. The US government has the mandate to protect its citizens from terrorism and provide them with security in general. There are therefore measures that can be put in place so as to counter terrorism acts. The federal government can impose some sanctions that can be used as a means of countering terrorism acts. These sanctions can be directly on an individual or to specific countries are linked to acts of terrorism. One sanction is the blocking of property and prohibition of transactions with any person who commits, or threatens to commit or is in support of terrorism. This is in particular in the form of financial sanctions for people especially aliens or foreigners who are in support or in association with foreign terrorists. Therefore these people will not get any form of finances that they can use for planning nay of their intended terrorism attacks (U.S department of the treasury, 2012).

The policy makers in the United States became more focused on the IVTS following the 9/11 terrorist attack as they believed that terrorists must have been using that mode of funds transfer to send money for their activities. All IVTS were required to keep records of transactions including the details of the customers who transfer funds through them (Watterson, 2013). The United States AML regime requires business organizations such as casinos and those dealing with precious stones and metals to check identities of their customers keep proper records of their customers and check whether the names of the customers appear in the lists of terror suspects (Levi & Reuter, 2006).

As a direct consequence of September 11, a number of substantial challenges lie ahead in the area of counter-terrorism..   The most prominent of these is the changing nature of the terrorism phenomenon.  In past years, when terrorism was largely the product of direct state sponsorship, policymakers were able to diminish prospects for the United States becoming a target using a combination of diplomatic and military instruments to deter potential state sponsors.  Today, however, many terrorist organizations and individuals act independently from former and present state sponsors, shifting to other sources of support, including the development of transnational networks.

The FBI has created an organized crime program that focuses on the crimes and criminal enterprises that are creating the greatest threat to America. They have three units which are focused on La Cosa Nostra, Italian organized crime and racketeering. Also included are Middle Eastern, Asian and African criminal enterprises. The framework of the program is based on pursuing targets that have ties to national and international criminal enterprises and breaking them down; relying on flexibility to aid in pursuing organized crime by regions that are conducting racketeering activities. They have also partnered with people globally to assist in information during investigations. Italy and Hungary are included in this partnership. By partnering with other countries, tackling these groups of people becomes easier.

According to Furnell and Warren (1999), Evidence suggests that technology is growingly seen as a potential tool for terrorist organizations and the widespread use of information technology by terrorist groups and organizations has led to the birth of a new class of menace termed “Cyberterrorism”. Cyberterrorism could be used in many diverse ways. Sometimes, a country’s pivotal infrastructures could be shut down and harmed using computer network and tools. There have been impediments in trying to give a clear and concise definition to the term “cyberterrorism”. But Denning (2007) which supersedes Denning (2000) gives an unambiguous definition to cyberterrorism:

The history of terrorism can be traced back as far as the French revolution. Some of these acts of terrorism only seem as distant reminders of our past, but at the same time, are not a far cry from today’s brutal acts; and although these acts seem distant, it doesn’t also mean they are no longer in the thoughts of individuals in today’s time.

Nowadays, it does not exist land border controls between 22 Member States of the Union anymore. 5 countries continue to make border controls inside the EU: Cyprus, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Bulgaria and Romania. Eliminating barriers to trade and to free movement constitute a considerable asset for traders and regular travellers. However, a lot of people try to abuse this system for criminality. In order to face this criminality without borders, the EU has established a system, also without borders, a police and judicial cooperation. Europol is the entity created to face these problems.