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Essay on Terrorist Financing

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Terrorism has been a major concern for the United States government for many years. Citizens of the United States have been immune to the terrorist attacks that are taking place overseas. When The World Trade Center was attacked using a car bomb in 1993, terrorism was brought upon the door steps of Americans. What was once a headline on the daily news has now became a reality in the life of the American citizen. An essential element in the strategy for the war on terrorism is to dismantle or disrupt the financial network used by terrorist. After the September 11 attack the Federal Government took several steps to combat terrorist financing, resulting with "More than $140 million in terrorist's assets have been frozen across the some …show more content…

(U.S. Customs Service publication No. 0000-0171, October 2002) According to the U.S. Customs Service, Green Quest is in constant contact with law enforcement, intelligence, and financial establishments worldwide. Green Quest identifies several indicators of suspicious activity to serve as "red flags" or "indicators" for the banking community to further scrutinize. Operation Green Quest intends to target illicit charities, corrupt financial institutes, and underground financial systems known as Hawala which support terrorist organizations. The Green Quest initiative will also target credit card fraud, identity theft, counterfeiting, drug trafficking and bulk currency smuggling. The U.S. customs, Operation Green Quest, request the assistance from the individual banker, accountant, stock and commodity broker to report unusual or suspected transactions on voluntary basis. Listed in the pamphlet are 12 "Red Flag" indicators to be used for guidance.

The Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FAFT) was founded in 1989 by the G7 countries. The G7 countries consisted of the seven countries that represent 68% of the world's economy, at that time there are now eight countries and is now called G8. There 33 participating countries supporting FAFT and 24 countries listed as uncooperative in the fight against financial

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