Talk:Terrorist financing
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[edit] Comment 1
This article looks suspicious like something that has been "cut and pasted" from another source, probably a speech or article made by law enforcement. I have no problem with taking a framework from somewhere else, but it lacks neutrality or sources. Phrases like...
- "Saudi Arabian charities, which were prime sponsors of terrorist groups around the world, are now under much tighter controls albeit there is still a lot to do"
- "Looking into the near future, if terrorist groups are replaced by smaller, decentralized groups"
- "Terrorists are now working with drug traffickers and criminals to make and launder the proceeds of crime like fraud, prostitution, intellectual property theft, smuggling - this is now routine for them"
...need to have a source to have credibility. These statements are unsourced, and so represent at best speculation or at worst merely the writer's POV.
Statements like:
- "In addition to normal AML controls, banks must focus on the CFT angle with renewed vigor and knowledge derived from the extensive databank of case studies now available. Banks must focus on not just name matching with sanctions databases but also with other know your customer (KYC) high-risk databases of good third party vendors. They must use technologies like link analysis to establish second and third level links that identify transactions as potentially suspicious from a CFT perspective. Focus on preventing identity theft is an integral part of any CFT program."
should just be left where they came from - a policeman's speech.
I think to be balanced the article should probably also express the alternative view of US attempts to crack down on terrorist financing, viz., that they have been at enormous cost to banks (and hence their customers) but are felt by many to have had no visible effect (see: Looking in the wrong places, The Economist, Oct 20th 2005 - Why hindering flows across international financial networks is costly and does not stop terrorists' primary activity - Link).
Others point out that several reports were filed with the regulatory authorities in the US relating to the September 11 hijackers and their suspicious banking transactions, but because of the width of the regulations then (they are even wider now) the number of reports being made were so vast, the reports relating to Mohammed Atta and his associates were never followed up on - the overwhelming amount of regulation on this has become counterproductive and led to a CYA approach by banks that actually hinders law enforcement.
It also repeats one my pet peeves - that terrorist financing and money laundering are linked. They are not - they are polar opposites (which I stuck a para in to clarify). What is true is that there is evidence that Islaamic terrorists are increasingly finding funds from criminal acitivities (as Irish terrorists have done for decades), but the money is not laundered for re-integration - it is just used to perpetrate terrorist attacks.
We have needed an article on terrorist financing for a long time, and I am glad someone has finally put one down, but I feel it needs to be sharpened up a bit to meet Wikipedia standards.
Legis 12:39, 24 May 2006 (UTC)
