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March 10, 2005
Syria Tumult: Potential Boon for Terrorist Financing Investigators
Topics: Middle East News and PerspectivesGreat idea from the Counter-Terrorism Blog!
The partial or complete withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon, and the stress on their alliances in the region, should present a golden opportunity for counterterrorism investigators to see how Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas manage their finances. If those terrormasters think about their money like most humans, they're nervous and have started transferring accounts, liquidating hard assets into cash or commodities (diamonds?), and maybe shift their most knowledgeable financial experts to "safer" places. In the process, we could also discover more about their secret allies around the Middle East, Europe, and even in this country. I would also assume that the terrorists are destroying bank records as they go, trying to make the investigatory job tougher.
Background reading: Sponsoring Terrorism - Syria and Islamic Jihad
As an example of the need to take advantage of the "golden
opportunity for counterterrorism investigators:
- Nov to Dec 2002 Middle East Intelligence Bulletin
"The most detailed evidence that Islamic Jihad leaders in Damascus
planned attacks, sent orders for attacks to operatives in the
territories and funneled money to them, comes from the documents of PA
intelligence agencies seized by Israeli forces in the West Bank earlier
this year and deemed authentic by American officials. In an October
2001 document, Palestinian Preventive Security chief Jibril Rajoub
briefed Yasser Arafat on the activities of Palestinian terrorist groups
in Syria, citing intelligence indicating that "intensive meetings are
being held in Damascus, in which leaders of the Hamas, Islamic Jihad,
the Popular Front and the Hezbollah take part, in an attempt to
increase the joint activities "inside," with financial support from
Iran.
It's time to sieze and go through documents, again!
Posted by Hyscience at March 10, 2005 8:54 AM
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