In their 2010 book, Cassara and Jorisch defined the Afghan Trade Transit (ATT) as:
A regional agreement between landlocked Afghanistan and its neighbors that allows goods to be imported into the country with preferential duties. The trade has resulted in massive smuggling and trade fraud, and it continues to facilitate the laundering of narcotics proceeds that help finance the Taliban.
The ATT agreement has since been modified, and merchandise that passes from Afghanistan through Pakistan has diminished by 50 percent according to a recent report from the major Pakistani newspaper Dawn. Nevertheless, Dawn’s sources say that the renegotiated treaty really only hurts normal trade, but that smuggling continues unabated:
… A customs official familiar with these developments told Dawn that including stringent clauses in the treaty were unlikely to help curb smuggling.
“Now containers imported through Iranian ports are smuggled to Pakistan through the same routes,” he said.
The only difference, the official added, was that earlier a huge number of Pakistanis were getting jobs directly or indirectly, and now they were transferred to Iran. He said: “The smuggling can only be discouraged through reducing duties on smuggling-prone items and effective surveillance of the border”…
Guess the Taliban can breathe easy again.
Saudi Arabia financed the 9/11 terrorist attacks through a combination of government-funded “philanthropy,” private zakat donations by Saudi royals and elites, and front charities—some of which was funneled through Saudi banks. But Saudi Arabia (and Jordan) has steadfastly resisted lawsuits in the U.S. to force their bankers to disclose documents which will prove their culpability (see here, here, here, and here).
A bipartisan bill aiming to allow such lawsuits to proceed will be reintroduced in Congress shortly by members of New York’s delegation. Litigation should be part of a broad strategy to bankrupt terrorism and its state sponsors.
Here’s the latest from Steve Emerson writing for Newsmax:
9/11 Group Supports Terror Finance Legislation
Thursday, 22 Aug 2013
By Steve Emerson
A petition urging Congress to pass new terror financing legislation is being circulated by a group of 9/11 victims’ families and survivors of the attacks.
Three New York lawmakers plan to introduce the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act when Congress returns after Labor Day. The bill would allow American victims to sue foreign people and entities for financing terrorist attacks. Courts have blocked such claims against Saudis alleged to have aided the 9/11 plot.
It has a bi-partisan group of co-sponsors, including Democrat Charles Schumer in the Senate, Republican House member Peter King and Democrat Jerrold Nadler, all from New York.
While Americans widely support law enforcement actions to prevent terror attacks and curb terror financing, this is at least the third time the bill is being offered.
“No individual or country should be shielded from being held accountable for their role in the most heinous act of terrorism to ever occur in the United States,” Schumer said in announcing a similar 2011 effort. “This bill will send a clear message to Saudi Arabia and other sponsors of terror: if you attack the United States, you will be held accountable. It will also allow the families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks to receive some justice for the losses they experienced on that fateful day.”
The petition drive by 9/11 Families United for Justice Against Terrorism aims to show Congress a broad base of support for the bill…
Good. Just like Tamerlan Tsarnaev should have been denied public benefits after somehow coming up with enough money to travel to Russia in search of terrorist training. Not only are their foreign activities evidence that they don’t need the welfare they are receiving, but this crackdown is also a signal that Western governments are wising up to the risks of funding Al Qaeda aligned groups through social welfare.
Thanks to Gisele for sending this in from France 24:
Belgian jihadists in Syria stripped of welfare benefits
Two Flemish cities have decided to penalise presumed Belgian jihadists, currently fighting alongside rebels in Syria, by depriving them of the social benefits they enjoyed as citizens of Belgium.
By Marc DAOU
Belgian jihadists who travel to Syria to fight against President Bashar al-Assad’s troops are now being penalised by their home country’s government.
According to Belgian media reports on August 19, the Flemish cities of Antwerp and Vilvoorde have indeed deleted 29 such presumed jihadists from lists of individuals receiving social benefits from the state.
The official reason given for the move was that these people no longer lived at their registered address.
Investigations carried out by city authorities found that the presumed jihadists had been accessing their Belgian savings by withdrawing money from banks in Turkey, just across the Syrian border.
The action taken by the Flemish cities has also resulted, for example, in the suspension of 1,000-euro monthly welfare payments to the wife of one of the men, even though she still lives in Antwerp. The woman’s husband, Saïd M’Nari, reportedly left Belgium in May as a member of dissolved radical Islamist group Sharia4Belgium, which has been qualified as a terrorist organisation by legal authorities in Antwerp and accused by Interpol of sending fighters to Syria.
The official reason cited for the discontinuation of Mrs M’Nari’s welfare checks was that she reported that she was no longer seeking employment.
In Syria, thirty-three jihadists from Antwerp and Vilvoorde
Flemish daily newspaper “De Standaard” explained in its August 19 issue that in recent months Belgian police and intelligence services discovered that Belgians who had travelled to Syria to join the rebels were still receiving welfare payments.
In June, Bart de Wever, mayor of Antwerp and president of Flemish separatist party NVA, had threatened to punish the presumed jihadists.
“It would be unjust for these people to benefit from social programmes and use, for example, their unemployment payments to finance their fight in Syria,” he was quoted as saying on the website for Flemish news station VRT in June.
Beyond having their government aid revoked, the Belgian jihadists would also be prosecuted upon their return to Belgium, de Wever added…
Left-wing militants have attacked Sumitomo Fruits Corp. (Sumifru) site in the southern Philippines after the business refused to pay the extortion money demanded by the insurgents. Twenty communist gunmen of the New People’s Army burned six Sumifru trucks and seized equipment from the site.
Financing themselves with revolutionary taxes imposed against corporations and wealthy businessmen is a common tactic of leftist guerrillas including the Kurdish PKK and, until recently, the Basque ETA. Terrorist groups such as the Taliban and al-Shabaab have employed similar tactics by demanding Islamic taxes from businessmen and shopkeepers within their territory.
A special report from United Press International:
Filipino NPA guerrillas attack Japanese business site
Filipino Communist New Peoples Army guerrillas attacked a Japanese Sumitumo Fruits Co. site in Mindanao.
DAVAO CITY, Philippines, Aug. 14 (UPI) — Filipino communist New Peoples Army guerrillas attacked a Japanese Sumitumo Fruits Co. site in Mindanao, authorities said.
The Sumitumo facility in Bangbang, a village in Mindanao’s North Cotabato province, has been targeted repeatedly.
The Bernama news agency reported Wednesday local authorities believe the attack could have been instigated by the firm’s refusal to pay the NPA’s “revolutionary” tax, exacted from businesses and politicians as the price for doing business.
The NPA, estimated by the Filipino government to have 4,000 members, is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines and has been battling authorities in Manila and 60 Philippine provinces since 1969.
The geography of the Philippines, which consists of more than 7,000 islands, with the 11 largest making up more than 95 percent of the country’s area, adds to the difficulties of imposing central government control.
Not only do the Philippines suffer from an NPA Communist insurgency, but Muslims militants in Mindanao have been a problem for decades.
Insurgency has a long history in the Philippines.
Islam infiltrated Southeast Asia through traders and Sufis beginning in the 13th century. Unlike its spread in the Middle East, it was a largely peaceful process. This process left the Philippines with approximately 5 percent of its population Muslim, concentrated largely in the southern part of the country.
The NPA’s militancy is not limited to Mindanao…
UPDATE—FEB. 28, 2015:
In October 2012, Dahabshiil commenced defamation proceedings in The Netherlands against Dahir Alasow (a Somali asylum seeker living in The Netherlands) in respect of various articles written by Mr Alasow and published on his websites including Sunatimes, Waagacusub and ASOJ. These articles alleged that Dahabshiil was, inter alia, involved in the financing of terrorism and other serious crimes, allegations which were categorically denied by Dahabshiil.
On 16 December 2014, the ’s-Hertogenbosch Court of Appeal of The Netherlands, following an extensive examination of the evidence, ruled that the articles were untrue and defamatory of Dahabshiil. Mr Alasow was ordered to remove various articles containing the defamatory allegations from his websites, publish a notice of rectification and pay Dahabshiil’s legal costs. The court’s decision can be found here:
http://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/inziendocument?id=ECLI:NL:GHSHE:2014:5351
The Somali Channel, a satellite television station, recently aired an interview with Deka Abdulkadir, who is a district commissioner for Wardhigley in Somalia. During the interview, Ms. Abdulkadir said that the Somali-based Dahabshiil money transfer service has funded the terrorist organization al-Shabaab (which is well-known to readers of this blog and to those familiar with Somali finance). The Somali Channel subsequently removed or altered the damning interview from its website and YouTube channel.
The Associated Somali Journalists (ASOJ), a group of independent Somali reporters, have blasted the removal, and have alleged that the video was expunged because Dahabshiil secretly bribed the Somali Channel to remove it. ASOJ also cites a campaign of “assassinations, incarceration, bribery, and oppression” by Dahabshiil against journalists. They forgot to mention the death threats against musicians who have sung or spoken out against Dahabshiil.
The UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea recently reported that money for al-Shabaab was transferred through Dahabshiil at the specific direction of al-Shabaab leadership.
From ASOJ‘s news site:
SCANDAL: SOMALI CHANNEL TV WAS BRIBED BY DAHABSHIIL
Associated Somali Journalists (ASOJ) found solid evidence that Somali Channel TV solicited bribery amounting £ 5,000 from Dahabshiil, and subsequently removed from their youtube channel special report on Dahabshiil’s investment to Al Shabab terrorists and other violations.
“Somali journalists denounce in the strongest terms possible the alteration on Wardhigley district commissioner’s remarks against Dahabshiil done by Somali channel TV. It is unfortunate to see international Satellite TV to do such awkward alteration. We therefore call the Somali Federal Government to take necessary legal steps against Somali Channel and Dahabshiil” Said in a press release from ASOJ.
ASOJ asks Somali independent media to stay away from bribery and concealing the truth. ASOJ also made available to the public the youtube clip that has been removed from Somali Channel account. ASOJ once again informs the international community about Dahabshiil’s violations against Somali independent media such as assassinations, incarceration, bribery, and oppression, and asks the Federal Government of Somalia to take necessary steps to contain such acts since Dahabshiil finances Al Shabab Terrorists as well…
One would think that the newspapers in Minneapolis, which routinely covers Somali issues due to the large Somali population there, would cover this news. Wouldn’t their Somali readers and businesses that cater to them benefit from learning what this major remittance company is doing with the profits from the money Somalis send back home? Does the press not know what ASOJ is alleging, or do they just not care?
The Muslim World League is the primary vessel for the dissemination of oppressive Wahhabi doctrine across the world. MWL has also worked with or helped create terrorist organizations such as JMB in Bangladesh. Now it appears that the MWL is the beneficiary of Saudi trade scheme that requires Danish companies to pay for halal certification by the MWL in order to export its products to Saudi Arabia.
This situation is somewhat similar to halal certification fees benefiting the Muslim Brotherhood in France. One difference is that if Saudi Arabia can force exporters to obtain halal certification from MWL chapters worldwide, that could represent a fortune in certifying fees for the MWL.
The news comes from Islam versus Europe, which translated the news from EPN, a webpage of the major Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten:
“The Saudi organization MWL is against freedom of religion, in favor of the death penalty for homosexuals – and get paid to halal approve Danish companies. Great Danish food producers such as Danish Crown, Rose Poultry and Arla are annually forced to pay thousands of dollars into the organization Muslim World League, which advocates oppression of women, the death penalty for homosexuals and the elimination of democracy. This is because Saudi Arabia requires that Danish companies that want to export halal products to the wealthy monarchy have to pay to the Danish branch of the Muslim World League in order to be halal certified.”
The Jammu & Kashmir Affectees Relief Trust is helping to finance the terrorist organization Hizbul Mujahideen through the traditional Islamic money transfer system of hawala and through cash couriers.
Indian officials are investigating; Rediff has the story (h/t to @creepingsharia for sending in related news):
…The National Investigation Agency is investigating ten cases related to funding of terrorist groups. They have found that in all Rs 600 crore has been pumped in for terror operations since the last two years through donations and relief funds. The organisation which has topped this list is the Jammu and Kashmir Affectees Relief Fund Trust.
NIA officials told rediff.com that during investigations they found the organisation alone had pumped in Rs 95 crore [approx. 16 million USD]. The money was being collected under the pretext of relief work in the valley. The NIA has learnt that the group is headed by two Pakistani nationals Mahboob Haq and Masroor Dar, who subscribe to the Hizbul Mujahideen.
The NIA says the group has been working in the valley since the past 10 years and has collected huge sums of money which has been diverted to Pakistan based militant groups.
The money is either handed over in person to terrorists who infiltrate into the valley or is transferred through a hawala channel. Apart from providing finances, the JKART has also helped terrorists infiltrate into India. In the past 10 years they have helped over 1,000 terrorists to come into the valley.
An intercepted conversation between Dar and Syed Salahuddin blew the lid off the JKART’s activities. The NIA also took into custody an operative by the name of Shafi Shah, a resident of Bandipore in Kashmir. During interrogation the NIA learnt about its funding and other organisations that helped fund the operations…
Amer Ahmad, the former deputy treasurer and CFO of the state of Ohio and former city comptroller for mayor Rahm Emanuel in Chicago, Illinois, and his longtime friend Mohammed Noure Alo have been indicted for money laundering. They were members the radical Noor Islamic Cultural Center in Columbus, Ohio.
A tip of the hat to anti-money laundering lawyer Christine Duhaime for tweeting this out from Columbus’s Channel 10:
Former Ohio Deputy Treasurer, Columbus Lawyer Indicted In Alleged Money Laundering Scheme
Thursday August 15
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The former Ohio deputy treasurer and a lawyer from Columbus are accused of engaging in bribery and money laundering scheme involving the Ohio Treasurer’s Office.
Amer Ahmad, 38, of Chicago, and Mohammed Noure Alo, 35, of Columbus, were indicted Thursday on charges of conspiracy and honest services wire fraud. Two others also were indicted.
Ahmad also is charged with money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering, federal program bribery and making false statements…
Ahmad and Alo have a documented history of improprieties. In 2009, former Ohio treasurer Kevin Boyce “hired [Mohammed Noure] Alo’s wife in late December to fill a sudden opening in his office. Ahmad said the job, which pays $37,500 a year, was not posted. He announced the opening at his mosque and [his friend] Alo’s wife, [Walaa] Waeda, responded. She was the only job candidate interviewed, Ahmad said.”
The Dayton Daily News reported that Ahmad did not disclose this hiring of Waeda when a state contract was awarded to one of Alo’s clients, State Street Bank. Recently, State Street was also selected to manage a major Saudi sharia-compliant investment fund in Ireland.
After serving as deputy treasurer of Ohio, Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel hired Ahmad to become the comptroller of Chicago, despite the fact that “When Emanuel brought Ahmad to City Hall in late April 2011, newspapers in Ohio already had raised questions about the links between Ahmad and Alo after a Boston-based bank won business from the Ohio treasurer’s office after hiring Alo as its lobbyist.”
Current Ohio treasurer Josh Mandel was previously excoriated by the liberal media for accurately pointing out the improper dealings of Boyce, Ahmad, and Alo during his campaign to unseat Boyce. So far, the media has yet to acknowledge that Mandel was right all along.
In addition to attending the radical Noor mosque, Amer Ahmad was a speaker in 2010 at the Council for the Advancement of Muslim Professionals (CAMP), a group with several ties to the Muslim Brotherhood in North America.
Ahmad and his wife created a community service organization called “SalamCorps” for which no registration or tax records could be found by Money Jihad. Noure Alo and Walaa Waeda participated in a SalamCorps event.
Eurasia Review has a very good article by V. Arianti laying out the dwindling funds available from international Muslim donors to Indonesian jihadists, and the replacement of those revenues with theft and bank robberies–a trend we’ve been following for a while.
Arianti correctly points out that terrorists in Indonesia have justified these robberies on the basis of Islamic law. Reliance on theft is also a possible indicator of a weak financial status of the terrorist organizations involved. Historically, terrorist groups turn to crime when they lack enough external or political support.
Thanks to El Grillo for sending this over:
Indonesian Terrorism Financing: Resorting To Robberies – Analysis
July 30, 2013
A record number of robberies have been perpetrated by terrorists in Indonesia over the past three years. This could be a sign of their inability to secure donations and international funding, the result of counter operations against terrorist and extremist groups.
By V. Arianti
SINCE 2010, there have been dozens of bank heists conducted by numerous terrorist cells, some of them linked to Mujahidin Indonesia Timur (Mujahidin of Eastern Indonesia or MIT). Led by Santoso, MIT is currently the most dangerous terrorist group in Indonesia and is responsible for a string of deadly attacks against police. Besides banks, the terrorists have also robbed gold shops, mobile phone shops, post offices, money changers, internet cafes, grocery stores, and construction material shops.
In the first half of 2013 alone, MIT’s funding arm, Mujahidin Indonesia Barat (Mujahidin of Western Indonesia or MIB) led by Abu Roban, reaped a total of Rp 1.8 billion (US$180,000) from a series of bank heists. While in the past, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and its splinter cells had conducted robberies to supplement their funding for terrorist attacks, two factors may explain the significant increase in the number of heists since 2010.
Dearth of international funding
Firstly, terrorist groups are finding it increasingly difficult to procure funding from international sources since the killing and arrests of key figures in the international fundraising network in 2009 and the growing decentralised nature of their network. Each cell is at present mostly manned by youths lacking international connections which the terrorist operatives of the past had.
The terrorism landscape in Indonesia prior to 2010 was characterised by the ability of key figures such as Hambali and Noordin Mohammed Top to attract international donors willing to fund high-profile attacks in Indonesia. Al-Qaeda allegedly funded the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings, the 2003 J.W. Marriott bombing and 2004 Australian Embassy bombing in Jakarta.
The 2009 J.W. Marriot and Ritz Carlton Bombing was allegedly funded through a Saudi national, Ali Khelaiw Ali Abdullah who reportedly had a list of potential global donors. Another person with international connections for terrorism fundraising was Muhammad Jibril who allegedly flew with Ali in 2008 to Pakistan to establish contact with Al-Qaeda operatives and to Saudi Arabia to solicit funds to carry out attacks in Indonesia.
However, Jibril was in prison from August 2009 to November 2012. Abdullah Sunata, another key figure who had supplied funds from the Middle East for the insurgents in Southern Philippines, was arrested in June 2010 and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.
Secondly, terrorists are not able to secure enough money through “legitimate” means, such as donations from sympathisers. The extremist community has set up a few charities to provide financial assistance to the families of terrorists such as Gashibu Nusantara. However, if indeed a portion of the funds did go to terrorist cells, the sum would not only be insufficient, but also might not reach all cells equally.
Religious justification for robbery
In addition, the fact that some fugitive terrorists complained online of the reluctance among the extremist community to give them substantial financial assistance for fear of being arrested is likely another factor for resorting to robberies.
Although terrorists were able to gain sufficient proceeds from criminal activities, only a small portion actually went to funding activities, including for weapons procurement or training. Indonesia’s Counter Terrorism Agency (BNPT) Chairman Ansyaad Mbai in June 2013 noted that the terrorists used the rest of the money for personal gain. It is in line with terrorists’ arguments that it is religiously justified if they use funds for personal expenditure. Read the rest of this entry ?
Money Jihad 
Somali press blasts Mo Farah: shill for Dahabshiil
August 30, 2013When Barclays decided to end its partnership with Dahabshiil, a money transfer company that funds al-Shabaab, Olympic gold medalist Mo Farah condemned the decision, claiming that the families of Somali-Britons like his depend on Dahabshiil’s remittance service.
In turn, the Suna Times, an independent publication of Somali journalists, and Muqdisho News have condemned Mo Farah for misleading the world about the Barclays decision.
The Somali reporters point out 1) that Dahabshiil funds terrorism, as Money Jihad readers also know, 2) that other remittance alternatives separate from Dahabshiil are available to Mr. Farah and to Somalis around the world, and 3) that Mr. Farah belongs to the same tribe as the owner of Dahabshiil.
It is so distressing to see independent and expatriate journalists who are trying to save their country from the throes of terrorism be smothered out by institutional, corporate, biased media sources that simply will not print the truth about Dahabshiil. The British media conglomerates have latched on instead to the glamour and star power of Mo Farah, while ignoring “lesser” Somali celebrities like Nimo Djama and Sado Ali Warsame, who have received death threats for speaking out against Dahabshiil.
Posted in News commentary | Tagged al-Shabaab, Barclays, Dahabshiil, media bias, remittances, Somalia, terrorist financing | 4 Comments »