5 men caught smuggling $6m for ISIS

The $6 million is only the tip of the iceberg.  According to South African law enforcement, one of the men made the same trip every couple days.  But even if it were only $6 million, that is a big amount of cash to smuggle anywhere.  It’s surprising they could even squeeze that much money into 12 bags they were reportedly carrying.  (Maybe it was vacuum packed?)  No wonder why this report says there was inside help.  From Fox News on Sept. 21 (h/t @AllSourceFusion):

JOHANNESBURG –  Five men nabbed last month about to board a flight at South Africa’s busiest airport with $6 million stuffed in bags may have made hundreds of such trips — with inside help — as part of a cash pipeline to fund the Islamic State, police sources said Monday.

The suspected couriers were caught at Johannesburg’s main airport, OR Tambo, on Aug. 28, but news the money was headed for the terror network only emerged late Sunday. A senior police officer told Fox News Monday the suspects are believed to have been headed for the ISIS caliphate in Syria and Iraq by way of Dubai, and that one may have made the same trek hundreds of times.

“It is very likely that the money was going to ISIS,” the police officer said. “We are investigating who these five carrying the money were, and there is one … we are particularly interested in, as records show he was flying to Dubai every two days for a year”…

Gaps found in Malaysia’s terror finance policies

Malaysia has made progress in countering the financing of terrorism, but still has a long way to go according to a new report from the international financial watchdog FATF. Shortcomings include a derth of prosecutions, a failure to identify specific offenses under Malaysian law such as fundraising for terrorist causes, and extreme slowness in enforcing sanctions against UN-designated terrorists. From FATF’s “Mutual Evaluation Report” (h/t El Grillo):

Malaysia has undertaken over 40 TF investigations of which 22 are ongoing, however no prosecutions have been taken forward. Malaysia successfully uses other criminal justice and administrative measures to disrupt terrorist and TF activities when a prosecution for TF is not practicable. These include various domestic terrorist plots, terror groups and foreign terrorists. Malaysia also uses these other measures to address the most relevant emerging TF risk – individuals travelling to conflict zones to participate in or advocate terrorist activity. Malaysian authorities identify and investigate different types of TF in each counter-terrorism investigation, and counter-terrorism strategies have successfully enabled Malaysia to identify and designate terrorists, terrorist organisations and terrorist support networks. In the absence of TF prosecutions, Malaysia has not demonstrated that it has sanctioned different types of TF offences, such as the collection of funds for TF, or the financing of terrorist acts or individual terrorists.

Malaysia demonstrates many of the characteristics of an effective system for targeted financial sanctions (TFS). A key area of effectiveness is in the direct implementation of TFS against UN designated persons and entities. Malaysia has also domestically listed individuals and entities pursuant to UNSCR 1373 representing a range of domestic and international terror threats. Many of the elements of the legal system and processes for implementing TFS related to UNSCRs represent a best practice for other countries. Effectiveness of TFS is supported by supervision of the FI and some DNFBP sectors, outreach and awareness raising, and government agencies checking their own databases. In absolute terms the amounts frozen under TFS are relatively small, reflecting to some extent the cash economy nature of TF in the SE Asian region and the detention of a number of Malaysian designees. Recently more freezing actions have taken place outside of the banking sector and covering property indirectly owned or controlled by designated entities.

Malaysia’s approach to preventive measures, oversight and outreach to the NPO sector has improved significantly in recent years and demonstrates many of the characteristics of an effective system. Outputs reflect targeted approaches to TF risk mitigation, with outcomes achieved to a large extent. This includes RoS and other regulators as well as the RMP.

Despite good inter-agency cooperation on PF (policy and operational), Malaysia’s technical gaps in relation to R7 are significant and major improvements are required to make the process more effective. The long delays in transposing designations made by the UN into Malaysian law undermine effectiveness. RIs have increasingly good awareness of obligations, particularly in Labuan and the major FIs. Supervision of obligations is taking place, but implementation could be deepened and further supported with additional guidance. Two Malaysian banks have frozen over USD29 million of assets related to the one Labuan domiciled Iranian bank designated under UNSCR 1737. No entities or assets related to UNSCR 1718 have been detected. Vigilance measures adopted by Malaysia add to effectiveness.

UK cracks down on anti-democratic Islamists

Great Britain will grant their Charity Commission new powers to unseat board members of charities who espouse anti-democratic, un-British values according to a strategy document leaked to the Telegraph.  If true, this is a welcome development.  Hateful Islamist leaders have to be shamed and weeded out.  U.S. states should follow suit by granting their secretaries of state, who generally have authority to regulate charities, equivalent powers.

Extremists to be purged from charity boards under new law

Mosques will be hit as watchdog to use powers to expel ‘hate preachers’

By Andrew Gilligan

19 Sep 2015

The Government is to purge “extremist” trustees from every charity in England and Wales in a crackdown that could affect thousands of people.

A leaked draft of the Home Office’s new counter-extremism strategy, seen by the Telegraph, says new legal powers for the Charity Commission to sack trustees will be used far more widely than expected.

In a paper in May on how it would use the powers, now being created in a bill before Parliament, the commission made no mention of extremism being grounds for disqualification.

However, the leaked counter-extremism strategy, due to be published this autumn, states that “once the legislation is enacted, the Charity Commission will take action against all trustees who meet the definition of extremism set out in this document.”

The strategy document defines extremism as “the vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and the mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs.”

Among those likely to be affected are several mosques, most of which operate as charities, including the hardline East London Mosque. Some of its trustees have publicly supported sharia law and punishments for “crimes” such as adultery.

A number of aid charities have been regularly accused of channelling funds to terror groups, including Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and have trustees with links to those organisations.

Some private Muslim schools are likely to be caught by the provisions, including two run by the Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation, a charity closely linked to the racist and extremist group Hizb ut Tahrir.

In a Hizb pamphlet one of the foundation’s trustees, Farah Ahmed, attacked religious tolerance and democracy and said that Western education was a “threat to our beliefs and values.”

Non-Muslim groups may also be affected, including Soldiers off the Street, a veterans’ charity whose trustees include a former senior British National Party activist.

Charitable status carries substantial privileges, including exemption from paying most taxes, tax breaks for individuals who donate and Gift Aid, which allows charities to claim back the tax paid by donors.

The Telegraph has exposed how hate preachers and Islamist extremists have secured charitable status and exploited it to claim thousands of pounds in Gift Aid and other advantages.

The benefit was claimed by IERA, a charity linked to a number of the “Portsmouth jihadis,” six young men from the Hampshire city who travelled together to fight for Islamic State (Isil) in Syria. IERA’s trustees include the extremist preacher Abdurraheem Green, also known as Anthony Waclaw Green.

Its board of advisers has included Bilal Phillips, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing, and the hate preacher Haitham al-Haddad, who has called Jews the “brethren of swine and pigs.”

Al-Haddad also founded and ran his own charity, the Muslim Research and Development Foundation (MRDF), which publishes a hardline Islamist website, Islam21c.com, and other extremist material…

ISIS forbids interest-based banking in Libya

Islamic State operatives in Sirte, Libya, have ordered banks there to close because they profit from charging interest.  ISIS told the banks that they “must change to Islamic banking” before they can reopen.  If you know somebody who still doubts the connections between sharia-compliant banking and terrorism, please forward them this article from the Libya Herald (h/t @moscow_ghost):

IS closes banks in Sirte; orders them to change to Sharia banking

By Libya Herald reporter.

Tripoli, 13 September 2015:

A source in Sirte has told the Libya Herald that the Islamic State (IS) forces in the town had not taken over and looted the Central Bank, as widely reported earlier.

What happened, according to the source, was that on Thursday, IS went to all banks in the town and closed them. They ordered all staff to turn up to the main mosque on Friday after evening prayer to repent for having being involved in dealing with interest (usury or riba) and ask for forgiveness.  Most went.

The banks must change to Islamic banking, IS has demanded. When they have made the change, they can re-open, the source said…

Indonesia says terror financing “kingpin” is native Australian

Indonesia’s financial intelligence unit has traced the source of half a million dollars for jihad in Syria:  an Australian man married to a Javanese woman.  An Indonesian official says, “That man collected money from many people in Australia” (emphasis mine).  Hopefully this intelligence is being shared with Australian intelligence and law enforcement.  From the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (h/t @skinroller) on Sept. 13:

Australian man linked to cash supporting terrorism, sending fighters to Syria: Indonesia

By Indonesia correspondent Samantha Hawley

Indonesian authorities have revealed they have linked an Australian man to $500,000 they suspect has been used to support terrorism and send Indonesian nationals to Syria to fight with Islamic State.

The Australian man is married to an Indonesian woman who the ABC understands is from Java but is now living in Australia.

In an exclusive interview with the ABC, Agus Santoso, the deputy chair of Indonesia’s financial intelligence body Intrac, said they had tracked 5 billion rupiah from bank accounts in Australia that has been transferred to at least 10 accounts in Indonesia.

“That man collected money from many people in Australia. Then he sent it to his wife’s account in Indonesia,” Mr Santoso said.

“So this Indonesian woman was used to open some bank accounts which we suspect have links with terrorism suspects.

“What is surprising is that the kingpin is not an immigrant. In my opinion he is native Australian, not an immigrant. I mean, he is white.”

Intrac, also known as the Financial Transactions and Analysis Centre (PPATK), has tracked the money since 2012 and said some of the funds were still active in Indonesian accounts.

Mr Santoso said he strongly suspected the money was being used to send Indonesians to Syria, while also funding IS recruitment to strengthen the terrorist network in Indonesia.

He said $500,000 goes a long way in Indonesia.

“It only costs $250 to make a bomb,” he said…

U.S. publicly names Saudi Hamas bankroller

Saudi high rollers have been funding jihad for decades.  U.S. officials usually only talk about it in generalities.  But the Treasury Department has recently announced sanctions against several Saudis including Abu-Ubaydah al-Agha, a high-ranking money man for the terrorist group Hamas, and Mahir Salah, who launders money for Hamas through front companies in Saudi Arabia.

From Agence France-Presse on Sept. 11 (h/t El Grillo):

US sanctions aim at Saudi-Hamas finance link

New US Treasury sanctions Thursday took aim at financial links between Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which the US labels a terrorist group.

The Treasury named Hamas political bureau member Saleh Aruri; Saudi-based Hamas financier Mahir Salah; Abu-Ubaydah Khayri Hafiz Al-Agha, a Saudi citizen and “senior Hamas financial officer”; and al-Agha’s company Asyaf International Holding Group for sanctions.

It said Aruri has since 2013 “overseen the distribution of Hamas finances” and works closely with Salah.

Salah, a dual British and Jordanian citizen, has led the Hamas Finance Committee in Saudi Arabia, which the Treasury called “the largest center of Hamas’s financial activity.”

“As of late 2014, Salah managed several front companies in Saudi Arabia that conducted money laundering activities for Hamas,” it added.

Al-Agha and his company, meanwhile, are “involved in investment, funding, and money transfers for Hamas in Saudi Arabia”…

Undersecretary: Iran may use unfrozen assets for “more bad things”

State Department official Wendy Sherman has confirmed that at least $50 billion will be released to Iran because of the proposed nuclear deal, and that those funds could be used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).  Sherman made the comments during an interview for American Forum which will air on PBS.  Roll tape:

Terror financial news: suggested reading

• “Iran will get hundreds of billions of dollars from sanctions relief and investments to fuel its aggression and terrorism in the Middle East and North Africa and beyond,” says Israel’s prime minister… more>>

• Shurat Hadin is pursuing legal action to stop the Iran deal until the victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism are compensated… more>>

• Lawyers for the “British” beheader for ISIS known as “Jihadi John” are fleecing the government for legal defense fees, even though they don’t live in Britain either… more>>

• An Amnesty International director and her husband have been outed as Muslim Brotherhood supporters… more>>

ISIS’s economy smaller and shabbier than Iraq’s

Given the territory it controls, the economic prospects of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are crummy, researchers have argued.  Oil notwithstanding, the economies of northern Syria and western and northern Iraq weren’t so great to begin with before the rise of ISIS (also known as Daesh).  The economy in areas of ISIS control has probably worsened given the number of people who have fled or who otherwise lost their jobs when ISIS took control.  On top of that, ISIS spends its money on aggression, not on public service delivery.

This is a persuasive argument.  It has a bit more substance to it than the usual happy talk from than speeches from U.S. Treasury Department officials.  Kudos to Jamie Hansen-Lewis and Jacob N. Shapiro for their research, which was published in the journal Perspectives on Terrorism (hat tip to El Grillo).  A salient excerpt from their article follows:

…Daesh has limited economic activity to draw on. Daesh area’s total economic activity according to G-Econ was at most one-fifth of the rest of Iraq’s and one-third of the rest of Syria’s. Using the more refined DMSP-OLS data the group’s poverty is equally stark, with 2012 illumination in the regions it now controls amounting to no more than one-third of the rest of Syria and one-eighth of the rest of Iraq.

And these methods almost surely overestimate Daesh’s current revenue base. First, we included areas of Daesh support from which their economy might draw in part, but it is not clear how much authority the group has to extract in these areas. Second, we use pre-war data, but the massive population movements that accompanied the Daesh takeover means these areas surely have less economic activity than they did in 1990 (for the GEcon data) or 2012 (for the DMSP-OLS data).[39]

Assuming Daesh is able to transform that economic activity into military spending at rates similar to comparably sized states we should not expect it to be able to sustain large defense expenditures. Worldwide defense expenditures peak at 10.2% of GDP in South Sudan, with many conflict-affected countries spending only 3% of GDP on defense.[40] Countries close to Daesh’s Gross Cell Product had a 2014 GDP of approximately $30B or $4,700 per capita. Combined with the range of observed expenditures this suggests the group could support defense expenditures in the range of $900M to $3B per year. While Daesh’s potential spending totals are large compared to its economic neighbors, they pale in comparison to Iraq’s 2014 spending of $9.5B, Turkey’s $20B, UAE’s $22.6B, or Saudi Arabia’s $80B.[41] While spending clearly translates only indirectly into military power, the gap between what is monetarily feasible for Daesh over the long-run and what its neighbors spend is striking.

Moreover, if we turn to the population under Daesh’s control it is fairly sparse…

Arab Bank settles over terror finance damages

Jordan-based Arab Bank PLC has settled on an amount to pay in damages to the families of terror victims.  The bank was found liable in 2014 for helping process transactions for Hamas that facilitated terrorist attacks.  The amount of the settlement wasn’t disclosed, but Arab Bank previously offered $12 million in a deal rejected by the judge.

From The New York Times last month (h/t El Grillo):

Arab Bank Reaches Settlement in Suit Accusing It of Financing Terrorism

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD AUG. 14, 2015

Three days before a first-of-its-kind damages trial was supposed to start, a Middle Eastern bank has reached a settlement with hundreds of American plaintiffs, including victims of terrorist attacks around Israel, who had filed a lawsuit against the bank accusing it of supporting terrorism.

A spokesman for the bank, Arab Bank, and a spokeswoman for one of the law firms representing the plaintiffs confirmed on Friday that an agreement had been reached but declined to offer additional details, including the amount of the settlement.

Last year, a jury in Federal District Court in Brooklyn found Arab Bank liable for financing terrorism by processing transactions for members of the militant Islamic group Hamas.

The second phase of the trial, assessing the damages Arab Bank would have to pay to some victims of attacks by Hamas, was scheduled to start on Monday.

All of the plaintiffs are American victims of Hamas attacks or relatives of people who were killed…

Treasury says Iran will keep funding Hezbollah

Treasury undersecretary Adam Szubin says Iran will continue sponsoring terrorism regardless of the sanctions deal with Iran.  This seems to be a point upon which many executive branch officials agree.  In fact, it will probably worsen.  We’ve covered many reports over the years of Hezbollah and Hamas budgets suffering because of sanctions against Iran.  Logically, as sanctions are lifted, we can expect the Shia-backed terrorist groups to replenish their bank accounts and fund newer, bolder attacks.

From the Washington Free Beacon:

Sanctions Czar: Iran will Continue Funding Terrorist Armies Under Nuclear Deal

BY: Blake Seitz

Obama’s sanctions czar admitted Wednesday that Iran would continue to fund terrorist proxies like Hezbollah under the nuclear deal.

Administration officials like Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Treasury Jack Lew have downplayed the possibility that Iran could use sanctions relief cash to fund terrorism, saying that much of that money would be earmarked for debt relief and domestic projects.

Adam Szubin, the undersecretary of Treasury for terrorism and financial crimes, was more candid about the most likely use of sanctions relief money.

“Unfortunately I do expect to continue to see Iran funding Hezbollah and its other violent terrorist proxies,” Szubin told the Senate Banking Committee.

Szubin praised the U.S. sanctions regime for bringing the Iranian economy to its knees.

“Thanks to those congressional sanctions, our sanctions against Iran’s proxies carry this international weigh and designated entities become pariahs worldwide,” Szubin said.

Szubin said that “it is incumbent” on the U.S. “to do more” through sanctions to stop Iran’s financing of terrorism—although the president’s nuclear deal lifts many sanctions on Iran and allows its banned banks back into the global financial system…

Szubin has replaced David Cohen as undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.  President Obama has named Cohen as the deputy director of the CIA.