Following the Terrorist Money Trail

In combating terrorism, the international community must employ all the instruments of national power to disrupt, dismantle, and deter terrorist groups. These instruments include diplomatic, military, intelligence, information, law enforcement, economic, and nancial capabilities that can be applied singularly, or in combination, to counter international security threats, including terrorism. These countermeasures have been successfully leveraged at the local, national, and international levels to combat terrorist networks around the globe. This chapter will focus on the nancial front of the war on terrorism and demonstrate how “following the money trail” enhances governments’ efforts to identify, root out, and defeat terrorists and their nanciers. We will begin with an overview of how terrorist groups raise and move their money. Subsequently, strategies to combat terrorist nancing through law enforcement and intelligence operations, public designations, international cooperation, and capacity building programs will be examined. A case study of Indonesia’s response to the tragic October 2002 Bali bombings will demonstrate how counterterrorism measures, including those to address terrorist nancing, have been developed and applied successfully to combat terrorism. We will conclude with a review of the progress made to combat terrorist nancing and underscore the challenges that remain in this arena.