Terrorism
Financing
Our
goal is to rectify some concepts and mistakes related to an old issue, which is
terrorism financing issue, as there are several developments and challenges
that need our attention.
Terrorism
financing has witnessed several changes and
reformation since it was repeatedly outlined. However, the issue disappeared,
at least on its classical form. As a student of Michel Foucault, I recall his
persistence in telling us this phrase; “We must know where do we start talking
when we are dealing with an existing issue.”
We
were among few others in Europe who tried to understand what happened in
Algeria between 1988 and 1998, during what is known as the bloody decade where
about 200 thousand people were killed.
We
must assert that the Algerian civil war was a laboratory for extremist Islam
and the militias adopting it then, a laboratory where methods of speech,
operation and financing are being conducted.
Back
then-at the beginning of the nineties- my report team from the Swiss television
channel “TSR” and I saw bags full of money leaving Geneva and Lugano in Italian
Switzerland, to Algerian fighters in extremist Islamic militias.
We
decided to follow those bags to discover the existence of three levels of
financing, financing from the top to the bottom, taking place through banks,
companies and NGOs. Financing from the bottom to the top through fundraising at
worship houses, cultural organizations and charities used as a cover by Muslim
Brotherhood group. Third way of financing was through petty crimes and armed
violence.
Upstream
and Downstream
On
17 November 1997, Luxor massacre took place, where 62 Western tourists were
killed, among them 35 Swiss citizens, near to Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut at
the Valley of the Kings. Investigations revealed that a trade company called
“Takwa” was behind financing the bloody operation, the company is a front for
one of the Muslim Brotherhood banks in Lugano and Nassau in Bahamas.
When
we asked the then-Swiss Attorney General Carla Del Ponte
whether she will conduct an investigation on the company’s activities, she
embarrassedly answer off the record: “Are you crazy! My job is not to destroy
the banking status of Switzerland, cause in case an investigation was launched,
billions of dollars will immediately leave Lugano, Geneva and Zurich.”
Shortly
after that, we had an interview with the late Investment Banker and Chairman of
Arab Bankers Association in London George Kardouche where he said: “If you
wanted to understand the structure and organization of armed radical Islam,
follow the money, be careful though, cause money is like water, flows where it
wants, to be wasted in the sand later.”
From
the beginning of the nineties until 9/11 attacks, a new terrorist threat appeared, it was adopted by
the late leader of Al Qaeda “Osama Bin Laden” starting from 1998. We can draw
some conclusions from that.
Financing
terrorism was not the core of the issue, as 9/11 attacks in 2001 did not
cost more than 500 thousand dollars, where Luxor massacre’s cost did not exceed
the price of some Kalashnikovs and knives, same thing with the latest attacks
in France, Britain, Sweden and Germany.
Terrorism
Financing can be reduced to two main points and they the upstream financing and
the downstream financing.
We
find large amounts of money at the prelude or the upstream financing, where
recruitment and training are carried out before executing an operation. This
stage is tightly linked to the production of the radical ideologies through,
schools, training foundations, production of digital, audio and video speeches
and publishing and distribution.
On
the other hand, downstream financing is an after selling service- after an
operation is carried out- where families of those assailants are being taken
care of financially, especially the families of suicide bombers. The downstream
financing also includes plastic surgeries for terrorists who seek to hide and
change their faces and locations.
Regional
Financing
The
emergence of ISIS (Daesh) between 2012 to 2014 led to a gradual change in
circumstances, as we are facing now a terrorist
organization that is not just using both upstream and downstream financing, it
is also regionally backed, open for the usage of resources such as crude oil
and cotton harvest.
Daesh
militias are expected to appear in China, Sahel and Sahara region, African Horn
and the coast of Mauritania, also the armed organization will restructure
itself in Europe and in West and Mid of Asia, after its defeat in Syria and
Iraq.
The indictment of two French Lafarge
executives has revealed a new stunt to finance terrorism. We can say the same
thing about some aspects of economic diplomacy, which was always defended by
former French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, especially when we study some
contracts signed with Saudi Arabia.
These
incidents led me to write a book last year under the title “Terrorism, the
covered face of globalization”, after 30 years of investigations, research and
field reports. I said in this book that terrorism financing turned into a
normal phenomenon disguised by globalization mechanisms.
In a
dazzling article dated back to 1957 by philosopher George Batay, under the
title “cursed part”, he explains that any phenomenon of economic expansion
involves a dark side, and its reversal requires a waste that does not shrink.
When we carefully examine the financial logic of terrorism, as well as the
logic of counter-terrorism, we must acknowledge the existence of a large number
of political economies whose mechanisms are expanding through a share of
burning, destruction and crime.
In
this context, terrorism and its financing should not be analyzed as a disease,
crisis or transient fever, but must be considered as a new and comprehensive
natural logic.
Let
us stop for a second in front of such an extraordinary revealing, which is
Banama documents. These documents revealed that the terrorism and crime money
goes through offshore registered companies.
Such
an unusual discovery, however you’ll have dare to remind yourself that the vast
majority of these companies go under American and British flags.
A
core fades away
In
the end we can say that financing of terrorism is similar to the famous German
philosopher Hegel’s soul theory, in the writing of the phenomenology of the
soul. Hegel says that the soul is a vanishing essence. It is a substance that
dissolves and eventually disappears after it is absorbed by the daily lives of
human beings Survival and reproduction.
When
we see the terrorist lords in Algeria, the attacks in Paris, London, and
elsewhere. We see the money paid by Lafarge to the armed groups and the real
estate tax exemptions for the princes of Qatar, we know that the financing of
terrorism has certainly become the essence of vanishing in the modernity of
globalization.
For
a further discussion, let us mention the relation between Jihadism and Wahabism
that had extended to more than two centuries.
Al-Saud
regularly exploits violent Salafism for its interests, but always fails to
control its harmful effects, which ultimately forces it to allow a foreign
armed force to intervene to find its salvation. These foreign powers are
usually non-Arab and non-Islamic, and ultimately bear the military and
financial price of this intervention, as well as moral responsibility and
persistent doubts that they want to launch a crusade against Islam.
We
can overlook for economic or diplomatic reasons, as we have done for years with
Qatar. I do not have to judge this issue, it is the problem of our elected
leaders. However,
it is dangerous to ignore or deny this phenomenon. Under these circumstances,
it would be counterproductive to claim that we are in the process of inventing
unbreakable method to neutralize violent jihadist groups while not even
addressing the issue of funding these groups.
Last
August, during the Conference of French Ambassadors, the President announced
the convening of an international conference in Paris on the financing of
terrorism.
The conference is expected to bring together some 50 countries on April 26 in Paris. Even now, in light of the developments of the war in Syria, the holding of this conference is still uncertain.
