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Unfunding Terror: The Legal Response to the Financing of Global Terrorism

Unfunding Terror: The Legal Response to the Financing of Global Terrorism

Author: Jimmy Gurule
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 9781848449855
Published In: December 2009
Format: Paperback , 432 pages
Jurisdiction: International ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of 2,973 innocent civilians required as much as $500,000 to stage. At the time, al Qaeda was operating on an annual budget of between $30 and $50 million. However, despite the obvious fact that terrorists need money to terrorize, preventing the financing of terrorism was not a priority for the United States or the international community prior to 9/11. Jimmy Gurulé, former Under Secretary for Enforcement in the US Department of the Treasury, provides the first book-length, comprehensive analysis of the legal regime that evolved following the terrorist attacks.

The book begins with a discussion of how shutting down the pipelines of funding is as important as dismantling the terrorist cells themselves. Next, the book covers the various means and methods used by terrorist groups to raise money, and examines how money is transferred globally to finance their lethal activities. The principal components of the legal strategy to disrupt the financing of terrorism are then discussed and evaluated. Unfortunately, the author concludes that the legal regime has met with mixed results, and finds that the sense of urgency to deprive terrorists of funding that existed following 9/11 has since dissipated. As a result, international efforts to freeze terrorist assets have dramatically declined. Moreover, the US Department of Justice has suffered several embarrassing and disappointing legal defeats in prosecuting major terrorist financiers. The author provides numerous recommendations to Congress, the Executive Branch, and the UN Security Council for strengthening the legal regime to deny terrorists the money needed to wage global jihad, acquire weapons of mass destruction, and launch another terrorist attack on the scale of 9/11.

Unfunding Terror fills an important gap in the literature and will be essential reading for counter-terrorism experts, law enforcement and national security officials, policy makers, academics and all those interested in the global war on terror.

Part I: The Legal Framework

1. The Evolution of the Legal Framework to Deprive al Qaeda of Funding

Part II: Why Go After the Money?

2. Terrorists Need Money to Terrorize

3. Al Qaeda’s Call to Jihad

4. Al Qaeda’s Global Presence

Part III: Financing the Global Jihad

5. State Sponsors of Terrorism, Drug Trafficking, and Deep-Pocket Donors

6. Corrupt Islamic Charities

Part IV: Developing a Global Legal Framework to Combat Terrorist Financing

7. Engaging the Financial Sector to Prevent the Financing of Terrorism

8. Domestic Asset Freeze

9. International Asset Freeze

10. The Law Enforcement Response to Terrorist Financing

11. Private Causes of Action: Using the Civil Justice System to Hold Terrorist Financiers Accountable

Part V: Has the Legal Response to the Financing of Terrorism Been Effective?

12. Accomplishments, Failures, and Recommendations for Enhancing the Anti-Terrorist Financing Legal Regime

Bibliography

Index

Jimmy Gurulé, Professor of Law, Notre Dame Law School, US, former Under Secretary (Enforcement) in the US Department of the Treasury (2001–2003) and former Assistant Attorney General, US Department of Justice (1990–1992)

'Jimmy Gurulé knows how to bankrupt terrorists like few others do. As Undersecretary of the Treasury for Enforcement, he spearheaded the fight against al-Qaeda’s global bank accounts, helping to earn the highest grade awarded on the 9/11 Commissioners’ report card. As an author, he performs once again. Unfunding Terror provides policymakers and laymen alike a clear roadmap on how to keep terrorists out of the global financial system.’
– Timothy J. Roemer, Center for National Policy, former US Congressman and member of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Commission)

‘Jimmy Gurulé has given us a superbly comprehensive and well-written assessment of why, regarding terrorism, Deep Throat’s principle is bang on: follow the money.’
– R. James Woolsey, venture partner, VantagePoint, and former Director of Central Intelligence, US

‘A detailed study by a true scholar-practitioner, Unfunding Terror explains the legal response to terror finance in language accessible to both the expert and layman. Required reading.’
– Matthew Levitt, Director, Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Intelligence and Analysis, US

‘Professor Gurulé is comprehensive: he describes the problem (terrorist funding by those in the free world), analyzes the legal responses (make it a crime, freeze terrorist assets, impose regulations on financial institutions), critiques the administration’s and international community’s efforts to unfund terrorists (political rhetoric, not in fact backed up with effective strategies or implementation), and outlines concrete legal and administrative remedies. Would that they to whom the recommendations are addressed act on them quickly. Too much is at stake to let terrorists, who condemn the West as corrupt, get their funding to attack the US and its allies from the West itself. That would be a form of social suicide.’
– G. Robert Blakey, Notre Dame Law School, US