CORRUPTION

International Affairs Forum Fall 2016
months-long investigations of terrorism funding
in Europe is that it is going on in the areas
of activity that I mentioned in the chapter on
underpoliced criminal activity that I also identified
in my Congressional testimony. What we are
seeing is that funding of terrorism in Europe is
totally different from the terrorism that supports
ISIS in the Middle East. It is being supported by
counterfeit trade that goes on in public markets
and by importation of illicit cigarettes and other
low-level criminal activity. Some of this trade
is done through online transactions as these
terrorists order products to sell in street markets.
Because European law enforcement is not
looking at this petty illicit trade nor at the network
of structures of terrorists with criminal pasts, they
are missing the criminal activity that is providing
so much funding to terrorist groups. These
European terrorist groups do not need huge
amounts of funding to operate in Europe.
So, even though the book is two years old, it is
becoming more relevant, not less relevant.
States. Even though ISIS is not directly recruiting
criminals in the US, there is still much use of
criminal activity in the US to generate funds
for many different terrorist groups operating
internationally.
You have stated that, on a certain level,
some of us are actually complicit in terrorist
funding and allowing it to be sustainable.
When people buy goods that they know are
illegal: cigarettes at half the price, counterfeit
DVDs, counterfeit sneakers, when they are
paying a small part of the price of what a
legitimate product is, then they know that there
is something wrong. Most buyers are aware that
they are not buying a genuine item. They are
also not buying something governed by the rules
of trade as these products are often not sold
in normal stores. It is locales with unregulated
markets and/or counterfeit products that are the
source of much of the funding generated in the
United States for terrorism overseas.
An issue that you have pointed out is that, by
not looking at the connections among these
problems, the work of enforcement agencies
has been affected.
Absolutely. In the US, some of our largest
police departments such as in New York and
Los Angeles are very good at connecting
the terrorism and crime links, and there are
increasing efforts in the rest of the United States
to do this. But ISIS recruitment in the US is not
as targeted at criminals as it is in Europe. Ninetyfive
percent of the terrorists in Europe who
have participated in terrorist acts or are part of
supporting networks have criminal backgrounds.
That is because of who ISIS is targeting. In
Europe, ISIS is targeting individuals with
criminal pasts but they seem to have a different
profile for those they are targeting in the United
How are these issues affecting economic
development in developing countries?
That is a complex topic. I recently met with
a group of Tanzanians who are responsible
for fighting poaching in wildlife, especially
elephants. They wanted to learn about network
analysis, following the money, understanding the
networks. If many of the elephants disappear
from the parks in Tanzania, it has a critical impact
on tourism which is a major foreign currency
source for them. Yet, many elephants are going
to China which is providing much investment
capital to Tanzania. So there is a trade in these
elephants that helps support some of the
development capital that is coming in. It is a
very complex issue that impacts development in
different ways.
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