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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

O N L I N E '

October 1, 2003

COMMENTARY

Asia Hasn't Stopped

The Terror Funding
By ZACHARY ABUZA

It's now just over a year since 20 al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah operatives in Southeast Asia
were added to the list established under United Nations Resolution 1390, which provides for
international sanctions against known terrorist financiers. Earlier this month, the U.N. put another
19 such terrorists from Southeast Asia on the list. These actions amount to little more than futile
gestures that do little to tackle the problem of terrorist funding in Southeast Asia.

Many of these men are in jail -- one since 1995 -- and the rest are on the run. None are known to
have significant assets, very few of which have been frozen. Almost the only benefit of placing
these individuals on the U.N. blacklist was to make it easier to target those who do business with
them. That's especially important in countries like Indonesia, where JI has still not been banned
and you can't be arrested for being a member of the group unless police can draw a direct link to a
crime or terrorist act.

Once an individual is on the Resolution 1390 list, it becomes an offense to have any business or
financial dealings with them. So even if it is impossible to link a JI member to the Bali bombing,
proving he gave money to someone on the list becomes enough to issue an arrest warrant almost
anywhere in the world.

Necessary as this is, it's a far cry from what's needed to tackle terrorist funding in Southeast Asia.
Al Qaeda has been active in the region since the early 1990s, when it first began using Southeast
Asia as a back office for activities such as setting up front companies, fundraising, recruiting,
forging documents and purchasing weapons. Only later did the region become a theater of
operations in its own right as JI, its local affiliate, developed its own terrorist capabilities.

According to U.S. law-enforcement officials, Southeast Asia has now become even more
important to al Qaeda's money men following the Sept. 11,2001 terrorist attacks. Those prompted
a crackdown on funding channels in the Middle East, especially in the financial centers in Abu
Dhabi and other parts of the United Arab Emirates. But little was done to shut down funding
channels in Southeast Asia, where money continues to flow to the terror group through hawala
networks, gold and gem smuggling and cash transfers. That's why the list of names added to the
U.N. blacklist last year was so disappointing, since it didn't include any of the known front
companies and charities affiliated with terror groups in the region.

DOW JONES REPRINTS

http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB106496110262485500,OO.html 10/30/03
UNTANGLING THE TERROR WEB
The Need for a Strategic Understanding of the Crossover Between
International Terrorist Groups to Successfully
Prosecute the War on Terror

Testimony of
Matthew A. Levitt
Senior Fellow in Terrorism Studies
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
October 22, 2003

Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

United States Senate
 Appearance for Hearing of U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban
Affairs on October 22, 2003

Oral Statement
Louise Richardson
Executive Dean
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
Harvard University

Good morning Chairman Shelby, Senator Sarbanes, and other distinguished

members of the committee. I am honored to have this opportunity to speak to you about
my understanding of the nature of terrorism and about how lessons can be derived from
that understanding for the disruption of their operations. As will soon be obvious, I am
not an expert on terrorist finances, rather I am someone who has thought about and taught
about terrorist movements for many years.

The first point to be made in any discussion of terrorism is to be clear about what
it is we are discussing. The term terrorism is being used so loosely that it has come to
lose much meaning. The only universally accepted attribute of the term is that it is
pejorative. I would like simply to posit what I take to be the seven crucial characteristics
of the term "terrorism."
1. Political. To constitute terrorism the act must be politically inspired. If it is not, then it
is simply criminal activity.
2. Violent. If the act does not involve violence or the threat of violence then it is not
terrorism.
3. Communication. The point of terrorism is to communicate a message. It is not
violence for the sake of it or even violence in the expectation of defeating the enemy, but
rather violence to convey a political message.
4. Symbolic. The act and the victim usually have symbolic significance. The shock value
of the act is enhanced by the power of the symbol of the target. The whole point is for the
psychological impact to be greater than the actual physical act. Terrorist movements are
generally out-manned and out-gunned by their opponents so they employ these tactics to
gain more attention than an objective assessment of their capabilities would warrant.
5. Non-state actor. Terrorism as we understand it is conducted by clandestine groups,
not states. This is not to argue that states cannot use terrorism as an instrument of their
foreign and domestic policy; they can and they do. Nor is it to argue that states cannot
take actions which are the moral equivalent of terrorism; they can and they do. It is
simply to argue that if we want to have any analytic clarity in understanding the behavior
of these groups we must understand them as clandestine sub-state actors rather than as
states. Moreover, in our dealing with states we have the whole panoply of international
law to assist us in interpreting and responding to their actions.
6. The victim and the audience are not the same. The point of terrorism is to use the
victim as a means of altering the behavior of the larger audience, usually a government.
 WRITTEN TESTIMONY
OF
JEAN-CHARLES BRISARD
INTERNATIONAL EXPERT ON TERRORISM FINANCING
LEAD INVESTIGATOR, 911 LAWSUIT
CEO, JCB CONSULTING INTERNATIONAL

BEFORE

THE COMMITTEE ON BANKING, HOUSING AND URBAN AFFAIRS

UNITED STATES SENATE

OCTOBER 22,2003

Chairman Shelby, Senator Sarbanes and distinguished members of this Committee,

thank you for inviting me to testify today about the global war on terrorism financing.

I started investigating terrorism financing networks in 1997 for the French

government, since then, I have provided expertise to various governments and to the
United Nations. Since June 2002, I have been leading an international investigation
for the 9/11 Families United to Bankrupt Terrorism in the course of an action
brought by 5,600 family members before the US District Court of Washington, D.C.
against several entities, banks, companies, charities and individuals that provided
financial or logistical support to the Al-Qaida network.

In that respect, our investigation is today active in various regions of the world and
has been able to recover a considerable amount of information on Al-Qaida support
networks through procedures of judicial or political cooperation established with
more than 30 countries.

To date, our effort is probably a unique example of non-State cooperation and

investigation on terrorism.

This process, through cooperation and interviews with hundreds of law enforcement
officials, provides us with an independent, although global, perspective on assessing
inter-governmental efforts on terrorism financing.

Above all, the current process has been able to uncover major documents and items
related to the funding of the Al-Qaida organization, and I would like to share some of
our findings with you today. These findings help understand both the global context of
terrorism funding and the ways and means used by Al-Qaida on a regular basis to raise
and move funds for operational purposes.
 7 of 113 DOCUMENTS

Copyright 2003 Federal News Service, Inc.

Federal News Service

October 22, 2003 Wednesday

SECTION: CAPITOL HILL HEARING

LENGTH: 11104 words

HEADLINE: HEARING OF THE SENATE BANKING, HOUSING AND URBAN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

SUBJECT: THE FINANCING OF TERROR ORGANIZATIONS

CHAIRED BY: SENATOR RICHARD SHELBY (R-AL)

PANEL II LOCATION: 538 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D.C.

WITNESSES: LOUISE RICHARDSON, RADCLIFFE INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDIES; MATTHEW

LEVITT, WASHINGTON INSTITUTE FOR NEAR EAST POLICY; AND JEAN-CHARLES BRISARD, CEO, JCB
CONSULTING

BODY:
SEN. SHELBY: We're going to call up our second panel. Dr. Louise Richardson, the executive dean, Radcliffe
Institute for Advanced Studies, Harvard University; Dr. Jean-Charles Brisard, CEO, JCB Consulting; and Mr. Matthew
Levitt, senior fellow, Washington Institute for ear East Policy.
I just want to say a few words about Dr. Richardson and others. Dr. Richardson is the executive dean of the
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard. She has studied and written extensively on the alignment of terror
groups throughout the world. We look forward to her views on the shifting alliances among hi some instances these
what we call strange bedfellows.
Dr. Jean-Charles Brisard is the CEO of JCB Consulting. In that position he is also the lead investigator for the law
firm of Ronald Motley, representing many of the families that were victims of the attack on September the 11th. He has
written and studied extensively not only regarding the attacks, but also generally concerning the movement of funds
necessary to support terror organizations.
And finally we will hear from Mr. Matthew Levitt. Mr. Levitt is a senior fellow for the Washington Institute for
Near East Policy. He has a unique perspective concerning these issues, built in no small part by his work as a special
agent at the FBI for many years. Mr. Levitt was in the International Terrorism Section of the FBI. He has expanded that
work into his present position. He will assist us today in looking at the transition from the conceptual analysis to the
practical complexity of identifying, tracking and disrupting terror organizations using the trail that money leaves.
Dr. Richardson, Mr. Brisard, Mr. Levitt, your written testimony will be made part of the hearing record in the
entirety. You can proceed as you wish. Dr. Richardson.
MS. RICHARDSON: Good morning, Chairman Shelby, Senator Sarbanes, and other distinguished members of the
committee. I'm honored to have this opportunity to speak to you about my understanding of the nature of terrorism and
how lessons can be derived from that understanding for the disruption of their operations. As will readily become