Terrorism Finance: Dennis M. Lormel Testified Before the House
Recently on May 5, 2012 Dennis M. Lormel, President and CEO of DML Associates LLC, testified before the House Committee on Homeland Security, Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, on the subject of “Terrorist Financing Since 9/11: Assessing an Evolving al Qaeda and State Sponsors of Terrorism.” Following that appearance he was questioned further on the subject by Congressman Patrick Meehan, who posed a series of delving inquiries about the current state of terrorist finance. What follows is Part 1 of the interview; you may read the entire interview here.
[Congressman Patrick Meehan]: With our military successes against al-Qaeda core leadership in Afghanistan and Pakistan, there is a growing trend of al-Qaeda affiliated groups and adherents filling the void and taking the lead in launching attacks against the homeland. Given the relatively low amount of money required to plan and launch a terrorist attack, how realistic is it to expect U.S. and international counterterrorism entities to identify funds that might be used to undertake terrorism-related activity?
[Dennis M. Lormel]: Nominal funding requirements to support terrorist activity can be very challenging for U.S. and international counterterrorism entities to identify. It is possible to identify such funding but highly improbable. Counterterrorism entities need to develop and implement investigative and analytical methodologies to increase the probability factor. Few, if any, entities existed before 9/11 that were dedicated to identifying, investigating and disrupting terrorist financing. Since then, many entities were established with the mission to investigate terrorist financing. By using the combination of financial intelligence, human intelligence, and signal intelligence, mechanisms have been, and will continue to be, developed to identify even nominal amounts of money. By analyzing case studies, ranging from grand to simple, such as the Mumbai bombing and lone wolf schemes like that of Farooque Ahmed, who planned to detonate a bomb in the Washington, D.C. Metro Transit System, counterterrorism entities responsible for terrorist financing can build typologies and develop proactive and progressive investigative strategies.
[PM]: What are some of the persistent challenges in identifying and investigating an activity suspected of financing terrorism? What are some of the trends in how terrorist groups acquiring funds to support their objectives?
[DML]: One of the persistent challenges I encountered in the FBI, and that I would continue to be concerned about today is the timely collection and assessment of financial intelligence. Did my FBI Section, the Terrorist Financing Operations Section (TFOS), have intelligence information that we did not identify that could have led us to a plot or potential attack? We collected and assimilated a tremendous amount of intelligence information that we endeavored to turn into actionable intelligence for field investigators. This is particularly important in cases where a lone wolf operative did not have a record, was unknown to intelligence agencies, and used funds from a legitimate job to finance terrorist plans. Time sensitivity in these matters was always challenging.
A trend that has continued since 9/11, and has grown significantly since then, has been the movement to criminal activity as a fund raising mechanism for terrorists. In the aftermath of 9/11, the U.S. and our international partners made a concerted effort to cut off the flow of legitimate money from wealthy donors and charities. The more these efforts succeeded, the more terrorists were driven to criminal activity. This continues today. It will be interesting to assess the success of the sanctions against Iran and the revolution in Syria, two State sponsors of terrorism. This will probably result in the continued increase in criminal activity.
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