Terrorist Financing: The 9/11 Commission Recommendation

RS21902 -- Terrorist Financing: The 9/11 Commission Recommendation

Updated February 25, 2005

Summary

Although efforts to seize terrorist funds have met with some success, in July 2004, the 9/11 Commission asserted that the likelihood of being able to continue freezing funds may diminish as terrorists seek increasingly more informal methods of earning and moving money. The financial support of terrorism involves both earning funds, through legal and illegal means, and the illicit movement of money to terrorist groups. The Commission recommended that the U.S. government shift the focus of its efforts to counter terrorist financing from a strategy based on seizing terrorist assets to a strategy based on exploiting intelligence gathered from financial investigations. This report will be updated as events require.