TERRORIST
FINANCING AND MONEY LAUNDERING INVESTIGATIONS
A Global Enterprise
05/11/04
Today Mike Morehart,
Chief of the FBI's Terrorist Financing Operations Section, testified before
a House of Representatives' Government Reform Subcommittee on a very specific
topic: the who, what, how, and where of U.S. efforts to identify
terrorists and terrorist cells by following their money trails...and to
stop their plans before the bomb goes off.
We encourage you to read
his testimony because it answers, in very specific terms, many of
the questions that people are asking and trying to understand.
For example:
- What specific mechanisms
are in place to block terrorist assets worldwide?
- How do U.S. agencies
coordinate their efforts to assist countries whose financial systems
are vulnerable to terrorist exploitation?
- What specific procedures
have U.S. law enforcement agencies put in place to focus their investigations,
using the universe of financial information?
- How have specific
tools provided in Title III of the U.S.A. Patriot Act (it's "International
Money Laundering Anti-Terrorist Financing Act of 2001") assisted
the effort to identify previously unknown terrorist cells and seize their
assets?
Mike Morehart also addresses
the specific taskings of his Terrorist Financing Operations Section--which
never takes its eye off money trails. Its mission?
- To conduct full financial
analysis of terrorist suspects and their financial support structures
in the U.S. and abroad.
- To enlarge its financial
information base through private, government, and international sources.
- To directly share
and work with the financial information of international law enforcement
agencies.
- To work shoulder
to shoulder on cases with prosecutors; with law enforcement and regulatory
communities; and with the intelligence community.
- To develop predictive
models and conduct data analysis that will lead to the identification
of previously unknown terrorist suspects.
He makes no bones about
it: "The key to achieving the mission of prevention lies in exploiting
financial information to identify previously unknown or undetected terrorists
and terrorist cells."
Read his complete
testimony for all the details.
