Terrorist Financing

After the September 11 attacks, the highest-level U.S. government officials publicly declared that the fight against al Qaeda financing was as critical as the fight against al Qaeda itself. It has been presented as one of the keys to success in the fight against terrorism: if we choke off the terrorists' money, we limit their ability to conduct mass casualty attacks. In reality, completely choking off the money to al Qaeda and affiliated terrorist groups has been essentially impossible. At the same time, tracking al Qaeda financing has proven a very effective way to locate terrorist operatives and supporters and to disrupt terrorist plots. As a result, the U.S. terrorist financing strategy has changed from the early post-9/11 days. Choking off the money remains the most visible aspect of our approach, but it is not our only, or even most important, goal. Ultimately, making it harder for terrorists to get money is a necessary, but not sufficient, component of our overall strategy. Following the money to identify terrorist operatives and sympathizers provides a particularly powerful tool in the fight against terrorist groups. Use of this tool almost always remains invisible to the general public, but it is a critical part of the overall campaign against al Qaeda. Moreover, the U.S. government recognizes appropriately, in the Commission staff's view that terrorist-financing measures are simply one of many tools in the fight against al Qaeda.