1. Follow the Money: Leveraging Financial Intelligence to Combat Transnational Threats
- Author:
- Matthew Levitt
- Publication Date:
- 02-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
- Institution:
- Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- In July 2006 al-Qaeda nearly executed what would have been its most devastating terrorist attack since 9/11. A group of British citizens had planned to detonate liquid explosives aboard at least ten airliners en route from the United Kingdom to the United States and Canada. British authorities were able to foil the plot, in large part because of critical financial intelligence. As a result they quickly announced plans to increase the use of financial intelligence tools to disrupt future terrorist operations. "Our aim is simple," then-Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown asserted. "Just as there be no safe haven for terrorists, so there be no hiding place for those who finance terrorism."
- Political Geography:
- United States, United Kingdom, and Canada