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Introduction
This article gauges whether the terrorist resourcing model (TRM), by virtue of providing a more comprehensive framework to identify sources of resourcing, effective means of response, points of intervention and most appropriate response actors, should supplant the predominant money laundering/terrorist financing (ML/TF). In the process, it improves our understanding of the actors and forms of resourcing prevalent in the Canadian terrorist supply chain. The article draws on four case studies: the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Hamas, a grouping of Al Qaeda-inspired individuals and entities under the heading "Al Qaeda inspired" and Hezbollah. The groups were selected for relevance to Canada and anticipated availability of open source data between 2001 and 2015.
The first section of the article operationalizes the ML/TF and TRM models. Observations from the four case studies make up the second section. The third section compares findings across cases. The fourth section discusses the relative value of conducting analysis through the TRM lens and counter-resourcing implications. Finally, the conclusion identifies advantages of the TRM model in enhancing counter-financing strategy.
Models
Money laundering/terrorist financing model
Pursuant to UN Security Council Resolutions 1269 (1999) and 1373 (2001) and the international impetus to combine TF with ML (Goede, 2012; Sinha, 2015), Canada passed the United Nations Suppression of Terrorism Regulations under the United Nations Act, the Anti-Terrorism Act and amended the Proceeds of Crime (ML) Act to become the Proceed of Crime (ML) and TF Act (PCMLTFA 2001). The Act amended the mandate of Canada's Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) to include information on TF. Canada thus institutionalized the treatment of TF as a subset of ML despite conceptual and substantive differences between the two. FINTRAC (2015) defines ML as "the process used to disguise the source of money or assets derived from criminal activity". The Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), the international association of entities such as FINTRAC, distinguishes intent from origins of funds destined for ML or terrorism but sees a commonality of methods to disguise funds:
While terrorists are not greatly concerned with disguising the origin of money, they are concerned with concealing its destination and the purpose for which it has been collected. Terrorists and terrorist organizations therefore employ techniques similar to those...