PUBLIC SERVICES LEVEL 3
A2U8
P4-M2
DISCUSS THE METHODS USED BY KEY TERRORIST
ORGANISATIONS?
To prevent international counter terrorism the UK uses some specific methods like financial
measures, trade and sporting sanctions, direct retaliation and the US led war on terrorism.
Financial measures consist of the UK working with the US Security Council and EU to prevent
the financing of international terrorism by introducing measures to prevent the flow of money.
Their aim is to make sure that people that are suspected of terroristic activity do not have access
to large amount of cash, because this can have a huge impact on the action’s terrorist can take.
To make sure this does not happens has passed its own legislation, which grants powers to
freeze assets and prevent money being transferred to terrorists and those suspected of
terrorism. These restrictions can be used in order to force an individual or group to change
behaviour, deny access to resources and show the UK’s disapproval of actions. An example of
this will be UK’s involvement in Syria and Iraq against ISIS, in fact the UK private and public co-
operation with the banking industry to ensure that ISIS is denied access to the official financial
system.
These methods are effective because the UK and the rest of the nations involved have managed
to decrease the amount of money that ISIS is getting, but at the same time, even if the ISIS is not
receiving a lot of money because of this methods, they are still doing attacks and they are still
managing to get the weapons that they need. In fact, they still are getting money through the
hawala system, which is used to transfer cash between places where the banking system is
broken down or too expensive. US and UK funded projects have sent millions of dollars in these
countries using Hawala system, in order to pay humanitarian organizations, but this system is
run by Abu Shawkat, so indirectly the money is going to the ISIS, and we are sending it. This is a
clear statement that proves that this method is not working. The problem with this method is
that they are trying to track any big amount transferred there, but they are not taking under
case the money sent for fundraising or by funded organisations, this money can still be used by
terrorists. They should track ALL the money that goes in these countries and make sure it arrives
to people that are legally entitles to it. Another disadvantage is that UN does not have the right
to stop anyone from sending or receiving money, and if someone is sending money to terrorist
groups they can track him, but they will always find new ways of receiving money, for example
Osama Bin Laden, a Muslim extremist that now is dead, funded another terrorist group (Al-
Qaida). An advantage will be that this financial cut will mean difficulty in finding weapons and
equipment, and this will mean that they will not be able to any major attacks, and this will lead
to less casualties. A possibility is that these terrorist attacks get funding from somewhere else so
there will be no point for the UN in cutting the funding, they should find the other source where
they get money from, this could be another nation as well.