Table Of ContentTerrorist Financing and
Resourcing
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Terrorist Financing and Resourcing
Jodi Vittori
Terrorist Financing and
Resourcing
Jodi Vittori
TERRORIST FINANCING AND RESOURCING
Copyright © Jodi Vittori, 2011.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2011 978-0-230-11188-2
All rights reserved.
First published in 2011 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-29410-7 ISBN 978-0-230-11771-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230117716
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Vittori, Jodi.
Terrorist financing and resourcing / by Jodi Vittori.
p. cm.—(Initiatives in strategic studies: issues)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978–0–230–11188–2
1. Terrorism—Finance. I. Title.
HV6431.V5814 2010
363.325—dc22 2010035160
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: February 2011
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Transferred to Digital Printing in 2015
With Love to Pasquale and Marcus
Contents
List of Illustrations and Table ix
Acknowledgments xi
1 Introduction 1
2 Terrorism Cannot Live on Idealism Alone 13
3 Terrorist Groups’ Resourcing Menu 25
4 The Evolution of Terrorism Resourcing 51
5 The Multinationals of Terrorism 63
6 State Sponsored Groups 85
7 Medium Autonomy Groups—Franchises and
Bundled Support 99
8 Lone Wolf Groups 121
9 All the Rest—Shell States, State Sponsoring Groups,
and Transnational Corporation Groups 135
10 Conclusions 157
Notes 169
Index 223
Illustrations and Table
Illustrations
1.1 Capability versus Autonomy 9
1.2 Capability versus Autonomy for Individual Terrorist Groups 10
Table
3.1 Variations in Terrorism Resourcing 27
Acknowledgments
I
am deeply indebted to my colleagues throughout academia, the
Department of Defense, and the Intelligence Community for their
time, insights, and numerous discussions. At the United States Air
Force Academy, David Sacko, Frances Pilch, Douglas Murray, Brenda
Vallance, Kristin Bremer, and all my colleagues in the Department
of Political Science have been immensely helpful in their support—in
time, patience, and funding—in completing this project. Likewise,
the mentorship of Jonathan Adelman and Joseph Szyliowicz at
the University of Denver were invaluable from the earliest outlines
through the finished book. Jim Smith at the Air Force’s Institute for
National Security Studies provided not only the initial impetus to
rigorously study terrorism financing, but also continuous and gener-
ous support along the way. The Combating Terrorism Center’s Reid
Sawyer’s impressive knowledge of terrorism and analytical insights
were crucial to this project, without which this book could not have
been researched nor written. I am also grateful to those who made
the publication of the book possible, including Jim Wirtz and Jeff
Larson for their support as part of the series Initiatives in Strategic
Studies.
Finally, I could not have undertaken writing this book without my
family’s unceasing love and encouragement. Most important has been
the support of my husband (and chief editor) and my son, as well as
my parents and brother.
Nevertheless, the responsibility of this book and the opinions therein
are solely my own. The views expressed herein do not necessarily rep-
resent the U.S. Department of Defense nor the U.S. government.
Chapter 1
Introduction
F
ormer Texas Senator Phil Gramm once quipped that “ready money
is the mother’s milk of politics,” and what is true for legitimate politi-
cal campaigns is just as true for terrorist groups using violence for
political goals. The most successful, long-lasting terrorist groups
have amassed tremendous war chests. For example, in the 1980s, the
Palestine Liberation Organization used clever investments—both
within its own population and internationally—to acquire 5 billion
USD in assets. In turn, these yielded an annual income of 1.25 bil-
lion USD, used to maintain popular support, pay for leaders’ affluent
lifestyles, and conduct worldwide guerrilla and terrorist operations.1
More recently, Usama bin Laden took a roughly 25–50 million USD
fortune2 and, through donations and investments in construction
companies, multinational agricultural firms, and securities, acquired
a 5 billion USD economic empire3 to run a terrorist operation with
global expenditures of approximately 35 million USD per year before
9/11.4
How do terrorists obtain the financing and resourcing they need?
And how are these used to conduct actual terrorist campaigns? The
study of how these groups acquire financing and resources to sustain
themselves, conduct operations, and then live to fight another day
has been sorely neglected. This book offers a primer on how terror-
ists have acquired assets throughout history and analyzes the overall
effects of their resourcing strategies on their capabilities and target
selection. Henceforth, the term “resourcing” will be used to describe
three types of assets: (1) money or other readily liquid assets; (2) tan-
gible goods, such as life’s necessities and the items needed to conduct
attacks; and (3) intangible goods such as operational space, security,
intelligence, and some level of training and expertise.
The history of terrorism resourcing demonstrates that while groups
such as al Qaeda have been considered revolutionary because of their
