A Canadian has been charged in the US with being an ISIS fighter, as well as providing material support to ISIS and producing, editing and disseminating ISIS material for approximately five years. He is alleged to be the narrator in some of the more gruesome ISIS videos of beheadings. The Canadian, Mohammed Khalifa, was captured […]
The G7 released a special statement on financial crime, promising to re-double its efforts from the last 12 months on ending financial crime, in particular terrorist financing and international money laundering involving transnational criminal organizations. Every year there is a commitment to these goals but this time, the G7 has promised to turn their statements “into […]
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released its annual Worldwide Threat Assessment on May 11, 2017, from the US Intelligence Community and compared to last year, there are many more international threats to world security. The Threat Assessment from the US is a summary of all of the threats facing the US, and […]
On June 16, 2016, the Director of the CIA testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in respect of the Islamic State (ISIS), terrorism and technology generally. Here is an executive summary: The CIA said there there has never been a time when there is such a “dizzying” array of national security issues and […]
Summary of the Updates The US House Committee on Homeland Security released a number of updates and received testimony on the status of terrorist financing, terrorism and money laundering in the last few weeks with some interesting developments relevant to banks in terms of changes in terrorist financing typologies that should be added to anti-money […]
The Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community (the “Report“) prepared by the Director of National Intelligence on February 9, 2016, is a very interesting read from a counter-terrorism perspective, and essential reading for any bank in respect of assessing client and regional risks. Generally, the Report is dead on in respect of the […]
Fake refugees — A crisis within a crisis It seems to becoming clear that it is not reasonably possible to rely on the identity documents of any persons who claim Syrian or Iraqi refugee status from 2014 onwards, the time in which the Islamic State acquired the capacity to create authentic passports. Since at least […]
The news last month that the couple responsible for the San Bernadino shooting had received a P2P loan for $28,000 from an online lender, Prosper Marketplace, was cause for concern among financial crime regulators. It was cause for concern because some financial regulators were of the view that a typology for terrorist financing is the […]
In this story in Quartz, we explore how a new US law, HR158, the Visa Waiver Program Improvement Amendment Act 2015, will result in journalists and humanitarian aid works, and many others being branded a terrorist risk for visiting Iraq, Syria, Iran and the Sudan, and how the new law will affect the ability of […]
Francois Molins, France’s top prosecutor, says that the risk of terrorism is becoming larger, more multi-faceted and complex. In this interview (en francais), Maitre Molins talks about the threat of terrorism in France and some of the investigation and prosecution challenges in respect of counter-terrorism. No reason for optimism in terrorism Mr. Molins said that […]