There is an urgent need to have a special Caricom forum involving key states of the region to begin exploring a unified stance and strategic intervention that complements the strengths and addresses the weaknesses of our capabilities in the Caribbean—a Caribbean Risk Threat and Vulnerability Assessment (RTVA) to determine the gaps and to begin proactively engaging all players and national security platforms to ensure a collaborative and co-ordinated approach against the global war on terrorism.
A recent breakthrough by SKY News UK with the discovery of the IS files concerning personal information of foreign terrorist fighters is a great step forward in pinpointing IS’ organised structure and platform foundations.
T&T as Caricom’s Security lead has to be proactive and intentional in intelligence management of such information. I have advocated strongly and renew calls for a special Caricom consortium on this and a review of the threats to the region. T&T needs to lead and initiate this—now.
The discoveries and files, and the electronic data are a cyber fingerprint that can reap extensive results. Once the ICT analytical approach is properly managed, manipulated and electronically explored with the finest subject matter experts that exist within our national security domain.
Amalgamation and joint operations/agency approach are necessary to get all the experts who can apply the ICT probes and software dynamics to ensure a complete information gathering process is executed.
Because terrorists operate like a business, it is important to go after them with a variety of legal measures and not just criminal law. Many countries are focusing on penal law and exploring administrative and regulatory law that would help address facilitation of terrorist business practices.
The United Nations 2014 anti-terrorism resolution, which clearly defines the initiative of T&T working closely with its international counterparts, echoed recently by the Minister of National Security, must also be firmly reiterated by local authorities, as access and interface regarding the IS documents must be initialised to guide and assist the local systems with all relevant information.
IS is financing itself primarily through the oil trade, coupled with other global illicit activities that echo the alignment of Transnational Organised Crime and Terrorism. There has been a huge transformation in international terrorism over the years. Today, there are global networks for both crime and terrorism that operate outside their borders.
Groups like IS are closer to the historical trade traditions of the Middle East than to industrial capitalism. That is why they are more focused on generating money by trading in oil, other raw materials or goods to finance their terrorist organisation. Global financial investigations and intelligence have shown they also launder their money through trade-based money laundering.
It is a fact terrorist groups and international criminals are among those who have profited from globalisation. They have successfully used the opportunities and the vanishing of borders for their own purposes and earned significant wealth.
Revenues from all these commercial operations need to be transferred from one place to the other. The Hawala system involves the transfer of money via trusted people and “underground” systems without banks or official processes. The money also intersects with the legitimate economy and trade and is a trade that interacts with the illicit economy worldwide. One must not dismiss the existence of cybercrime and cyber terrorism among the business sectors that terrorist groups participate in.
Terrorists ask themselves: how can I make money today and tomorrow? Cybercrime is part of that. There is more than a decade-long history of al-Qaeda involvement in fundraising through the Internet. This applies to IS also seen in how they use computer technologies, the Internet and social network capabilities for public relations activities, connection and recruitment.
Garvin Heerah
Former National Operations Centre head