Terrorism: Funding

Wednesday, 17 August 2011

Funding

State sponsors have constituted a major form of funding; for example, Palestine Liberation Organization, Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and some other terrorist groups were funded by the Soviet Union.^[110]^[111] The Stern Gang received funding from Italian Fascist officers in Beirut to undermine the British Mandate for Palestine.^[112]
"Revolutionary tax" is another major form of funding, and essentially a euphemism for "protection money".^[110] Revolutionary taxes are typically extorted from businesses, and they also "play a secondary role as one other means of intimidating the target population".^[110]
Other major sources of funding include kidnapping for ransoms, smuggling, fraud and robbery.^[110]
The Financial Action Task Force is an inter-governmental body whose mandate, since October 2001, has included combatting terrorist financing.^[113]

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Media exposure may be a primary goal of those carrying out terrorism, to expose issues that would otherwise be ignored by the media. Some consider this to be manipulation and exploitation of the media.[117] The internet has created a new channel for groups to spread their messages. This has created a cycle of measures and counter measures by groups in support of and in opposition to terrorist movements. The United Nations has created its own online counter-terrorism resource.[118] The mass media will, on occasion, censor organizations involved in terrorism (through self-restraint or regulation) to discourage further terrorism. However, this may encourage organizations to perform more extreme acts of terrorism to be shown in the mass media. Conversely James F. Pastor explains the significant relationship between terrorism and the media, and the underlying benefit each receives from the other.[119] There is always a point at which the terrorist ceases to manipulate the media gestalt. A point at which the violence may well escalate, but beyond which the terrorist has become symptomatic of the media gestalt itself. Terrorism as we ordinarily understand it is innately media-related. —Novelist William Gibson[120]