Socom tracking money that funds violent extremists

[BMT (RIP)]

http://tbo.com/list/military-news/al...ists-20150329/

BMT

[MtnGoat]

Good Read.

Islamic State is a cash-based organization, semi-closed and isolated from the global economic system. It makes money by selling petroleum, through ransoms, looting antiquities and taxing the people in the land it’s captured. But having the wherewithal to transmit funds via cryptocurrency is difficult for the organization, says Potter.

I feel Islamic State isn't using it because they know it is a lot easier to track the transfer of cryptocurrency over paper currency. Some Countries are even looking at combining cryptocurrency with paper currency due with cryptocurrency not being counterfeited as easy as paper currencies.

Look at it this way. With Snowden tell the world our "Secrets" on tracking people, now that same information being sent via carrier pigeons. Carrier Pigeons do take longer, but is it more secure? I can take a micro-SD Card or a Mini-SIM Phone Card; fill it with information and the pigeon is the mechanism for delivery not the internet. Cryptocurrency are computer based, paper currencies are pigeons based IMO.

Many government agencies are not training their analysts in the intelligence or defense communities to think about the convergence of commerce, economics and threats. This skill gap represents a challenge confronting law enforcement and national security authorities.

This is so true with Counter-Threat Finance side of things, we don't have Military Intelligence Analyst that can look at the Finance side. I did a product on analysis VBIEDs in a country, based off two "NEW" TTPs. I analysis more of the Dual-use IED Components procurement over the IED Production cell Networks. My way of looking at the "Problem" was to stopped or slowed down the "Auxiliary" and "Underground" facilitation support cells, Finance or Logistical LOCs, for the IED Production Networks. I got more question over WHY I went down this "road." Closed minded people IMO. We don't have enough Military Intelligence Analyst that can look at the Finance side of any Network system.

Joker - I like who gave the interview too.

[jiggz23]

crypto-currencies (CC) such as bitcoin are becoming more sophisticated. a user can generate a private key, with access to all his/her CC, on a platform that has never been on the internet and then use various public keys for any online transactions. With the use of open source operating systems such as Ubuntu a user can create a virtual machine within the operating system and log on to any number of global vpn's to mask their IP address and conduct transactions.

CC is in its infancy however, these users will continue to adapt and make this technology more secure and widespread.

Stay vigilant.

[mark46th]

Wouldn't the NSA already be tracking these guys? I guess no sharing of info...

[MtnGoat]

Originally Posted by mark46th

Wouldn't the NSA already be tracking these guys? I guess no sharing of info...

I would think, and hope everyone (3 and 4 letter Agencies) would be tracking and following the money.

[craigepo]

I wonder who will track the money that goes to Iran via the new nuclear treaty?

[Flagg]

I was a bit shocked at how fast/effective hawala can be.

"Manually"(using trusted networks and mobile phones) transferring it from A to B.

Two examples got me:

1)A couple of local national folks working with us got caught in a pass during a snowstorm.

Pashtunwali only went so far as the locals they were holed up with were dirt poor.

Local fixers got some old dude nearby in the hawala network on a donkey to deliver some Affs.

2)When discussing with some local money changers, they said it's no different internationally and provided several examples of money(I assume just debit/credit) being transferred back and forth from Afghan to Australia(locals from that province had moved to Aussie previously).

What I never had the chance to learn about was how they reconciled credit/debit imbalances in their trusted hawala networks.

-----

Here in NZ, about 2 years ago money transfer between NZ and Somalia(we unfortunately have a small and problematic Somali refugee community) was disrupted.

[PRB]

I knew an intel agency that was (prob is) doing the same 15 years ago.
Ever wonder how Muhammad could afford that 7/11 in the seedy part of town after just arriving in the States?
10% of all profits went to the org that set his family up...for life...Hammas, etc.
They were all fronted the cash as an investment.

[Flagg]

Originally Posted by PRB

I knew an intel agency that was (prob is) doing the same 15 years ago.
Ever wonder how Muhammad could afford that 7/11 in the seedy part of town after just arriving in the States?
10% of all profits went to the org that set his family up...for life...Hammas, etc.
They were all fronted the cash as an investment.

I never really thought about it in terms of illicit networks being the seed investors for small legitimate enterprises, then putting the screws on them…like Dr Evil setting up a venture capital/private equity branch of his illicit network.

I guess one of the hard parts would be to strip away and differentiate all those legitimate 1st generation immigrants building the American Dream(often outside of traditional banking arrangements by family financial pooling) from the bad guys.

Or the bad guys hiding behind otherwise innocent immigrants.

I'm guessing it's a tough one as 1st gen US immigrants(or at least just subsets of them based on ethnicity/country of origin) are off the charts, positive outliers for entrepreneurial success in the US(as per Thomas Stanley's research on wealth in the US).

They are the engine room of wealth/job creation for the US, but a few may represent a strategic threat(as opposed to just the more common localised criminal threat).

[Joker]

Originally Posted by MtnGoat

I would think, and hope everyone (3 and 4 letter Agencies) would be tracking and following the money.

Ha! Too much moving for the G to see it all.

bc, if you store it and move it online using wallets yeah folks can see it. Now, put it on a USB drive and give it to me and no one can track it.

[Flagg]

Originally Posted by Joker

Ha! Too much moving for the G to see it all.

bc, if you store it and move it online using wallets yeah folks can see it. Now, put it on a USB drive and give it to me and no one can track it.

One of the things Customs down here is working on is compelling passwords for electronic devices for clearing customs.

I get the part about objectionable material and abuse of minors.

But I wonder if it's primarily focused on hybrid physical movement of crypto currencies across borders?

I've heard and read about bit coin, but I've never met anyone that I know of who has bought/sold anything with crypto currencies.

I would guess if crypto currencies took off in any meaningful way, even if customs can better compel access, the needle/haystack problem doesn't change much, and the market for hidden data storage mediums would explode.

[Joker]

You can store electronic money, either tied to an account or virtual currency, on anything magnetic. Hotel keys, mp3/IPOD, USB, and you can put inside a file where it is hidden. Send it to yourself in an email.

[Trapper John]

Originally Posted by Flagg

I never really thought about it in terms of illicit networks being the seed investors for small legitimate enterprises, then putting the screws on them…like Dr Evil setting up a venture capital/private equity branch of his illicit network.

I guess one of the hard parts would be to strip away and differentiate all those legitimate 1st generation immigrants building the American Dream(often outside of traditional banking arrangements by family financial pooling) from the bad guys.

Or the bad guys hiding behind otherwise innocent immigrants.

I'm guessing it's a tough one as 1st gen US immigrants(or at least just subsets of them based on ethnicity/country of origin) are off the charts, positive outliers for entrepreneurial success in the US(as per Thomas Stanley's research on wealth in the US).

They are the engine room of wealth/job creation for the US, but a few may represent a strategic threat(as opposed to just the more common localised criminal threat).

Nothing new here. This is the old Mafia modus opperendi.

BTW, you defeat it the same old fashioned way - infiltration plus HUMINT. But idiots like DeBlassio et al just don't want to offend anyone. The Don's of yesteryear would have loved him.

[Flagg]

Originally Posted by Trapper John

Nothing new here. This is the old Mafia modus opperendi.

BTW, you defeat it the same old fashioned way - infiltration plus HUMINT. But idiots like DeBlassio et al just don't want to offend anyone. The Don's of yesteryear would have loved him.

Yeah. I figured it would require Organized Crime/LE best practices.

I hope the newer immigrant communities affected can be penetrated faster.

[Trapper John]

Originally Posted by Flagg

Yeah. I figured it would require Organized Crime/LE best practices.

I hope the newer immigrant communities affected can be penetrated faster.

If there is a will! I for one am not so sure about that.