NCJ Number
223587
Journal
Studies in Conflict and Terrorism Volume: 31 Issue: 6 Dated: June 2008 Pages: 481-498
Date Published
June 2008
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This article examines the nature of terrorism-for-profit groups and their growing trend in the United States.
Abstract
Criminality now pervades almost every terrorist group, but only a handful is in it just for the money. These are the groups that pose a peripheral but increasingly real threat to the United States’ ability to combat terrorism: those with little ideological honesty who profit from crime using rhetoric they do not care much about. Through loss of leadership, a changing historical moment, or the sheer lure of fistfuls of cash, politics and ideology bow to commerce, becoming nothing more than attractive facades that can pave the way to recruitment and cooperation with other, more-principled organizations. For-profit terrorism is a burgeoning, but under-the-radar trend. Terrorism-for-profit is criminal activity, kidnapping, banditry, looting, or smuggling, legitimated by an ideological veneer. There are indications that the pernicious problem of terrorism-for-profit will not soon vanish. By analyzing some of the other terrorist groups that focus solely on financial gain, it is possible to gain a clearer picture of the development of this type of terrorism. This article analyzes the political conditions that can lead a group to metamorphose from the ideological to the political. In order to establish the nature of the for-profit terrorist threat, it examines the types of strategies these groups employ. It then turns to the growing cooperation among for-profit terrorist groups and their more ideological counterparts. It concludes with a look at how an understanding of this phenomenon might inform counterterrorism policies. 3 figures, and 72 notes