Financial crime, terror and subversion
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13590790410809356 |
| Published date | 01 October 2004 |
| Date | 01 October 2004 |
| Pages | 363-365 |
| Author | Raymond E. Kendall |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance |
Financial Crime, Terror and Subversion
Raymond E. Kendall
INTRODUCTION
Immediately after the terrible destruction of the
World Trade Center there were signs that almost all
countries in the world had come to terms with a
rude awakening to a serious threat of world dimen-
sions and that there was recognition of an urgent
necessity not only to take action in relation to the
New York events but also to eliminate the perpetra-
tors and their accomplices and supporters, as well as
to prevent any such actions ever being committed in
the future.
It was very clear that the victim country, the USA,
had no choice but to take immediate and serious
action, including military intervention in Afghanistan
with or without a UN Security Council Resolution. It
is regrettable that from that point on the opportunity
was missed to establish a truly international response to
the real threats of an `evil' (to use the term of President
Bush) nature to world society as a whole, and not to
continue to pay lip-service to structures which have
been painstakingly and painfully put in place since
the Second World War.
The United Nations Organisation (UN) was set up
with the essential aim of maintaining world peace, and
it is fair to say that it has made progress, even if this has
been slow, in achieving this objective. An interna-
tional organisation is the sum total of its members
and it is they and not the organisation that should
assume the responsibility for failures.
RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE UNITED
NATIONS
How satisfying it would have been if the UN had been
given the responsibility for the follow-up action after
US intervention in Afghanistan or that the group of
countries that wished to take part in or put resources
into Afghanistan had accepted to do so under the
aegis of the UN and that any arrested perpetrators
were dealt with by the International Tribunal in
The Hague, having extended its mandate to cover
crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the
world. No one would argue that the destruction of
the World Trade Center with its number of victims
could not be classed as a crime against humanity irre-
spective of the ethnic origin or the claimed religious
motive of the perpetrators.
The opportunity also presented itself to go back to
square one and re-visit the issue of the threats which
face our societies today, one of which happens to be
terrorism. There is a risk that by concentrating
eorts on terrorism the phenomenon becomes iso-
lated, and there is no understanding that the response
to terrorism is similar if not identical to the response
in relation to other threats.
TheG7, now G8, estab lished many years ago that the
greatest threats faced are those of organised crime, drug
tracking and terrorism and they adopted certain
recommendations and actions against these threats. It
remains to be seen whether the resources and measures
were sucient and eective. Most strategists would
say that having identi®ed the threat it must be assessed
and according to the assessment, they would ®nd the
means necessary to combat it.
Now further down the road from the event, it is
appropriate to consider the full impact of the fallout
and it should be easier to speak of the control of the
risk in a destabilised world economy. The very recog-
nition of the nature of today's environment is the
essential starting point for managing tomorrow's
risk. The word `war' has often been used, and indeed
is currently being used to describe the ®ght against dif-
ferent forms of criminality, but is it really meant in
relation to the extent of the resources that will be
put into `®ghting the war'?
A THREAT TO SOCIETY
Organised crime, drug tracking and terrorism,
which can be regarded as a particularly pernicious
form of organised criminal activity, represent the
single most subversive threat to societies and democra-
cies, at least as dangerous as the threat from a foreign
power. The threat is a threat against the state and the
rule of law. Since the Cold War situation no longer
exists this threat is the only real threat of a serious inim-
ical nature. If the attack against it can be assimilated
into a war then the resources should at the very least
be equal to national defence budgets, and if the
threat is to be countered at international level those
Page 363
Journal of Financial Crime Ð Vol. 11 No. 4
Journalof FinancialCrime
Vol.11,No. 4,2004,pp. 363 ±365
#HenryStewart Publications
ISSN1359-0790
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