T

he recent church bombing in Solo on Sept. 25 at the Bethel Injil Sepenuh Church (GBIS) once again reminded us of the imminent threat of terrorism.

Twenty-eight people were injured in the incident and a man who was believed to be the suicide bomber was found dead inside the church. Indonesian authorities believe that the attack may have been connected to the bombing in Cirebon in April.

The bombing took place in the same month as the world’s commemoration of the decade anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy. Whether or not the two incidents are connected is yet to be revealed.

The issues of terrorism cover a wide range of areas such as terrorist recruitment, the mechanisms of terrorist attacks, training and other mechanisms. Numerous studies have been devoted to understanding such matters to find the most appropriate solutions to the problem. Experts have found that terrorist attacks, however devastating, are merely the “tip of an iceberg” of the actual problem. With the advance of information technology, crimes have evolved into more global and coordinated actions than before and terrorism is not an exception.

The availability of cyberspace as a means of communication and coordination among criminals has enabled them to transcend, among other things, traditional geographical and social boundaries.

According the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), for example, there has been evidence of criminal organizations laundering money for drug trafficking organizations that sell weapons to terrorists. On the other hand, some terrorists are also committing white-collar crimes to support their operations.

These also suggest that despite terrorism’s evolution, one thing remains constant: the need for funding. This is to say that terrorists must have effective financial infrastructure that includes sources of funding as well as the means to make them available through, for example, money-laundering channels.

Frauds of various kinds are known to be among the most common means terrorists use to finance their operations. For example, according to a 2008 report on terrorist financing by the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), there is a market for illegally obtained personal details such as credit card account numbers, as well as personal information such as the cardholder’s full name, billing address, telephone number, start and expiry dates and the security number on the back of the card, to name a few.

The underground market for, among other things, buying and selling stolen information resembles real world markets in the sense that the former also exhibits the existence of supply and demand conditions for its “goods” and “services” as well as elements such as “producers”, “traders”, “service providers” and “customers”. Such a market can be utilized by terrorists to, for example, obtain credit cards or credit card details illegally for financing their activities.

Furthermore, as suggested by the FATF’s report on terrorist financing in reference to cases such as the first Bali bombing in 2002, the Jakarta JW Marriott Hotel bombing in 2003, the Madrid train bombings in 2004 and the London public transportation bombings in 2005, the cost of carrying out such attacks are considered to be “cheap” compared to the devastating effects they can inflict. This should signify the importance of countering terrorists’ financing activities.

Experts believe that a traditional approach to combating crime, which tends to be routine and reactive in nature, is no longer applicable to the case of modern day terrorism. Cutting off terrorists from their funding is among the strategies employed these days by law enforcement agencies around the globe.

Understanding the “enemy” is also an important principle in countering modern day terrorism. Law enforcers should always keep their eyes on how terrorists evolve over time be able to formulate and execute the most appropriate strategy to prevent and counter their attacks. For example, as the “crime triangle” model suggests, a crime will likely occur in a location where victims are available and capable guardians are absent.

In other words, crime is a convergence of three elements, perpetrator, victim and a location without capable guardian. Many terrorist
attacks happen because of a presence of these three elements. Professor Paul E. Connell of the Iona College, New York, argues that since terrorists always seek to exploit deficiencies in our protection, we are therefore only as strong as our weakest link.

With the understanding of how terrorist organizations work, available resources can then be utilized effectively and efficiently. On the other hand, our understanding of our own strengths and weaknesses will enable us to formulate sound prevention strategies against terrorist attacks.

As the great master of strategy, Sun Tzu, once said, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of
a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

The writer is the director of the Center for Forensic Accounting Studies at the Department of Accounting of the Islamic University of Indonesia, Yogyakarta. He has a master’s degree and PhD in forensic accounting from the University of Wollongong, Australia.