# USA Report:  Potential for Criminal-Terrorist Nexus



## The Bread Guy (4 May 2009)

Found this interesting excerpt from a recent Congressional Research Service report on organized crime in the USA, on how criminal and terrorist organizations work together, how they differ, and where they may be (a few) grey areas in between - highlights mine.


> .... In addition to concern surrounding the many industries in which organized criminals operate, both analysts and policymakers have expressed concern about the potential nexus between organized crime and terrorism. The principal distinction authorities make between organized crime groups and terrorist groups is motivation. Money motivates organized crime, and ideology motivates terrorism. Because of this fundamental difference, the National Intelligence Council expects that between now and 2020:
> 
> _*[T]he relationship between terrorists and organized criminals will remain primarily a matter
> of business, i.e., that terrorists will turn to criminals who can provide forged documents,
> ...



Footnotes for further reading:
90 - Mapping the Global Structure, National Intelligence Council, Report of the National Intelligence Council’s 2020 Project, Based on consultations with nongovernmental experts around the world, Washington, D.C., December 2004, p. 96.
91 - Angela Veng Mei Leong, “Criminal Finance: Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing,” in The Disruption of International Organised Crime: An Analysis of Legal and Non-Legal Strategies (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2007), pp. 29-67.
92 - Gregory F. Treverton, Carl Matthies, and Karla J. Cunningham, et al., Film Piracy, Organized Crime, and Terrorism, RAND Corporation, Safety and Justice Program and the Global Risk and Security Center, 2009, http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2009/RAND_MG742.pdf.
93 - Pat Milton, “FBI Worries About an Osama-Sopranos Link,” Associated Press, October 1, 2006, http://www.redorbit.com/news/general/676652/fbi_worries_about_an_osamasopranos_link/index.html.
94 - Organized Crime Council, Overview of the Law Enforcement Strategy to Combat International Organized Crime, U.S. Department of Justice, April 2008, p. 3.
95 - Ibid.
96 - U.S. General Accounting Office, Combating Terrorism: Interagency Framework and Agency Programs to Address the Overseas Threat, GAO-03-165, May 2003, http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03165.pdf.


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