Terrorism isn’t cheap.
Security expert Derek Humble says al Qaeda, Islamic State, Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab have underwritten their efforts to become the most prominent terror groups in the world by combining criminal tactics like blackmail and extortion, with the most radical marketing strategy of all: extreme violence.
Humble says each group has its own effective methods of funding terror, but all of them share three things in common.
“You’ve got to have three things to be a successful terrorist group,” Humble told CTV’s Canada AM on Thursday. “You’ve got to have funding, you’ve got to have recruits, and you’ve got to have marketing.”
Humble says each terror group achieves those three aims in different ways.
Al Qaeda
Humble says al Qaeda is very business-like in how it handles its operations and money streams.
“They’ve designed and have implemented a franchise program,” Humble said. He points out al Qaeda leadership is based in Pakistan, but maintains ties to several terror cells in North Africa through sponsorship from afar.
“They learn through their processes how to fund things, how to spend money, how to recruit money and how that money helps them in recruitment,” he said.
Humble cited the example of a Canadian diplomat who was once kidnapped and held for ransom by an al Qaeda-linked group in Algeria. He said the Algerian terror cell was initially ready to accept payment for their hostage, but al Qaeda leadership pressured the group to up its demands before release.
“They are very, very hands on,” he said.
Islamic State
ISIS has swept across Iraq and Syria since last summer, seizing major cities and major oil wells to finance its aggressive terrorist agenda of establishing an Islamic State.
But Humble says ISIS maintains its power because it’s not beholden to the controls and restrictions of a national government. Essentially, he says, ISIS is a criminal organization running its own country.
“Imagine if the mafia ran Toronto. Everybody would be extorted, everybody would be paying, everybody would be doing what they’re told,” he said.
Humble says ISIS blackmails or extorts the Iraqis and Syrians under its thrall and adds to its finances by selling oil and looted artifacts on the black market.
ISIS has also quickly developed a reputation as a brutal organization, which Humble says only helps the group with marketing and recruitment. The organization has gone public with many gruesome executions, including beheadings and the burning alive of a Jordanian pilot.
“Violence sells,” Humble said.
Boko Haram
The Nigerian terror group Boko Haram made international headlines last year with the abduction of hundreds of Nigerian women and girls.
Humble says Boko Haram makes its money by doing whatever it wants in the “lawless” areas of Northern Africa, where it capitalizes on political strife. “The bigger the area they’re in, the more difficult to police and control.”
He says Boko Haram has also established links with Al Qaeda in order to gain credibility in the public eye.
“Really, Boko Haram is a criminal organization that’s exploiting what is really a war-torn and almost uncontrollable environment,” he said.
Al-Shabab
Al-Shabab threatened the West Edmonton Mall and several other shopping centres in North America earlier this month, but the group is better-known for its terror tactics against African targets.
The Africa-based al-Shabab organization makes much of its money off Somalians living abroad, Humble said. “There’s a lot of Somali ex-pats around the world,” he said.
Those expatriates often leave family behind in Somalia or Ethiopia, and those family members essentially become collateral for al-Shabab members to extort money.
“They’re in trouble if you don’t funnel money back,” Humble said.
