9/11: When terrorist money looked ordinary
The financial trail of the 9/11 hijackers revealed a difficult lesson: money linked to a major attack did not necessarily look suspicious.
The 9/11 Commission estimated that the plot cost between $400,000 and $500,000, with more than $270,000 spent in the United States. The hijackers opened bank accounts in their own names and used wire transfers, debit cards, cash and ordinary purchases. No financial institution filed a Suspicious Activity Report on them, as investigators later concluded that their transactions alone gave banks little reason to do so.
Financial records became more useful once investigators knew who they were looking for. Bank accounts, ATM withdrawals and payments helped investigators identify addresses, locations and connections. After the attacks, the USA PATRIOT Act expanded requirements for identifying customers and sharing financial information, while the Financial Action Task Force expanded its work on terrorist financing. Attempts to create a financial profile that could identify future terrorists, however, failed because ordinary activities such as paying tuition, travelling or receiving international transfers could not reliably distinguish a suspect from anyone else.
This story is written and edited by the Global South World team, you can contact us here.
