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The Connection Newspapers -
Follow the Money
By Michael Walsh

John Cassara writes book on terrorism finance.

Northern Virginia area resident John Cassara has a way to win the War on Terror. "It's simple," said Cassara, a 26-year veteran of U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies. "If there is no money, there is no terrorism."

That seemingly simple reasoning is something that Cassara explores in his new book, "Hide and Seek: Intelligence, Law Enforcement and the Stalled War on Terrorism Finance," published by Potomac Books and released last June. While the issue of terrorism finance is a daunting one, filled with acts, laws and loopholes, Cassara says he is trying to explain the way terrorists get their funds and circumvent the governments of the world — in terms anyone can understand. "It's not really written for my peers," Cassara said. "It's really written for the lay person because what I try to do is try to explain to the lay person how the intelligence community works overseas."

Cassara entered the Central Intelligence Agency in his early 20s as an analyst, with designs on moving toward the clandestine side of the intelligence community. "I wanted to be a spy," Cassara said. "And I was lucky enough to get it. So I was a case officer overseas for about five years." After working for the CIA and the Treasury Department, Cassara went into the money laundering field overseas, using the simply M.O. — "follow the money." But it wasn't just any body's money he was following. "For the next six years from 1990-'96, I worked in Rome, Italy," Cassara said. "I headed up what was the first international money laundering task force; it was between the U.S. and Italians ... and what we were doing was examining Italian-American organized crime, the Mafia by looking at money flows ... That was fun." While moving around more than 20 countries in his six years with the task force, Cassara said he began noticing something that would have a huge effect on American security in the next decade.

"I saw a lot of things that gave me cause for concern," Cassara said. "Particularly the area of what I call underground finance. Dubai figured prominently in many of my investigations, so I told the government we needed to start looking harder at Dubai. As an aside, Dubai figured prominently in 9-11." Cassara then left Rome and came to Northern Virginia to work for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FCEN) where he was charged with gathering financial intelligence. It was there that Cassara began to notice a disconnect between government agencies, something that he blames on the "culture of the bureaucracies." "I was very frustrated prior to 9-11," Cassara said. "Because a lot of the underground systems I saw overseas, financial intelligence wasn't capturing that." "[After 9-11] Collectively as a U.S. Government we've done some really good things," he added. "But we're not successful yet in following terrorist finance . Which is why I call it the 'Stalled War on Terrorist Finance.'" Brett Wolf, an anti-money laundering consultant with New York- and London-based Complinet Inc., agrees. "The USA PATRIOT Act, which Congress enacted shortly after the 9/11 attacks, mandated a number of safeguards intended to prevent drug money launderers and terrorism financiers from accessing the U.S. financial system," Wolf said. "Congress did not address a number of 'back doors' to the financial system," however, such as the misuse of international trade to move wealth in and out of the country. Cassara argues that while good things have been done, the United States is still set up to fight the 1970s War on Drugs instead of the War on Terrorism.

"THEY'RE AWARE of those," said Cassara, about the Bank Secrecy Act and other financial reporting requirements in the U.S. "They know what the reporting requirements are and they know how to circumvent them ... Again, the financial system was set up to fight the War on Narcotics not the War on Terrorism; they have completely different aims. To be able to launder large amounts of narcotics money, that's one thing, but terrorism breaks it down into smaller amounts of money in a way that don't trigger these financial reporting requirements." It's right in the reports. Not one BSA report was filed by any of the hi-jackers prior to 9-11. For Cassara, the problem of infiltrating these networks and putting a stop to them is simple. "[The terrorist's] cultures are totally different," Cassara said. "Traditional law enforcement techniques don't work, undercover operations don't work ... We have a long way to go to learn to catch up with some of these systems that the terrorists have constructed." Marketing consultant for Potomac Books, Claire Nobel, says that while the book has received critical acclaim from numerous sources, there has not been a boom of public interest, yet. "We haven't gotten a very big reaction yet," Nobel said. "I think it's because we haven't hit the right media to get much attention. While increased media attention would undoubtedly bring money to the project, profits are not why Cassara says he wrote the book. "I'm certainly not making a lot of money off of the book," Cassara said. "But I really wanted to put this issue out into public." Cassara has already had one book signing in Northern Virginia and is scheduled for another this month at the Pentagon.