Financing Terrorism and Why It is Taken Seriously

Financing Terrorism
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Financing Terrorism
Terrorism has always been the greatest threat to the security and peace of a nation. The repercussion of terror activities is fatal to any given nation. Terrorism disrupts a nation's economy, causes loss of life, and affects the stability of a nation. Thus, for counterterrorism, nations integrate intelligent measures to avoid the occurrence of terror activities. Terrorism activities require substantial finances to carry out their activities. Thus one of the primary counters to terrorism is by disrupting terrorist financing. This paper seeks to conduct a comparative study of the United Kingdom and the United States of America and explore the most effective strategies to disrupt terrorist financing.
On September 11, 2001, three civilian airliners hijacked by terrorists crashed into the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon near Washington, United States. The horrific terrorist attack shocked the world and became a turning point in the United Nations' fight against terrorist financing. Before 911, the U.N. concentrated on the fight against narcotics and not terrorism financing. 
The United Kingdom (U.K.)
The United Kingdom, unlike other nations, has always had policies in place for counterterrorism. According to the United Kingdom government, the greatest terror threat is the Al Qaida Core, A.Q. Islamic Maghreb, A.Q. Arab Peninsula, Al-Nusrah Front, Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, and other affiliates group of these associations (Ryder et al., 2018. 781). These terrorist groups find multiple ways to access funds under six criteria: amount, legitimacy, security, reliability, control, and simplicity (Freeman, 2011). Mainly, these terror groups find their finances through fraud, self-funding, and other proceeds of crime. Therefore, financial counterterrorism, together with diplomatic, judicial, intelligence, and military counterterrorism, constitutes the current five strategies of the international community to deal with terrorism.
After 911, the United Kingdom adopted effective ways to disrupt terrorism financing and reduce the threat of terror attacks:
1 Regime sanctions on countries that the U.K. suspects to be a potential threat to the nation or where Financial Action Task Force has advised with reasonable reasons.
2 Financial intelligence, in which the U.K. is mandated to report any money laundering case.
3 The U.K. is mandated by UNSCR 1373 to freeze all assets of persons and institutions presumed of financial terrorism. Once the asset is frozen, it is illegal for anyone to use the resources for whatever purpose, and it becomes U.K.'s resources.
4 According to The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and the Terrorism Act of 2000, Law enforcement officers have the authority to confiscate and forfeit assets and profits of terror organizations in the U.K.
5 Finally, harsh sentencing of up to fourteen years is imposed on individuals found guilty of financing terrorism. 
United States of America
The United States paid more attention to terrorism financing after 911 than before. The United States established special departments investigating, identifying, and enforcing terror financ...