OSINT SUMMARY
Wednesday 4th November 2015, Sydney Australia revealed that it was fighting to end the money flowing to the terrorist groups.
Through its anti-money laundering agency, a total of 53 million Australian dollars is suspected to have been transacted into the terror groups in duration of one year.
The Government’s body AUSTRAC between July 2014 and June 2015 was closely monitoring 100 people ‘of interest’ and investigated 536 suspicious money transactions totaling to 53 million Australian dollars and most of which flowed to militant groups in Syria and Iraq.
The country is worried more people are involved in supporting terrorists organization and especially ISIL (acronym for the Islamic State group).
According to Justice Minister Michael Keenan while addressing reporters in Canberra, Australia government is just worried about illegal funding of terrorism but is more concerned that some elements of its citizenry might be involved in recruitment.
The country is increasingly restricting its nationals from travelling to troubled war zones in the Middle East for fear that might join the militants groups.
Home Grown Threat Concerns
While the government vows to do anything possible to stop the flow of funds into the wrong hands of terrorist organization, at least 120 Australians are believed to be in Syria and Iraq supporting the Islamic State and other terrorist-linked groups.
An estimated 160 of its citizen are also believed to be actively involved in supporting the extremist’s organizations while at home through financing and recruitment.
Home-grown extremism and attacks is a major concern to the Australia government citing it has raised the terror threat level to high while new national security laws and counter-terrorism raids are in force.
The government further aims at tightening laws that restricts movement of suspects as young people as 14 after a 15-year-old boy shot dead a police employee in early October.
“Currently, the volume of terrorism financing in Australia is linked to the number of Australians travelling to join terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq,” AUSTRAC said in its annual report presented to parliament on Tuesday.
Read Also: 200 Suspected Jihadi Intercepted and Prevented From Travelling To Middle East from Australia
