As vice chair of the House Financial Services Committee and head of the Subcommittee on Oversight & Investigations, Congresswoman Sue Kelly has taken a leadership role in U.S. efforts to shut down terrorism funding networks around the world.

 

The fight against terrorist financing goes hand-in-hand with the War on Terror. Before carrying out attacks, terrorists need funds for housing, recruitment, training, supplies, weapons, and travel. Terrorists transmit these funds across the globe through a wide variety of alternative funding systems that range from charities to commonplace criminal activity such as drug peddling and illegal cigarette sales.

 

"We must do everything we possibly can to strip terrorists of their financial resources," Kelly says.

 

While the U.S. and our allies have frozen millions of dollars in terrorist funds since 9/11, much work still lies ahead. Terrorists continue to successfully distribute their blood money, in some cases through accounts in our own financial institutions.

 

Congresswoman Kelly founded the bipartisan Congressional Anti-Terrorist Financing Task Force in 2004 to bring a more centralizing focus on U.S. efforts against terrorist financing.

 

Kelly remains at the forefront of Congressional efforts to eradicate terrorist financing. "We must keep pace with evil terrorist financiers who have cunning and intricate ways to hide their money and transmit their funds to carry out terrorist attacks," Kelly says. "By stopping the flow of terrorist money, we can lessen the threat of terrorism to our communities."

 

* Kelly Congressional Hearings on Terrorist Financing *

 

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