An Economic Analysis of the Financial Records of al-Qa'ida in Iraq
Peter Giannakouris (AP Photo of Cover Image) Santa Monica, CA: RAND National Defense Research Institute, 2010. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Trade paperback. xxii, 92 pages. Appendix. Bibliography. Illustrations (Figures and Tables with some color). Benjamin Bahney is a political scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) where he brings laboratory technical expertise to bear on national security issues in the areas of space, cyber and advanced science and technology. His research interests include strategic stability, deterrence, and escalation management. Ben is currently researching the dynamics of strategic competition in space and cyber.
He has won three LLNL Global Security Gold Awards for outstanding research, is a participant in the RAND Counterinsurgency Board of Experts, and has guest lectured on terrorism financing at the Naval Postgraduate School. Ben was formerly an associate at the RAND Corporation, where he published on counter terrorism and the internal dynamics of Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS). Ben received an MA in international affairs from UC San Diego and a BA in history from the University of Pennsylvania. This monograph analyzes the finances of the militant group al-Qa'ida in Iraq (AQI) in Anbar province during 2005 and 2006, at the peak of the group's power and influence. The authors draw on captured documents that give details on the daily financial transactions of one specific sector within Anbar province and of the financial transactions of the AQI provincial administration. Some conclusions are: AQI was a hierarchical organization with decentralized decisionmaking; AQI in Anbar was profitable enough to send substantial revenues out of the province in 2006. The authors' interpretation of data on compensation practices indicates that AQI members were poorly compensated and suggests that they were not motivated primarily by money. The authors also find that mounting attacks required organizational expenditures well beyond the cost of material used in attacks. One major conclusion is that disrupting AQI's financial flows could disrupt the pace of their attacks. Condition: Very good.
Keywords: al-Qaeda, al-Qa'ida. Anbar Province, AQI, Terrorism, Military Organizations, Insurgency, Revenue-Generating, Decisionmaking, Militant Activity, Financing Methods
ISBN: 9780833050397
[Book #76038]
Price: $75.00