(NBC) A new report on terrorism financing shows that for most Americans who sought to join or support ISIS, the trip was cheap and the money came easily, making it harder for investigators to track would-be terrorists.
“[S]ave for a few exceptions, the vast majority of U.S.-based IS supporters left a remarkably small financial footprint,” said the report, which contrasted the low cost of funding ISIS terror with … Al Qaeda’s big budget. The small footprint “can represent a challenge for investigators, which often rely on financial operations to uncover terrorism-related individuals and as evidence in prosecutions against them.”
The report, by the George Washington University Program on Extremism and the federally funded National Counterterrorism, Innovation, Technology, and Education Center at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, examined 209 individuals charged with ISIS-tied crimes from 2013 until August of this year.
