The growing linkages between crime and terrorism observed in the past four decades are not merely a result of globalization or the need to assure a more diversified revenue flow for terrorist groups. Rather, this change represents a profound evolution in organized crime and terrorism, as well as their relationship to the state. The terrorist attacks in France and Belgium provide strong proof that the associations of crime and terrorism are very present as most of the identified terrorists have criminal backgrounds. The heavy recruitment of criminals by ISIS as terrorists is hardly surprising as the antecedents of ISIS lie in its founder, the criminal, Al-Zarqawi who became a terrorist.
What is of particular concern to US homeland security is that many of our European allies fail to see this threat as one of crime and terrorism. Having just recently returned from a European trip during which I had many meetings over several weeks with highly-placed members of the Francophone security community as well as officials from other European states, it is clear that many in policy positions in the European security community fail to appreciate this important evolution. The exception may be the Italians who have observed these links between crime and terrorism for over three decades as publicly expressed by Italy’s current anti-mafia prosecutor and a predecessor who is now President of the Italian Senate. But for many other countries in Continental Europe, there is not a recognition of the problem that terrorists increasingly use crime to support their activitie…