18.I don’t believe in bad signs, but … .

a)if I see a black cat, I would change my way.

b)if I will see a black cat, I will change my way.

c)if I would see a black cat, I change my way.

d)if I see a black cat, I will change my way.

19.My hometown has a … location.

20. The Russian equivalent to the word “accurate” is … .

Financial War against Terrorism Can Russia be an efficient fighter in it?

The finance ministers of the Group of Eight industrial nations recently met in Washington expressly to discuss ways of cutting off the financial channels of the

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terrorists, signaling to the international community that the struggle against dirty money has entered a fundamentally new – military – stage. It is supremely important for Russia to appreciate this.

Not everyone knows that the Washington meeting had been preceded by vigorous work on the part of financial investigators. After establishing that several terrorists had come to the United States from Europe, the FBI at once dispatched a group of agents and financial analysts to Germany, France and Britain. The investigators include men from FinCEN, a quasi-secret federal service closely associated with the CIA, the Pentagon, U.S. military intelligence and the National Security Agency. One line of the search was to trace the means the terrorists used to pay their bills. It has been established that at least five of them lived in Hamburg at various times, and that one of them received in the United States money transfers from Germany. That is why the Hamburg-based Mamoun Darkazanli Import-Export, among other companies, is under scrutiny. Its owner, Mamoun Darkazanli, opened a bank account in 1995 for Mahmud

Salim (the financial chief of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda organization). The inspiring results of the joint probes have promoted Germany to set up a centralized financial intelligence division that coordinates investigative work to combat money laundering. (Germany previously had only respective services in the federal Länder).

The European states are tracing the financial channels through which the terrorists got their funding. The Swiss Banking Commission, among other investigative bodies, has hit on a Swiss-Bahamian company, Al Tagwa, associated with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood fundamentalist organization. It was discovered that bin Laden owns a bank in Nauru called Al-Tagwa Bank, with branches in Malta, Switzerland, and some other countries. The Swiss authorities say bin Laden owns finance companies on the Cayman Islands and on Curacao (the largest island of the Netherlands Antilles in the Caribbean Sea).

The United States has warned that it will attach the American assets of any corporation, private individual, or charity that has ties with any of the terrorist organizations on the published list. Thirty accounts in the United States and 20 outside it were frozen right away with 500 more attached within the following week.

In short, military operations against the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks in the United States were preceded by thorough intelligence-gathering spadework. This shows how serious are those who have declared war on international terrorism. A war without such preparations is no more than a form of national business that would allow hostilities to drag on indefinitely, as in the case of Chechnya.

The world community is bound to conclude that one of the reasons why terrorism has been spreading so successfully is opaque settlements via offshore banks. This is a lesson Russia ought to heed.

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The September 11 terrorists attacks in New York and Washington have dramatically changed the tasks and functions of financial investigation services. Now FATF (the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force, the arm of the 29nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development combating money laundering) is a key instrument in the present war against terrorism. FATF is just about to be empowered to track the movement of funds earned perfectly legally but used to finance terrorist activities. A la guerre comme à la guerre!

Russia has declared itself willing to join the war against international terrorism. Can it be an efficient fighter in this war?

It took Russia two years just to adopt a Law on Combating Money Laundering. It took FATF just two weeks to drastically change its functions. The world community won’t wait until Russia takes these changes into account.

Fortunately the Kremlin is quite capable of taking prompt action. It can, for example, set up within the Presidential Staff a group to be vested with relevant powers by presidential decree. The group would admittedly face the key problem of its members’ professionalism as the country has no more than three dozen or so specialists qualified to take part in international financial investigations. And most of them work in organizations that have tarnished images owing to their involvement in financial scams like the one in which the Bank of New York had a hand.

Apart from that, our relations with FATF are not exactly cloudless. Some of its latest sessions were attended by Russian envoys whose personal bank accounts had been frozen by court rulings in Luxemburg in 1995, and in Germany and the United States in 1996-1998.

For all that, Russia must join the financial investigations being carried out by the special services of other countries if it is to get an answer to the question: Are Chechen gunmen agents of international terrorism financed by the organizations under international investigation? Unfortunately, it might also emerge that the financial springs of the Chechen war are funds embezzled from the Russian federal budget and the ill-gotten profits of some Russian companies and their offshore affiliates. This would mean that there are quite a few influential people in this country who would hate to see Russia participate in a worldwide financial war against terrorism.

By Andrei Sotnik Moscow News #41, 2001

TEST I (CHECKING Exercises)

I.Fill in the blanks.

1.The National Security …

2.The Federal Bureau of …

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3.The Financial Action Task Force … for Economic Cooperation and

Development

4.The … Intelligence Agency

5.The Group of … industrial nations

6.The U.S. military …

7.The Law on Combating … Laundering

8.The Russian … budget

II.Give the Russian equivalents.

1) to attach assets of any corporation

2) to freeze personal bank accounts right away

3) to transfer money to the offshore affiliates

4) to own finance companies

5) to trace and cut off financial channels

6) to get funding through financial channels

7) to combat money laundering

8) to set up a centralized financial division

III.Give the English equivalents.

1)добытые нечестным путем прибыли

2)растрачивать средства

3)финансовое жульничество

4)личные банковские счета, замороженные согласно постановлению суда

5)отмывать «грязные» деньги

6)непрозрачные размещения денежных средств

7)движение денежных средств, заработанных совершенно законно

8)денежные средства, используемые на финансирование террористической деятельности

IV. Give the synonyms.

1)ill-gotten money

2)finances

3)to track the channels of funds

4)to support terrorists

5)to stop money laundering

6)a branch of the bank

7)to establish the investigative services

8)to struggle against terrorism

V. Give the antonyms.

1)illegal way of earning money

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2)to embezzle funds

3)to settle funds via offshore affiliates

4)a peaceful act

5)inspiring results

6)cloudless relations

7)to open personal accounts

8)struggle for something

VI. Fill in the blanks.

1.In Russia the financial war against terrorists … a new military stage soon.

(to enter)

2.Last month they … the ill-gotten profits settled via offshore banks. (to investigate)

3.These affiliates … all budget funds by the time our country adopted a Law on Combating Money Laundering. (to embezzle)

4.They … successfully financial channels of terrorists for two months when discovered Al Tagwa Bank.

5.Russia … the group of agents, financial analysts and investigators in a year. (to set up)

6.That time the Group of Eight industrial nations … against dirty money.

(to struggle)

7.Some Russian companies … the ill-gotten profits via opaque accounts abroad. (to launder)

8.Some corporations and private individuals … still the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks. (to finance)

VII. Agree or disagree.

1.Russia did not adopt a Law on Combating Money Laundering.

2.There are a lot of top specialists in Russia who can take part in international financial investigation.

3.Some Russian influential people are willing the country to join the war against terrorism.

4.Some Russian companies have tarnished images because of their financial scams.

5.After acts in 2001 in the US all investigation organizations did not change their activities.

6.Money settlements via offshore banks are not transparent and this is the reason why terrorism has been spreading so fast.

7.The Financial Action Task Force is going to trace the ways of funds earned legally.

8.It is not so important to cut off financial channels of terrorists.