03 November 2021 (04:21-UTC-07 Tango 06) 12 Aban 1400/27 Rabi ‘al-Awwal 1443/29 Ji-Hai (9th month) 4719

“Money always moves with a purpose. It’s fun to be able to be this close and be able to determine what that purpose is and to be able to influence it, to be able to disrupt, or inform to prevent or disrupt, an adversary’s ability to raise, use, move, or store money.”-Major Jon P. Evans, U.S. Army’s 266th Finance Support Center (based in Germany), 03NOV2021

That’s correct, the U.S. Army has launched what it calls CTF (Counter Threat Finance) operations, in Kuwait.  The CTF operation is being conducted by what is called a Finance Support Center (FiSC), a typical finance unit that is normally the ‘bean counter’ of a larger Army unit.

“First is what we call fiscal preparation of the environment. We’ll go in and do an economic analysis of a country or a region and see who the key trading partners are, how much U.S. spending goes in there, look at their banking network, and just look at some other macroeconomic indicators like unemployment, inflation, levels of corruption. We use that fiscal preparation of the environment, the FPE, to develop a finance support package, and then that FSP will go into a targeting process to look at individuals or companies to either prevent them from doing business with the government or to produce other effects.”-Major Jon P. Evans, 266th Finance Support Center

CTFs are not new, but this is the first time a non-Special Operations Forces unit is conducting the counter finance op. For a few years now, U.S. Army Special Operations Forces have been running CTFs on the African continent, and elsewhere, in the hopes of financially starving-out groups considered to be terrorist threats against U.S. interests. Obviously this isn’t working in Africa (and didn’t work in Afghanistan) as earlier this year Joe Biden issued an executive order telling the military to prepare to evacuate African ‘friendlies’ as part of the greater Operation Allies Refuge.

The U.S. Army’s CTFs are part of the larger Counter Threat Finance and Sanctions (TFS, don’t know why they drop the C in the acronym) run by the U.S. Department of State.

For years under the George W. Bush administration military run CTFs were debated, finally, in 2008 a directive was issued for the Department of Defense (DoD) to create a CTF policy.  However, a 2010 CTF directive, under Barack H. Obama, states (in its References) that the 2008 Bush directive was “hereby canceled”.

An FBI agent conducts the first CTF course for National Guard personnel, 09DEC2011. Air National Guard photo by Technical Sergeant Betty Squatrito-Martin.

At the end of 2011, the DoD ordered the U.S. National Guard Bureau (NGB) to begin training for CTFs under the guise of counter-drug training.  The 26 new counter threat finance personnel attended a three week training course at Joint Base Anacostia Bolling, November 29th-December 16, 2011: “This is a start to a whole new effort for the Guard. This effort that the Guardsmen are a part of helps build a skill base that I predict is going to be a growing part of what we do in the future.”-William F. Wechsler, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Counternarcotics and Global Threats

In March 2012, the Army War College suggested that the DoD shift to from counter-drug to “CTF targeting against terrorists and those supporting terrorist activities”.

In April 2012, the NGB made it official and added CTFs to its Counterdrug Program.

In May of 2014, National Guard Counterdrug CTF Program Manager, Captain Mesha Cichon, stated “The Counter Threat Finance career field is in its infancy, so any training our Soldiers and Airman can get to improve their skill set, is imperative.” Also, the boss of CTF at Joint Interagency Task Force South, Tammy Bowers, stated “CTF analysis is so new, we have to reach out to each other…  In a few short years, we’ve developed an impressive cadre….” 

Also in 2014, the DoD ordered that “a common lexicon for CTF, target nomination procedures, and guidance in defining measures of performance for CTF activities” be created regarding CTF operations globally.

2015, Brookings Institute: Counter Threat Finance-Not a Silver Bullet

Criminal Analysts Open Source Techniques training, May 2017. Air National Guard photo by Master Sergeant Betty Squatrito-Martin.

In May 2017, National Guard personnel attended counter-drug/CTF training (officially called Criminal Analysts Open Source Techniques) in Indiana, which focused on Social Media: “The online tools, techniques and methods we use to support law enforcement efforts are constantly evolving. We must continue to advance and train our Counterdrug members to meet this demand.”-First Sergeant Donald Cooley, criminal analyst

In May of this year, a DoD review of CTF operations by USAFRICOM, USCENTCOM, USEUCOM, and USINDOPACOM, revealed that they “did not establish and maintain formalized command procedures” because “personnel relied primarily upon their own experience and knowledge to conduct CTF activities.”  In other words, military CTF operations were failing because each military unit was ‘doing its own thing’, the DoD again re-issued the 2014 order to develop a common/standardized CTF plan of action.

Apparently the new use of regular military finance units is part of the attempt to standardize CTF operations.

U.S. Army Counter Threat Finance Analyst: “conduct financial profiles, suspicious activity report reviews, commodity flow analysis and financial document exploitation. These duties will complement analysts existing skills in cell phone forensics, link analysis, open source intelligence and report writing. Their job will be to counter financing used by illicit networks that traffic narcotics, precursor chemicals, launder illicit proceeds and related activities that support drug trafficking organizations, narcoterrorism, and transnational criminal organizations.”

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