Finding the accomplices in the United States is a vital part of the investigation. To attack terrorism in this or any country requires taking out the support system that recruits, trains, houses, and feeds the killers. Attacking the foreign sources of the terror may catch the masterminds, but you also want to remove the foot soldiers who conspired with the principals. Finding the accomplices will help prevent further tragedies of this kind – leaving them in place will only encourage later killings – but finding them is difficult, painstaking work.
An important feature of IT is its ability to leave tracks of its use, an attribute many people just accept, but others find disturbing. In electronic business, for example, the ability to capture detailed visitor behavior when visiting a Web site can help provide a more personalized experienced the next time visitors come around. In high-volume, business-to-business interactions, having the ability to log transaction traffic makes it possible to recover lost messages or provide audit trails, features business people need.
Financial institutions cooperate with authorities
Following the flow of money used by the hijackers can unveil the parties supporting their movements. To live in modern-day America requires at least occasional interactions with its banking system, which insists on transparency in its transactions, and financial information systems will have records of bank account deposits and withdrawals, as well as credit card transactions. News reports suggest the hijacker suspects tried to keep a low profile during their stay in this country. But living in 21st century America requires money, probably more than the suspected hijackers made in their home countries. As a result, the suspects had to get money from somewhere, and in most cases, financial institutions recorded the transactions.
For law enforcement, following the money, is standard procedure. The money laundering laws, especially the Bank Secrecy Act, require banks to keep separate records of cash transactions of $10,000 or more, and can report smaller amounts of cash transactions, if they appear to follow patterns of illegality. With alternative financial services, like check-cashing businesses or money order vendors, it is possible to avoid dealing with banks. However, regulations enacted last year by the U.S. Treasury Department require these services to keep records and report suspicious transactions as well.
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