section_path: Perpetrators/Funding
section_name: Funding
paragraph_text: Funding
  
  State sponsors have constituted a major form of funding; for example, Palestine Liberation Organization, Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and other groups sometimes considered to be terrorist organizations, were funded by the Soviet Union. Iran has provided funds, training, and weapons to organizations such as Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah, the Yemenite Houthi movement, and Palestinian factions such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Iranian funding for Hamas is estimated to reach several hundred million dollars annually. These groups and others have played significant roles in Iran's foreign policy and served as proxies in conflicts. The Stern Gang received funding from Italian Fascist officers in Beirut to undermine the British authorities in Palestine.
  
  " Revolutionary tax " is another major form of funding, and essentially a euphemism for " protection money ". Revolutionary taxes "play a secondary role as one other means of intimidating the target population".
  
  Other major sources of funding include kidnapping for ransoms, smuggling (including wildlife smuggling), fraud, and robbery. The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant has reportedly received funding "via private donations from the Gulf states ". Irish Republican militants, primarily the Provisional Irish Republican Army and the Irish National Liberation Army, and Loyalist paramilitaries, primarily the Ulster Volunteer Force and Ulster Defence Association, received far more financing from criminal and legitimate activities within the British Isles than overseas donations, including Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and NORAID (see Paramilitary finances in the Troubles for more information).
  
  The Financial Action Task Force is an inter-governmental body whose mandate, since October 2001, has included combating terrorist financing.