Who knows how much of this will matter now that EU Courts are trying to destroy this critical tool, but if you want some inside baseball on counterterrorism you should check out Matthew Levitt and Mike Jacobson’s new report on freezing terrorist finances:
U.S. and international efforts to combat terrorist financing are a little understood—and often unappreciated—aspect of the global counterterrorism campaign. With this in mind, soon after rejoining The Washington Institute after serving in the Treasury Department’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Mike Jacobson and I decided that it would be worthwhile to conduct a comprehensive study of this issue… We have strived to produce a report that not only explains the threat of terrorist financing and the efforts of governments and international organizations to address it, but also assesses the effectiveness of these efforts. We offer, in addition, our thoughts as to what steps the United States could take to improve international efforts in this area.”
I’m going to make you click through to get the link to the full PDF, but in the meantime: while we’re constantly tightening the screws on Iran on the financial side, the drop in oil prices has put them and Venezuela on the brink of financial collapse. So this would obviously be the perfect time to offer Iran a Grand Bargain that lifts sanctions in exchange for a heartfelt and sincere promise to stop all that unseemly nuke building stuff. Although for what it’s worth, Levitt thinks Obama will expand Treasury’s counterterrorism projects in the meantime.
References:
* New EU Court Rulings Mean That Obama’s “Strong Carrots, Strong Sticks” Iran Strategy Now Only Carrots [MR]
* The Money Trail: Finding, Following and Freezing Terrorist Finances [CT Blog]
* New Treasury U-Turn Measures May Have Significant Impact on Iran [CT Blog]
* 3 oil countries face a reckoning [IHT]
* Latest in Iran Sanctions: No U-Turn [CT Blog]
Previously:
* Celebrity Concerts For Israeli-Palestinian Peace Canceled Because Of Terrorism Threats
* 65% of Palestinians support Al Qaeda terrorism
* Carter NSA Chief: We Should Fight Terrorism, Not Islamism
