home > by publication type > task force reports > Update on the Global Campaign Against Terrorist Financing
Email
| Chair: | Maurice R. Greenberg, Chairman & CEO, C.V. Starr & Co., Inc. |
|---|---|
| Vice Chair: | Mallory Factor |
| Directors: | William F. Wechsler Lee S. Wolosky |
Publisher: Council on Foreign Relations Press
Release Date: June 2004
Task Force Report No. 40B
While “al-Qaeda’s current and prospective ability to raise and move funds with impunity has been significantly diminished . . . al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations still have ready access to financial resources, and that fact constitutes an ongoing threat to the United States.” So warns this independent Task Force report, a follow-on to the Council’s 2002 report that concludes individuals and organizations based in Saudi Arabia were the most important source of Qaeda funding.
The report cites minimal progress in efforts to halt terrorist financing, and concludes that much more needs to be done. A string of terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda inside Saudi Arabia beginning in May 2003 prompted more comprehensive Saudi action against terrorism. At that time, Saudi Arabia announced new laws, regulations, and institutions to monitor money-laundering, charities, the financial-services sector, and the government began subjecting its anti-money-laundering regime to international scrutiny.
The report makes several positive findings, but it also highlights many important unresolved issues. In particular, Saudi Arabia has not fully implemented its new laws and regulations and, as a result, opportunities for the witting or unwitting financing of terrorism persist. Moreover, there is no evidence that Saudi Arabia has taken public punitive actions against any individual for financing terror. Saudi Arabia has yet to make a demand for personal accountability part of its efforts to combat terrorist financing and, more broadly and fundamentally, to delegitimize terror funding. Most troubling, Saudi Arabia continues to export radical extremism. “Saudi Arabia,” the report says, “funds the global propagation of Wahhabism, a brand of Islam that, in some instances, supports militancy. . . . We are concerned that this massive spending is helping to create the next generation of terrorists.” The report offers specific recommendations to address these concerns.
THOMAS J. BIERSTEKER is Henry R. Luce Professor and Director at the Watson Institute of Brown University.
RICHARD A. CLARKE is the Chairman of Good Harbor Consulting, LLC, and former National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection and Counterterrrorism at the White House.
DAVID COHEN is the Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence of the New York City Police Department, and former Deputy Director for Operations of the Central Intelligence Agency.
W. BOWMAN CUTTER is the Managing Director of Warburg Pincus, and former Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Affairs.
STUART E. EIZENSTAT is a Partner at Covington and Burling, former Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, Undersecretary of State, and U.S. Ambassador to the European Union.
MALLORY FACTOR is a Vice Chair of this task force, and is also the Chairman of Mallory Factor, INC.
MICHAEL R. FENZEL is the Chairman of the Council for Emerging National Security Affairs (CENSA), and former Director for Transnational Threats for the National Security Council.
MAURICE R. GREENBERG is a Chair of this task force, as well as Chairman and CEO of the American International Group.
GEOFFREY KEMP is the Director of Regional Strategic Programs at The Nixon Center, and former Senior Director of Near East and South Asian affairs for the National Security Council.
MATTHEW LEVITT is a senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and a former Counterterrorism Analyst for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
STEWART J. PAPERIN is the Executive Vice President of Soros Foundations.
RICHARD A. SMALL is the Managing Director of Global Anti-Money Laundering for Citigroup, and is the former Deputy Associate Director of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
MAURICE SONNENBERG is a senior International Adviser at Bear, Stearns and Co., senior International Adviser at Manatt Phelps and Phillips, LLP, and former Vice Chairman for the National Commission on Terrorism.
TODD D. STERN is a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, LLP, former Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury, and Staff Secretary of the White House.
WILLIAM F. WECHSLER is a codirector of this task force, as well as Vice President of Greenwich Associates, former Director for Transnational Threats at the National Security Council, Special Adviser to the Secretary of the Treasury, and former Chair of the Interagency Group charged with disrupting al-Qaeda's financial network.
NATHAN WINER is a partner at Alston and Bird, and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Law Enforcement Affairs
LEE S. WOLOSKY is a codirector of this task force, as well as a counsel at Boies, Schiller and Flexner, LLP, Adjunct Professor of International Affairs at Columbia University, and former Director for Transnational Threats at the National Security Council.
Explore international efforts to curb nuclear proliferation with a new interactive from CFR's program on International Institutions and Global Governance.
To order Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, and Critical Policy Choices, please call, fax, or order online from our distributor, the Brookings Institution Press: phone +1.800.537.5487, fax +1.410.516.6998.
For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1.212.434.9516 or email publications@cfr.org.
In War of Necessity, War of Choice, Richard N. Haass contrasts the decisions that shaped the conduct of two wars between the United States and Iraq involving the two presidents Bush and Saddam Hussein, and writes an authoritative, personal account of how U.S. foreign policy is made, what it should seek, and how it should be pursued.
In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba’s unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.
As Ray Takeyh shows in Guardians of the Revolution, behind the famous personalities and extremist slogans of Iran is a nation that is far more pragmatic—and complex—than many in the West have been led to believe.
Complete list of CFR Books
This report finds that nuclear weapons will remain a fundamental element of U.S. national security in the near term, and makes recommendations on how to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. deterrent nuclear force, prevent nuclear terrorism, and strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime.
About Independent Task Forces at CFR
Complete list of Task Force reports
The Canadian oil sands present an important challenge to policymakers: they promise energy security benefits but present climate change problems. Michael A. Levi assesses the energy security and climate change effects of the oil sands and makes recommendations for U.S. policymakers within the context of broader bilateral relations with Canada.
This report explores an important element of the maritime policy regime: the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Author Scott G. Borgerson examines the international negotiations that led to the convention, the history of debates in the United States over whether to join it, and the strategic importance of the oceans for U.S. foreign policy today.
Complete list of Council Special Reports
To request permission to reprint or reuse CFR material, please fill out this permissions request form (PDF), referring to the instructions on page 1.
Copyright 2009 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.