home > by publication type > task force reports > Terrorist Financing
Email
| Chair: | Maurice R. Greenberg, Chairman & CEO, C.V. Starr & Co., Inc. |
|---|---|
| Directors: | William F. Wechsler Lee S. Wolosky |
October 2002
55 pages
ISBN 0876093241
$15.00
Task Force Report No. 40
After an initially robust attempt to curtail financing for international terrorism, the Bush administration’s current efforts are strategically inadequate to assure the sustained results needed to protect U.S. security. This is the core finding of a bipartisan commission chaired by Maurice R. Greenberg, chairman and chief executive officer of AIG, and directed by two former National Security Council officials who are experts in the field, William F. Wechsler and Lee S. Wolosky.
The Task Force report describes the complex nature of the financial network sustaining al-Qaeda and the obstacles to dismantling it, and it acknowledges that the only realistic goal is to curb rather than completely cut off terrorist funding. It finds that U.S. efforts to curtail terrorist financing are impeded not only by a lack of institutional capacity abroad, but, critically, by a lack of political will among U.S. allies. The Task Force notes, for example, “For years, individuals and charities based in Saudi Arabia have been the most important source of funds for al-Qaeda. And for years, Saudi officials have turned a blind eye to this problem.”
Confronted with this lack of political will, the Task Force report finds that the Bush administration appears to have made a policy decision not to use the full power of U.S. influence and laws now on the books to pressure other governments to more effectively combat terrorist financing. It urges the Bush administration to reconsider the recently announced “second phase” of its policy to curb terrorist financing, which will rely more on foreign leadership and less on blocking orders—which this report calls “among the most powerful tools the U.S. possesses in the war on terrorist finances.”
To regain momentum and give this issue the priority it requires, the administration should take two key structural steps: designate a special assistant to the president with the specific mandate and prestige to compel the various diplomatic, law enforcement, intelligence, regulatory, and policy agencies to work together to assure a sustained and effective U.S. response; and drive other countries—whose efforts are woefully inadequate—to greater effectiveness and cooperation. To accomplish this, the United States should lead an initiative to create a new international organization dedicated solely to curbing terrorist financing.
THOMAS J. BIERSTEKER, Henry R. Luce professor and director, Watson Institute, Brown University.
DAVID COHEN, deputy commissioner for intelligence, New York City Police Department; former deputy director for operations, Central Intelligence Agency.
W. BOWMAN CUTTER, managing director, Warburg Pincus; former deputy assistant to the president for economic affairs.
STUART E. EIZENSTAT, partner, Covington and Burling; former deputy secretary of the Treasury.
MICHAEL R. FENZEL, chairman, Council for Emerging National Security Affairs; former director for transnational threats, National Security Council.
RICK SMALL, director for global anti-money laundering, Citigroup; former deputy associate director, board of governors of the Federal Reserve System.
MAURICE SONNENBERG, senior international adviser, Bear, Stearns and Co.; senior international adviser, Manatt Phelps and Phillips, LLP; former vice chairman, National Commission on Terrorism.
JOAN E. SPERO, president, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; former undersecretary of state for economic affairs.
TODD D. STERN, partner, Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering; former counselor to the secretary of the Treasury and staff secretary, the White House.
WILLIAM H. WEBSTER, senior partner, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy; former director, Federal Bureau of Investigations and director, Central Intelligence Agency.
WILLIAM F. WECHSLER, vice president, Greenwich Associates; former director for transnational threats, National Security Council and special adviser to the secretary of the Treasury. Former chair of the interagency group charged with disrupting al Qaeda’s financial network.
JONATHAN WINER, counsel, Alston and Bird; former deputy assistant secretary of state for international law enforcement affairs.
LEE S. WOLOSKY, head of the International Corporate Practice Group, Boies, Schiller and Flexner LLP; adjunct fellow, Center for Strategic and International Studies; former director for transnational threats, National Security Council.
In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system.
America Between the Wars explores how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Twin Towers shaped the events, arguments, and politics of the world we live in today.
In The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, Noah Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment of the sharia—the law of the traditional Islamic state—in the modern Muslim world.
Complete list of CFR Books.
This report argues that the United States must lead with domestic action on climate change and proposes a U.S. negotiating strategy for a global UN climate agreement that includes commitments from all major economies, while also promoting a less formal Partnership for Climate Cooperation that would focus the world's largest emitters on implementing aggressive emissions reductions.
This Task Force report examines changes in Latin America and in U.S. influence there, while taking account of the region's enduring importance to the United States. The Task Force offers an agenda for U.S. policy toward Latin America and identifies four critical areas that should provide the basis of a new U.S. approach.
About Independent Task Forces at CFR.
This report outlines the nature of the challenges in Pakistan's tribal areas, formulates strategies for addressing those challenges, and distills the strategies into realistic policy proposals worthy of consideration by the incoming administration.
This report analyzes the debate over U.S. use of assurances against torture, explaining the contexts in which they are used, how they can be conveyed, and what they can contain, and recommends a number of ways to respond to criticism so that the United States can continue using assurances.
Complete list of Council Special Reports.
“The Next President:” Richard Holbrooke says the next U.S. president will inherit a more difficult set of international challenges than any predecessor since World War II.
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.
To request permission to reuse Council materials, please email publications@cfr.org or fax +1.212.434.9859.
Please include the complete information of the requested work—author, title, sections/pages to be copied or reprinted, and number of copies to be made—along with a brief description of where and how you would like to reuse the work.
You may also request permission for Council material through Copyright Clearance Center. For more information, please click on the link below.
Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.
