In the years since 9/11, the United States has built effective tools to disrupt funding for Al Qaeda. More than a decade later, however, new threats have emerged in the Middle East that operate on different funding models. The rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham and similar groups that extract resources from the land and people they control challenges the existing policy framework that focuses on safeguarding the formal international financial system. Meanwhile, Iran continues to destabilize the region through direct support to proxy groups such as Hezbollah. Although key U.S. partners in the region have taken action to crack down on terror financing, others have yet to take the necessary steps to counter terrorist fundraising in their own borders.
Please join the Center for American Progress for a discussion of the new generation of terror finance threats with Juan Zarate, former deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism and the first assistant secretary of the treasury for terrorist financing and financial crimes.
Welcome:
Vikram Singh, Vice President for National Security and International Policy, Center for American Progress
Opening remarks:
Juan Zarate, former Deputy National Security Adviser for Combating Terrorism; first Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes
Panelists:
William F. Wechsler, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress; former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Combating Terrorism
Hardin Lang, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
Celina Realuyo , Professor of Practice at the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies, National Defense University