Tackling The Terrorist Threat: Progress Made and Future Challenges
By Michael Jacobson
This afternoon, the Washington Institute hosted Ken Wainstein, the Homeland Security Advisor to the President, as part of a speaker series we’ve been running since December 2007. Mr. Wainstein, who has served in this position since March 2008, spoke about the WMD terrorist threat to the US and its allies. In his remarks, Mr. Wainstein laid out the threat, focusing on nuclear and biological aspects, as well as the steps the US has taken to address it since 9/11. While Mr. Wainstein noted that the US has made significant progress in this arena and build a strong infrastructure to combat WMD terrorism, there is still much work that remains to be done in this critically important area.
For Mr. Wainstein’s full remarks, click here.
http://counterterrorismblog.org/2009/01/tackling_the_terrorist_threat.php
Targeting Terrorists’ Financial Networks: A Moving Target
By Matthew Levitt
As Michael Jacobson and I wrote in The Jerusalem Post, despite being under geographic siege and financial sanction, Hamas was still able to smuggle some 80 tons of explosives, roadside bombs and longer-range rockets into Gaza over the course of the past cease-fire.
It is ironic, then, that one of the most effective counterterrorism tools since 9/11 has been targeting terrorists’ finances. Disrupting terrorists’ means of financial support frustrates their ability to operate, while following the money trail up and down the financial pipeline can reveal to investigators otherwise covert terrorist networks.
As the current conflict illustrates, these tools face multiple challenges, the most pressing being the ability to be flexible enough to keep up with a constantly moving target. And therein lies the fundamental catch-22: In response to each successful disruption of illicit financing, be it of a terrorist, proliferation or other illegal nature, our adversaries change the way they raise, move and store.
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http://counterterrorismblog.org/2009/01/targeting_terrorists_financial.php