Terrorists: Don't Cash that Check

Posted By Kyle Spector Friday, June 23, 2006 - 2:31 PM Share

CIA drones, the U.S. military and the Canadian mounties have proven to be formidable opponents for terrorists, but they probably should be equally afraid of another organization: Western Union.

Ron Suskind's new book, The One Percent Doctrine, outlines a program in which Western Union and its parent company supplied information on Palestinian financial transactions to the FBI, which in turn shared the data with Israel's internal security service, Shin Bet.

Intelligence agencies eventually realized that the information supplied by the company could be used not only to locate and freeze the assets of terror groups, but also to track them in real time - in other words, to follow the money trail directly to the sources and destinations of the funds.

This tactic appears to be one use of a much larger program, confirmed last night by Stuart Levey, undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, aimed at tracking global financial transactions.

EXPLORE:MIDDLE EAST, BUSH ADMINISTRATION, ISRAEL/PALESTINE, SECURITY, TERRORISM

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