Financial Transparency Coalition

In 1998, an article in the Washington Post argued bin Laden was able to “shroud his finances in such secrecy and with so many front companies that American officials acknowledge it could take years to decipher them.” At the time, U.S. officials understood that the key to bin Laden’s power was wealth—which was extensive as he inherited a substantial sum of money from his prosperous Saudi father. Yet they were often stymied in their ability to track his or other terrorists’ resources as they did not have the capability to comprehensively track, freeze, and seize assets. After 9/11...

Global Financial Integrity Managing Director Tom Cardamone has written a new blog post for the TrustLaw website highlighting U.S. Senator Rand Paul's (R-KY) efforts to gut the USA PATRIOT Act of key anti-money laundering/anti-terror financing provisions. The key provisions are set to expire Friday morning unless the U.S. Congress renews them before then. Referencing two of Senator Paul's eight proposed amendments to the act, Cardamone writes:

Two of the Paul amendments deal with Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) that money services businesses...

Behind only fear and tragedy, Osama bin Laden’s most enduring legacy on our world will be the changes in national and international security. Our response to his hate—and the attacks he orchestrated on September 11th—was overwhelming shaped by our collective realization that many of our security systems cannot protect against those who want so badly to do us harm. The most conspicuous of these systematic changes was—of course—in air transportation, as anyone who has flown before and after 2001 can tell you. The United States' capacity to respond to terrorist attacks was also improved with the...