posted on September 11, 2004 08:56:32 AM new
I posted this down in RoundTable, too. .. Article in our Akron Ohio newspaper today ... fascinating interview, and my eyes got real big when this guy mentioned "paypal" (an eBay Company), of all things!...
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It's safe to say Stuart Levey didn't graduate from Akron's Firestone High School in 1981 thinking he would become one of the federal government's top officials in the war against terrorism.
But there he is, newly appointed this summer by President Bush as Under Secretary of the Treasury for Enforcement, heading the department's new Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. His main responsibility: disrupting terrorist financing.
Three years ago today, Levey was a top aide for Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson in the Justice Department when terrorists killed 3,000 people in knocking down the twin towers at the World Trade Center, blowing up part of the Pentagon and crashing a plane in Pennsylvania.
``It certainly changed my life,'' he said Friday while in Akron visiting relatives.
When the second World Trade Center tower was hit, Levey remembered going to the Justice Department's command center. There, they heard the cell phone calls from Barbara Olson, wife of Solicitor General Ted Olson, just before her hijacked plane, American Airlines Flight 77, slammed into the Pentagon.
He remained at the Justice Department as it transformed to an agency focused on terrorism, he said.
``I began working on terrorism financing at Justice,'' Levey said.
His background helped. Levey graduated from Harvard College and then got his law degree from Harvard Law School. Then he clerked for Judge Laurence Silberman on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. He subsequently worked in private practice for a prominent Washington law firm -- Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin -- for about 11 years, mainly dealing with white-collar criminal defense. He also was chief counsel for former Sen. John Danforth's investigation of the FBI's role at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.
Levey has a very inquiring mind and he deftly handled complex white-collar crime cases, said John Joseph Cassidy, the law firm partner who hired Levey.
``I saw great promise in him. It was fully realized,'' Cassidy said. ``He's able to evaluate and he's a quick study.''
Levey's role post-9/11 was to help coordinate the Justice Department's counterterrorism efforts.
When the Bush administration in March created an office at the Treasury Department to oversee terrorism financing efforts, Levey was asked to head it. The Senate confirmed his appointment July 21.
Now, every morning by 7:30, Levey receives a book prepared overnight that shows what he calls the nation's ``threat matrix,'' listing the latest terrorist threats against the country.
``That is never an empty matrix,'' Levey said. ``This is a war without rules of engagement. These people will do anything. They will kill innocent people just to do it.... It is that intense. In some ways, I (wish) the American people could read the threat matrix. It is real.''
The routine includes a morning conference call with the White House, CIA, FBI, Defense and Justice departments, he said. ``We do it again in the afternoon.''
In his new job at the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, the overall goal is pretty much the same as with business crime: follow the money.
``The money trails don't lie,'' Levey said. Terrorists need money to train, to recruit, to bribe public officials and more, he said. ``They need money to operate.''
A main role of the office is to take in all of the unclassified data that the Treasury Department regularly collects and compare it with classified intelligence, he said. The office also works with other nations to disrupt terrorist financing overseas, he said.
To use one popular phrase, the analysts and others who work in the department ``connect the dots,'' he said.
Because terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda need to raise money, that creates vulnerabilities the U.S. government and the other nations can exploit, he said.
In some cases, identified terrorist assets can be frozen so they can't be used, he said. ``Sometimes what's more valuable is to watch it and not let on we're watching it.''
His over-arching goal is ``to be sure within the Treasury Department we are doing everything we can to detect and disrupt terrorism financing and activities,'' he said.
``We can't only play defense. We have to play offense,'' he said. ``That's what we are going to do 24/7.''
One major problem is trying to stop payments to families of ``so-called martyrs,'' the suicide bombers, he said.
``I see that (the payments) as promoting terrorism,'' Levey said.
At the very least, the U.S. and other nations are working together to make the movement of terrorist financing much more cumbersome, slow and risky, he said.
They are aware that terrorists are using alternative financing -- such as moving precious stones and physical quantities of cash -- in response to their efforts, he said. In addition, the decentralized nature of the Internet and the creation of legitimate online payment systems such as PayPal present challenges to the government's anti-terrorism efforts, he said.
``We can never rest,'' Levey said. ``We can never underestimate them.''
posted on September 11, 2004 09:35:54 AM newonline payment systems such as PayPal present challenges to the government's anti-terrorism efforts, he said.
Everything presents challenges to the anti-terrorism effort. We can't lock ourselves away and change our normal routines. This is what they want.
Besides, we all know PayPal presents a challenge to a lot more than just the government's anti-terrorism efforts. LOL! It challenges me often!
Cheryl
. . .if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by that Antichrist- I really believe he is Antichrist- I will have nothing more to do with you and you are no longer my friend.. . - War and Peace, Tolstoy
