Treasury's War Read online

  Photo by Eric Draper, courtesy of the George W. Bush Presidential Library

  President George W. Bush meets with his senior leadership in the Oval Office on November 9, 2006, to discuss the financial constriction campaign against Iran. Treasury’s Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey (standing center) led the briefing, which focused on choking Iran’s banking sector and finding ways to isolate the regime’s illicit activities from the financial system. Participants included clockwise, Jared Weinstein (president’s aide), Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Stuart Levey, Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams, the author, National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley, Homeland Security Adviser Frances Townsend, Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, and Vice President Dick Cheney.

  Photo courtesy of US Embassy Berlin

  Stuart Levey, Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, meeting with German officials at the US Embassy in Berlin on July 6, 2010. Levey traveled throughout the world during his tenure for both the Bush and Obama administrations explaining how rogues—especially the Iranian government—were moving and hiding money through the financial system.

  Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images

  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner announce new financial measures against Iran at the State Department on November 21, 2011. This included the use of Section 311 of the Patriot Act against the Iranian Central Bank, an important move intended to spur the private sector and other governments to break off transactions with most businesses in Iran. Congress would follow with legislation strengthening existing sanctions.

  Photo courtesy of the US Treasury/Chris E. Taylor

  John Brennan, President Obama’s Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Adviser at the ten-year 9/11 commemoration held at the Treasury Department. Brennan, who would later become the Director of the CIA, spoke about the critical role played by the Treasury to attack Al Qaeda and terrorist networks. Brennan’s presence at the gathering reinforced the accepted importance of the Treasury to core national security issues after 9/11.

  Photo: Winnie Lee

  Juan C. Zarate is a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the senior national security analyst for CBS News, and a visiting lecturer of law at Harvard Law School. Prior to that, he served as the deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor for combating terrorism, and the first ever assistant secretary of the Treasury for terrorist financing and financial crimes. He appears frequently on CBS News programs, PBS’s NewsHour, NPR, and CNN, and has written for the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and more. He and his family live in Alexandria, Virginia. Follow him on Twitter: @JCZarate1.

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