Logo

American Security Council Foundation

Back to main site

Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

U.S., Gulf Allies Blacklist Islamic State Financial Network

Friday, July 17, 2020

Categories: ASCF News Terrorism Emerging Threats

Comments: 0

WASHINGTON—The U.S. has joined six other nations in sanctioning a financial network linked to the Islamic State terrorist group and its affiliates, blocking any of their assets in the U.S., the Treasury Department said.

The joint sanctions imposed Wednesday target financial-services companies al Haram Exchange, Tawasul Company and a third that, according to the Treasury Department, “have played a vital role in transferring funds to support Syria-based ISIS fighters and have provided hundreds of thousands of dollars of liquidity to ISIS leadership.”

Efforts to reach al Haram Exchange were unsuccessful. A representative for Tawasul didn’t answer questions sent via text message.

Also sanctioned was an individual who the U.S. said had been selected by Islamic State to facilitate its transactions.

The penalties, issued by the seven member states of the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center, targeted individuals and entities in Turkey, Syria and Afghanistan. The TFTC, launched in 2017, includes the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

An Afghanistan-based charity, Nejaat Social Welfare Organization, and its director were sanctioned for their alleged role in shielding transactions on behalf of ISIS Khorasan, the group’s branch in that country. Efforts to reach Nejaat were unsuccessful.

Five of the targets had previously been sanctioned by the Treasury Department; Wednesday’s action expands the measures to include the Gulf nations as well as the U.S.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center’s actions “have maximized the disruption of terrorist financing around the world,” bolstering collaboration among the U.S. and the Gulf states on combating terrorism and terror financing.

Past sanctions issued by the seven-nation bloc have targeted al Qaeda, Hezbollah, the Taliban and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in addition to Islamic State and its affiliates.

The sanctions block the targets’ property that is within the U.S. or that comes into the possession or control of U.S. persons, and bars U.S. individuals and businesses from dealings with that property.

Photo: The Treasury Department issued the sanctions along with other members of the multinational Terrorist Financing Targeting Center. - PHOTO: OLIVIER DOULIERY/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-gulf-allies-blacklist-islamic-state-financial-network-11594834107

Comments RSS feed for comments on this page

There are no comments yet. Be the first to add a comment by using the form below.