Matthew Levitt is the Fromer-Wexler Senior Fellow and director of the Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute.
Articles & Testimony
On July 14, 2010, Matthew Levitt, senior fellow and director of the Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute, provided written testimony for the record to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs, for a hearing titled "Evaluating the Justice against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, S. 2930." The following is an excerpt from his testimony.
Beyond punishing terrorists and their supporters, and beyond providing victims of terrorism and their families a sense of justice, holding people financially responsible for their illicit actions by targeting the finances can also effectively stem the flow of funds available for future terrorist activity. Not only do successful civil suits remove funds from the pockets of terrorists and their supporters, they can also send a powerful message to other potential donors who may think twice before being named and shamed as terror financiers. Most of the major donors found to have been supporting terrorism have not been terrorist operatives themselves. These are prominent businessmen, wary of exposing themselves and their financial empires to the financial and litigation risk that comes with being added to a government or UN terrorism list or being indicted for supporting a terrorist group. Consider the time and money individuals such as Yasin al Qadi, a Saudi businessman designated as a terror financier by both the United States and UN, have spent trying to get off these lists....
