Terrorism and Financial Intelligence

The one aspect I enjoyed about my internship was the it opened my eyes to what the Treasury Department did and involved itself in. Perhaps I was the only person but I never realized how involved they were within the Terrorism field.

It's because of my internship that I've come back much more interested in Foreign Policy and Intelligence. From my countless lunches with a wide array of other interns I learned how involved the Treasury Department is involved in the field.

Terrorism and Financial Intelligence:

Marshals the Department’s intelligence and enforcement functions to safeguard the financial system against illicit use and combat rogue nations, terrorist facilitators, weapons of mass destruction proliferators, money launderers, drug kingpins and other national security threats.

·      Office of Intelligence and Analysis (OIA) – member of the U.S. Intelligence community; responsible for receipt, analysis, collation and dissemination of foreign intelligence and counterintelligence information related to operation and responsibilities of Treasury (economic, political and security issues.)

·      Office of Terrorism and Financial Crimes (TFFC) – develops strategies to deploy the full range of financial authorities to combat money laundering, terrorist financing, etc., domestically and abroad.

·      Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) – enforces economic and trade sanctions based on US foreign policy and national security goals against targeted foreign countries, terrorists, international narcotics traffickers, and those engaged in proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Some of my friends that are still working there are involved with information on narcotic traffickers and are involved with conducting research on banks in the US to ensure that they are not knowingly or unknowingly dealing with a Terrorist group. This involves a lot of research and behind the scenes work. Overall working there has inspired a new focus and interest in my studies.