|
Trending Topics
|
Operation Harpoon: How the Mossad and an Israeli NGO Destroyed Terrorist Money Networks
(Jerusalem Post) Yonah Jeremy Bob - Operation Harpoon was a revolutionary Israeli intelligence operation to thwart terrorism financing initiated by the legendary Mossad chief Meir Dagan. Harpoon dealt Hizbullah, Hamas, Fatah's Yasser Arafat and other terrorist groups major blows. The development and achievements of Harpoon against terrorism financing over the last 20 years are revealed in Harpoon: Inside the Covert War Against Terrorism's Money Masters, by Shurat Hadin director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner and Samuel Katz. Shurat Hadin was one of several law firms/NGOs that Harpoon operatives approached to help get at terrorists' financing through lawsuits. After 9/11 they helped get the U.S. intelligence community to view terrorism financing as a long-term strategic problem and not a mere short-term tactical issue. While the CIA and FBI would "follow the money" of a particular terrorist cell to seize it, only the Treasury and Justice departments understood Dagan's strategic concept of taking out terrorists' ability to bank and of driving up their cost of moving money globally. The book contends that Israel's final blow to bring an end to the 2014 Gaza war with Hamas came about "by incinerating the Hamas finance minister's millions of dollars in cash for salaries he was delivering to suicide terrorists."