Aftershock: The War on Terror Episode 5: In Dollars We Trust
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Dec 18, 2025 In this engaging discussion, Tom Stevenson, a contributing editor at the London Review of Books, unpacks the Treasury's shift towards financial statecraft post-9/11 and the complex challenges of tracing al-Qaeda's finances. Alex de Waal, director of the World Peace Foundation, delves into the humanitarian crises caused by sanctions, framing starvation as a political weapon. They highlight the tragic consequences of financial policies on vulnerable populations, including the devastating famine in Somalia, and explore the implications of these strategies on global finance and humanitarian efforts.
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Dollar As A Strategic Power
- The US dollar anchors global finance, giving the United States outsized power over international transactions.
- That centrality lets Treasury leverage the financial system itself as a strategic instrument against adversaries.
Zarate's Rise Inside Treasury
- Juan Zarate joined Treasury three weeks before 9/11 and built the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
- He turned Treasury clerks into a national-security brigade to resurrect the department's role.
Finint: Financial Espionage Launched
- Treasury gained active financial intelligence by accessing SWIFT and building 'Finint' capabilities.
- This transformed Treasury from passive consumer to an agency that could surveil and weaponize global payments.