This last debate on foreign policy will not affect the polls. Mitt Romney was able to make himself credible in foreign policy; while Obama was strong in defending his four years of foreign policy. Romney won the first debate, Obama the second, and the third was a tie. This blog will be extremely short as […]
In preparation for the final debate this evening and the FPA live-tweeting of the event — to focus on foreign policy — the Arms Control Association and Bulletin of Atomic Scientists provide nice overviews of the candidates records on key nuclear nonproliferation and arms control issues. Kingston Reif, the director of nuclear nonproliferation at the Center […]
Finally the topic of foreign policy will be confronted. So far it has been a drought for U.S. foreign policy experts and lovers. The question about the attack on the U.S. embassy in Libya causing the killing of four American diplomats has been one of the very few foreign policy themes tackled so far. However, […]
Image lifted from http://paknews.pk The first thing that struck me as I read reports on Malala’s shooting was the village name: Saidu Shareef. Living in Pakistan, we have been conditioned to hear of shootings, bombings and barbarity across the country and get on with our day; unless you know someone who lives where today’s incidents took […]
I know. Shocking, isn’t it? But, that’s essentially what the Nuclear Energy Institute is saying in its totally unsurprising new report, “Nuclear Export Controls: A Comparative Analysis of National Regimes for the Control of Nuclear Materials, Components and Technology.” Issued on October 1st, the report was done by James A. Glasgow, Elina Teplinsky and Stephen L. Markus at […]
Another voice has been added to the laser enrichment debate: an editorial in the science journal Nature argues that the NRC’s decision to approve issuance of an operating license to GE-Hitachi for a laser enrichment facility was “unfortunate”, and that “The NRC should introduce rules to ensure that its future moves are better informed.” […]
For those of you who don’t agree with Senator Kyl and think the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty is actually a useful regime, this course is for you. And for those who do agree with the Senator, well, you might learn something. The CTBTO will be holding an Advanced Science Course, “Around the Globe and […]
In what is truly an abdication of responsibility, the staff of the U.S. Regulatory Commission on Tuesday approved issuance of an operating license to GE-Hitachi (GEH) for construction of the first ever laser enrichment facility. And in an uncharacteristic bureaucratic sleight-of-hand, the NRC will not make a decision on a pending petition requesting that it […]
Greg Thielmann in a recent blogpost makes a trenchant observation regarding the latest IAEA report on Iran: That, despite the generally tough tone of the report, the amount of 20-percent enriched uranium at Iran’s disposal has actually decreased rather than, as generally expected, increasing. Thielmann notes that former IAEA safeguards department chief Olli Heinonen had […]
Yesterday, commenting on an op-ed piece by Bill Keller, I generally agreed with the Times‘s former executive editor regarding the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran and expressed satisfaction that the Israeli government seemed to be getting the U.S. message regarding a possible military strike. Barely was the digital ink figuratively drying on those words when […]
Bill Keller of the New York Times had a column in the Monday paper addressing the question of whether, if we have to choose between attacking Iran militarily or getting used to the idea of Iran’s becoming a nuclear weapons state, we should gulp a few times and then just get used to a nuclear […]
The world’s worst nuclear proliferator in the modern era is at it again, this time deigning to organize a political party in Pakistan. In an interview with Simon Henderson at Foreign Policy, Khan discusses his ambitions with the recent formation of the Movement for the Protection of Pakistan — or Tehreek Tahaffuze Pakistan (TTP) in […]
This week the International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to release another status report on Iran’s nuclear program that is expected to raise new troubling concerns. It comes on the heels of the major report last fall in which the IAEA described a comprehensive nuclear weapons development program that Iran secretly conducted up until 2003 […]
In an editorial this week prompted by renewed saber-rattling by Israel’s leadership, The New York Times argues for giving Iran sanctions time to do their work and for intensified diplomacy. Though the editorial may be slightly confused in matters of detail, not to mention grammar, there is a case to be made not merely for […]
Given the criminal billions available to ambitious ‘private wealth handlers’ inside the world’s biggest banks, the historic willingness of financial institutions to ‘look the other way,’ and the paltry repercussions, fines and deferred prosecution, for AML (anti-money laundering) non-compliance—it’s clear that powerful incentives continue to drive (and reassure) high-wire account executives ISO under-the-table commissions from traffickers (1-2 percent), and big bonuses from appreciative employers…
For years, the US government, along with FATF (the talking head for the AML community), has told banks the key is to ‘know your customer.’
Wrong.
The message should be “Know your banker.”
Listen.
The easiest way for criminals to launder dirty dollars is simply to pay a banker to do it, someone who manages millions a year for a financial institution that will never look him in the eye and announce, no-punches-pulled, that money laundering is a criminal offense, the kind that can land you in jail.