Stuart A. Levey
Stuart A. Levey (born 1963) has served as the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (a post that previously did not exist) since 21 July 2004. Under Obama he also served briefly as the as Acting Treasury Secretary until Obama nominee Timothy Geithner was confirmed to the post.[1] He studied at Harvard, and his thesis advisor was Martin Peretz. He also spent a year studying at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, where he wrote an undergraduate thesis on the extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane, the founder of Kach.[2]
According to the Washington Post, Levey, 'has a strong hand in many of President Bush's top foreign policy and national security initiatives, from counterterrorism to money laundering to weapons of mass destruction. He is the senior Treasury official overseeing a classified program that taps a global database of confidential financial records in search of terrorist transactions.'[2]
Mentors
According to the Washington Post, Levey's mentors include
Target Iran
Levey has been a leading figure inside the government pushing for sanctions against Iran. According to Ron Kampeas of JTA, Levey was 'given a big stick when the Bush administration made him the first under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.' Levey, according to Kampeas's flattering portrait, 'has made the office into a tool that has effectively squeezed Iran and North Korea and hindered the ambitions of terrorist groups.' During a 16 June 2010 press conference at the White House in which Levey announced a new set of sanctions against Iran, Tim Geithner introduced him thus:
- Stuart has been the chief architect of our strategy to impose growing financial costs on Iran for its continued defiance and he has played a major leadership role on this issue internationally.[3]
However, his efforts have been resisted by businesses. According to the Washington Post in 2006, Levey was having 'difficulty persuading allies to sign on to a plan that will cost them in Iranian trade and oil.'[2]
SWIFT Controversy
- Levey's single major brush with controversy was his role in accessing the database at SWIFT, the international grouping that coordinates interbank transactions. President George W. Bush authorized such access after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and The New York Times revealed the U.S. Treasury's use of the access in 2006...The Belgium-based grouping objected, but the story -- unlike other revelations of Bush-era privacy incursions -- slipped out of sight.[3]
Affiliations
- Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (OTFI) - director
Staff
- Molly Millerwise Meiners - Levey's spokeswoman until 2009, now works as a spokeswoman for Citigroup.
- Jonathan Schanzer - Levey's analyst, now a vice president at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies
References
- ↑ Staff Reporter, Levey to head U.S. Treasury temporarily: official, Reuters, 15 January 2009
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Dafna Linzer, 'The Money Man In the Terror Fight; Levey Helps Lead Treasury Efforts,' The Washington Post, 5 July 2006 Wednesday, SECTION: A Section; A11
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Ron Kampeas, Stuart Levey: The man trying to make anti-Iran sanctions work, JTA, 29 June 2010
