Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Funding Evil How Terrorism Is Financed And How To Stop It by Rachel Ehrenfeld Rachel Ehrenfeld. Rachel Ehrenfeld is an American political commentator and is the author of several books including Funding Evil; How Terrorism is Financed and How to Stop It . She is the Director of the American Center for Democracy. Contents. Profile. From her ACD biography: [1] Dr. Ehrenfeld is the Director of the New York-based American Center for Democracy and the Center for the Study of Corruption & the Rule of Law. She is the author of FUNDING EVIL: HOW TERRORISM IS FINANCED - and HOW to STOP IT (Bonus Books, 2003, 2005); EVIL MONEY (HarperCollins, 1992, SPI, 1994) and NARCOTERRORISM (Basic Books, 1990, 1992). Dr. Ehrenfeld is an authority on the shadowy movement of funds through international banking and governments to fund "terrorism". She has a unique understanding of the challenges of international "terrorism" to democracy and freedom, and how money laundering and political corruption facilitates terror financing and economic "terrorism". An American citizen fluent in several languages, Ehrenfeld has testified before Congressional Committees, as well as the European Parliament, and provided evidence to the British Parliament, and consulted government agencies such as the Department of Defense and Homeland Security. She is also a Member of the Board of Directors of the Committee on the Present Danger [2] along with former Secretary of State George Schulz and former CIA Director James Woolsey. She has been a visiting scholar at the Columbia University Institute of War and Peace Studies, a research scholar at the New York University School of Law, and a fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and Jesus College at Cambridge University. She has a PhD in Criminology from the Hebrew University School of Law. Her articles have appeared in numerous publications such as The New York Times , Los Angeles Times , The Jerusalem Post , and The Wall Street Journal and she is a frequent guest on The O'Reilly Factor, and CNN, NBC, CNBC, FoxNews, and other TV programmes. Activities. She has worked on the Advisory Board of the Endowment for Middle East Truth. Funding Evil. 2009-02-28T22:59:01-05:00 https://images.c-span.org/Files/25c/284313-m.jpg Rachel Ehrenfeld, author of Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed and How to Stop It (Bonus Books; April 25, 2005) participated in a panel about “libel tourism.” She was sued in a British court by a Saudi financier who claimed that she libeled him in her book, Funding Evil . Because of First Amendment free speech protections, the suit was not pursued in a U.S. Court. The panelists discussed legislative and policy issues related to international libel laws and the publishing industry. They responded to questions from members of the audience. Rachel Ehrenfeld is the director of the American Center for Democracy. She is also the author of Evil Money: The Inside Story of Money Laundering and Corruption in Government , Banks and Business and Narcoterrorism: How Governments Around the World Have Used the Drug Trade to Finance and Further Terrorist Activities . Rachel Ehrenfeld, author of Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed and How to Stop It (Bonus Books; April 25, 2005) participated in a panel about… read more. Rachel Ehrenfeld, author of Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed and How to Stop It (Bonus Books; April 25, 2005) participated in a panel about “libel tourism.” She was sued in a British court by a Saudi financier who claimed that she libeled him in her book, Funding Evil . Because of First Amendment free speech protections, the suit was not pursued in a U.S. Court. The panelists discussed legislative and policy issues related to international libel laws and the publishing industry. They responded to questions from members of the audience. Rachel Ehrenfeld is the director of the American Center for Democracy. She is also the author of Evil Money: The Inside Story of Money Laundering and Corruption in Government , Banks and Business and Narcoterrorism: How Governments Around the World Have Used the Drug Trade to Finance and Further Terrorist Activities . close. ‘Libel Tourism’: When Freedom of Speech Takes a Holiday. When Rachel Ehrenfeld wrote “Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed and How to Stop It,” she assumed she would be protected by the First Amendment. She was, in the United States. But a wealthy Saudi businessman she accused in the book of being a funder of terrorism, Khalid bin Mahfouz, sued in Britain, where the libel laws are heavily weighted against journalists, and won a sizable amount of money. The lawsuit is a case of what legal experts are calling “libel tourism.” Ms. Ehrenfeld is an American, and “Funding Evil” was never published in Britain. But at least 23 copies of the book were sold online, opening the door for the lawsuit. When Ms. Ehrenfeld decided not to defend the suit in Britain, Mr. bin Mahfouz won a default judgment and is now free to sue to collect in the United States. The upshot is a First Amendment loophole. In the Internet age, almost every American book can be bought in Britain. That means American authors are subject to being sued under British libel law, which in some cases puts the initial burden on the defendant to prove the truth of what she has written. British libel law is so tilted against writers that the United Nations Human Rights Committee criticized it last month for discouraging discussion of important matters of public interest. Mr. bin Mahfouz, who has denied financing terrorism, said Ms. Ehrenfeld’s book contained inaccuracies and demanded a retraction. He also demanded a significant contribution to a charity of his choice ​ a charity Ms. Ehrenfeld said she feared would be one with ties to terrorism. Ms. Ehrenfeld, who describes herself as being “in the business of stopping people who fund terrorism,” refused to back down. “I said,” she later recalled, “he’s found the wrong victim.” Ms. Ehrenfeld rallied prominent champions of free speech to her cause, including the American Library Association, the Association of American Publishers and the PEN American Center. She also set to work trying to change American law. The New York State Legislature passed a bill that some are calling “Rachel’s law,” which blocks enforcement of libel judgments from countries that provide less free-speech protection than the United States. Gov. David Paterson signed it on May 1. A similar, bipartisan bill has been introduced in Congress. The federal bill would extend protection to the entire country. It would also allow American authors and publishers to countersue, and if a jury found that the foreign suit was an attempt to suppress protected speech, it could award treble damages. There is little opposition to it ​ and Congress should pass it before it adjourns later this month. “Libel tourism” is a threat to America’s robust free-speech traditions, which protect authors here. If foreign libel judgments can be enforced in American courts, there will be a “race to the bottom”; writers will only have as much protection as the least pro-free-speech nations allow. Most writers, particularly those who concern themselves with arcane subjects like terrorism financing, are not wealthy. The prospect of a deep- pocketed plaintiff coming after them in court can be frightening. Even if the lawsuit fails, the cost and effort involved in defending against it can be considerable. The result is what lawyers call a “chilling effect” ​ authors and publishers may avoid taking on some subjects, or challenging powerful interests. That has already been happening in Britain. Craig Unger’s “House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship Between the World’s Two Most Powerful Dynasties” was a best seller in the United States. But its British publisher canceled plans to publish the book, reportedly out of fear of being sued. (A smaller publisher later released it.) Ms. Ehrenfeld says that even in the United States, writers and publishers have been backing away from books about terrorism financing ​ particularly about the Saudi connection ​ out of fear of being sued. It is hard to know if other books are not being written out of fear of lawsuits ​ that is the essence of the chilling effect. Funding Evil How Terrorism Is Financed and How to Stop It. by Rachel Ehrenfeld Chicago and Los Angeles: Bonus Books, 2003. 267 pp. $24.95. Reviewed by Evan Kohlmann Washington, D.C. Middle East Quarterly Summer 2004. https://www.meforum.org/1602/funding-evil. In Funding Evil , a valuable contribution to the study of how money eventually appears in the pockets of terrorists, Ehrenfeld focuses on the shadowy world of the global terrorist financing network in all its intricacy and complication. She does so through an extensive study of the mechanisms used to collect and launder millions of dollars. Using informative, timely cases, she illustrates the phenomenon of fraudulent Islamic charitable fronts and unregulated hawala (debt transfer) networks, with particular emphasis on the role that illegal narcotics plays in both. While Al- Qaeda and its affiliates are a major topic of inquiry, there is also extensive discussion of the parallel financial networks of other militant movements —including Hamas and Hizbullah—to which cash continues to flow, despite the substantial progress made by intelligence and law enforcement since September 11. Ehrenfeld makes specific and useful suggestions for "tools to fight terrorist financing"—ideas to be taken seriously by contemporary Western policymakers. In particular, she recognizes that resolving corruption and cronyism in the developing world is key to eliminating the underlying problem of international terrorist financing. Unfortunately, factual errors mar the book, perhaps a consequence of a regrettable lack of primary sources for many of the case studies.