Matthew Levitt to Assume Senior Treasury Department Counter Terrorism Position
By Andrew Cochran
Matthew Levitt has been appointed the deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury Department for intelligence and analysis in the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crime, effective on Monday, November 14. Matthew turned the Terrorism Research Program at The Washington Institute into a top-flight center for private intelligence gathering and the analysis of Islamic terrorism. Matthew had to cut back here recently while he was under consideration for the job, but his posts throughout his tenure were imporant and enlightening on subjects such as the major Hamas office in Saudi Arabia; the need to compete with Hamas in providing social sevices to Palestinians; the Hezbollah drug ring captured in Ecuador; the capture of top Al Qaeda operative Abu Faraj al-Libbi in Pakistan; and many more. I sincerely appreciate his wise counsel in developing this site, and we will miss his contributions here. The President and Treasury Secretary Snow have picked a terrific man for this critical position in the fight to block terrorist financing, and we confidently look forward to Matthew's success there. And we look forward to his return here on the day after he leaves the Treasury Department.