Trump Admin Unveils Executive Order Expanding Counterterrorism Sanctions
The Trump administration has unveiled a new executive order aimed at expanding the power to impose counterterrorism sanctions.
According to The Hill:
The Trump administration on Tuesday unveiled a new executive order to expand counterterrorism sanctions, which officials said would make it easier to target terrorists and their financiers.
“Foreign financial institutions are now on notice that they risk sanctions if they knowingly conduct or facilitate any significant transactions with designated terrorists and terrorist enablers,” President Trump said in a statement accompanying the executive order.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin detailed the measure during a briefing with reporters at the White House, but the announcement was overshadowed by the firing of national security adviser John Bolton, who had been scheduled to attend the event, just two hours earlier.
The executive order amends a previous directive to allow the State and Treasury Departments to directly target leaders of terrorist groups and associated entities without having to tie them to specific acts, Pompeo said.
Mnuchin also stated that this expanded power allows the administration to deter terrorism worldwide.
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About The Author
Trump should keep John Bolton. He has much knowledge and experience to help POTUS. Pompeo and Bolton make a solid team to help Trump. Trump should not withdraw precipitously from Afghanistan. If he does, ISIS, Al Qaeda, and the Taliban will quickly overwhelm the existing democratically-elected government and we will be forced eventually to go back in.
The Afghani government needs to be incentivized to more vigorously work to defeat the Taliban. They currently take advantage of our monetary contributions without sufficient incentives to do their part. Both sides claim that use of opium is a sin, but they resist their own convictions for the money it brings to them. We should tell them that if we are to continue to help them, that all of the opium growing their fields must be destroyed and kept destroyed every year. This is the primary monetary income for both sides, and a shameful scourge on the world. This would dry up the Taliban’s support. The Afghanis should learn English and USA soldiers who wish should learn Afghani. This would greatly facilitate communication between Americans and Afghanis. Muslim scholars who deny the teachings of the radicals should be brought in to defeat their radical teachings. The blessings of republican democracies should be espoused as a substitute for them, such as those currently successfully practiced in Malaysia and Indonesia. Afghanistan should then be helped to grow economically using their own natural resources, manufacturing, and entrepreneurial projects without resorting to illicit drug production.