Rachel Ehrenfeld, Ph.D.

Residence : Manhattan, NY

Biographical information

Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld's latest book is Funding Evil; How Terrorism is Financed and How to Stop It (Bonus Books, 2003, 2005) Her previous book are: Evil Money, Encounters Along the Money Trail (HarperCollins in 1992, SPI, 1994), and Narco-Terrorism; How Governments around the World used the Drug Trade to Finance and Further Terrorist Activities (Basic Books, 1990 & 1992). She is the director of the New York-based American Center for Democracy. Dr. Ehrenfeld is a sought-after commentator, consultant and expert witness on terror financing, international terrorism, political corruption, money laundering, drug trafficking, organized crime and their connections.

Dr. Ehrenfeld has lectured on these issues, advised banking communities, law enforcement agencies, and governments in many countries, including the U.S. Defense Department's Threat Reduction Agency, and testified in terror financing cases; before the European Parliament on the corruption of the Palestinian Authority and how it used aid money to fund its terror activities. Dr. Ehrenfeld is Board member of the Committee on the Present Danger.

Dr. Ehrenfeld's articles appear in the Wall Street Journal, The L.A. Times, The Washington Times, the National Review, the Euobserver, The Jerusalem Post, and The NY SUN. She appears as an expert commentator on television news programs, including The O'Reilly Factor, Fox News, CNN, ABC, NBC, and MSNBC. She addressed the Nixon Center, The Heritage Foundation, The Hudson Institute; The Middle East Forum; The Committee on Foreign Relations; The Commentator's Circle (London, UK), The Jerusalem Summit, the Singapore International Conference on National Security, and many other national and international events.

Dr. Ehrenfeld was a research scholar at New York University School of Law, a visiting scholar at the Columbia University Institute of War and Peace Studies, and as a fellow at Johns Hopkins's SAIS. Her Ph.D. in Criminology is from the Hebrew University School of Law.

Discussion topics

• Economic Jihad - Bin Laden promised to ruin the US economy. What are his ideological and religious justifications and what kind of help he and his likes are receiving towards the implementation of this threat. Also, how is the US responding to this threat.
• Sexual denial and Islamic terrorism; the case of the homicide bombers male and female.
• The role of Money in Jihad; There are many ways to carry out the Islamist "holy war." Money is one of the most important ingredients.
• How terrorists fund themselves - and what can we do to stop their cash flow.
• The implication of promoting Wahhabism throughout the world on US national security.
• The new anti-Semitism; the coming together of Nazi and Islamist propaganda in the Middle East and Europe.
• The US Middle East policy and its implications on US national Security.
• How can the US affect the democratization of Muslim, Arab, and Third World countries.
• The promotion of Jihad through the subversion of academic institutions in the US- Who is behind it?
• Current affairs in the Middle East and their implications on US national security.
• The role of political corruption in the destabilization of the Islamic/Arab and Third Worlds, and what can be done to change it.
• The role of international organizations in promoting corruption and terrorism: the UN, the EU, and the World Bank.
• Current political developments in Latin America and their implications on US national security.
• Narco-Terrorism: the role of the illegal drug trade in the hands of the terrorists.

« Go back to FSB home page

For more information please contact Carol Fass Publicity & Public Relations at 212.691.9707