The NYTs Should Read My Blog

The New York Times is finally figuring out what is going on in the world.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 — As debate swirls about whether new international sanctions against North Korea will be effective, the Bush administration appears to have made some headway in using new American legal tools to cut off both North Korea and Iran from the international financial system.

The American campaign to use its own financial regulations to put pressure on North Korea and Iran has been a mix of implicit threats backed by explicit action, American officials and banking experts say.

Over the last year, American officials have met with many private banks overseas to warn them of the risk of doing business with certain Iranian and North Korean trading companies and businesses that the United States says have been tied to terrorist groups or to the spread of nuclear materials.

One of the main unspoken messages of the visits, experts say, is that the United States government may eventually bar American banks from working with financial institutions doing business with groups tied to terrorism.

I have been covering this since March of this year. I have also covered Hamas and Hizballah, not just Iran. (I have been light on North Korea however). Here is a short list of some of my articles on the subject.

Follow the Money
Follow the Gold
Cash Flow Jihad Bites
Squeezing Hamas' Cash Flow
Lebanon's Cash Flow Problems
Hizballah Joins the Cash Flow Jihad
Cash Flow Jihad Strikes Hamas
Cash Flow Jihad Meets Aftermath
Iran to Enter Cash Flow Jihad Zone
Iran Cash Flow Squeezed
Iran: Cash Flow Jihad (Sanctions) Update

Also note that Hamas was blindsided by the severity of the sanctions. They call it a siege. Which it is.

GAZA, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the Palestinian government, said on Thursday it could never have imagined the vast international pressure it would come under after winning democratic elections earlier this year.

In a candid article published in the Palestinian press, Ahmed Youssef, a political adviser to Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, said the group had been shocked by the strength of opposition to its electoral victory.

"It went beyond all imagination," wrote Youssef.

"The government ... did not expect the pressures and the siege imposed on our people would be so harsh, so strong and so large in scale."

Youssef's is the latest in a series of articles by Hamas officials in recent weeks either seeking to explain themselves or calling on the Palestinian community to refrain from violence and think more carefully about how it opposes Israel.

I wonder how long it will take before the Times figures out that the siege of Hamas is bending the Palestinian "government" in a more peaceful direction.

H/T Regime Change Iran