Avi Jorisch

Avi Jorisch is the founder of the Red Cell Intelligence Group, a consulting and training firm that specializes in national security issues relating to terrorism, illicit finance and radical Islam. In addition, he is an Adjunct Scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.Previously, Mr. Jorisch served as a Policy Advisor at the Treasury Department's office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, a liaison to the Department of Homeland Security and an Arab media and terrorism consultant for the Department of Defense. Mr. Jorisch also served as the Executive Director of the Coalition Against Terrorist Media, an organization comprised of Muslim, Christian, Jewish and secular organizations concerned about the role terrorist organizations play in funding various media outlets. The Coalition's advocacy campaign resulted in the removal of al-Manar programming from several major satellite providers, among other important policy changes.Mr. Jorisch is the author of Iran's Dirty Banking: How the Islamic Republic Skirts International Financial Sanctions (2010). He is also the author of Tainted Money: Winning the War on Money Laundering and Terrorism Finance? (2009) This monograph is a primer on how illicit actors raise and move their money and intended to shed light on the scope of the problem and potential solutions. Mr. Jorisch has also published a Washington Institute monograph entitled, Beacon of Hatred: Inside Hizballah's al-Manar Television (2004). This monograph is based on interviews in Lebanon and Qatar with Hizballah and other Arab media experts, a CD with al-Manar propaganda, and a history of the station and the organization. As the Institute's Soref fellow from 2001 to 2003, he specialized in Arab and Islamic politics.Mr. Jorisch holds a bachelor's degree in history from Binghamton University and a master's degree in Islamic history from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 2000 and 2001, he studied Arabic and Islamic Philosophy at the American University in Cairo and al-Azhar University, the preeminent institution of Sunni Islamic learning.Mr. Jorisch has traveled extensively in the Middle East, including Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, and Morocco. He has written at length about illicit finance, radical Islam and counter- terrorism.