Watching President Obama, President Sarkozy, and Prime Minister Brown discuss the existence of a new Iranian nuclear facility this morning, I was eerily reminded of the briefing by NY District Attorney Robert Morgenthau that Global Financial Integrity and the American Interest sponsored a couple of weeks ago.  Mr. Morgenthau warned of a growing relationship between Iran and Venezuela – a relationship that is fueling Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons and which  he believes poses a major threat to the United States.

In his remarks, Mr. Morgenthau details how Iran is setting up shell corporations and bank accounts in Venezuela so as to gain access to the US financial system.  The news from this morning serves only to highlight the dangers that we face from a nuclear Iran.  But the fact  of the matter is that Iran cannot finance its nuclear ambitions without access to the international financial system.  Not until we have abolished shell corporations and brought transparency to the global financial system will we be able to effectively contain Iran.

We talk a lot about the need for transparency as a development imperative on this blog, and it certainly is one.  However, transparency is not just a development issue; it’s of major national security importance as well.

Read Mr. Morgenthau’s full remarks here…

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