David Cohen, CIA's Deputy Director
Some trivia/history regarding:

PAKISTAN
TERROR FINANCING
GEOPOLITICS

I thought this may be useful (probably not!) in gaining some *small* insight into Biden Administration's relationship with CIA & how they may view dealing with Pakistan.

David Cohen has had a successful career in many enterprises, especially related to law & finance. Even working with Govt. institutions, he has often undertaken financial law related activities, including related to terror financing.

Deputy Director or not, one should be aware that David Cohen is not the person to take lightly & is highly respected & regarded- his opinion counts, to whatever degree.

An article in The New Yorker showed Cohen to have maps in his office of areas in New York which had "Significant concentrations of Pakistanis" or something similar. One can anticipate what his opinion of Pakistan & terror financing could potentially be.

The NYPD itself has actually been involved in arrests & interrogations of terror suspects in Afghanistan & Pakistan. So, no doubt, David Cohen himself will have had some significant influence in some cases or in the overall structure.

Cohen worked as Acting Deputy General Counsel with US Treasury Department in 1999. Cohen is unofficially credited with "crafting legislation that forked the basis of Title III" of the controversial USA PATRIOT Act which deals with money laundering.

Cohen says about this: “The Patriot Act helps the F.B.I. do its job. And that’s good for us. I’m too busy to see if the F.B.I. abuses its powers.”

You should perceive from this of Cohen as somebody that has a strong sense of justice r.e US interests & is unafraid of saying his opinion or taking action upon them, regardless of who he is dealing with.

Cohen has even previously reprimanded US ally Kuwait saying: "we have a real challenge with the Kuwaiti government. Kuwait is the only government in the GCC that does not criminalize terrorist financing."

Cohen was appointed as Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing by Obama in 2015. He has been described by members of the Obama administration as a "financial Batman" and one of the president's "favorite combatant commanders"

You can probably guess that Cohen, like the Democrats, will likely have a more "Obama" style opinion of Pakistan & terror financing.

Cohen was appointed Deputy Director of the CIA in 2015 under the Obama administration. This contrasts with the usual military/intelligence officers being selected. This shows Cohen is highly regarded & his legal-finance minded perspective is the likely angle he will again take.

2 years later, as Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, he presided over a 700-person, $200 million-a-year counterterrorism office within the Treasury, created after 9/11 attacks.

This included the Office of Foreign Assets Control, which implements U.S. economic sanctions. You can imagine that Cohen still has influence with FATF & this could be important for Pakistan to understand.

With Biden administration being more austere than Trump towards Pakistan & Afghanistan, Pakistan should forsee that allowing terror financing will come with more significant risks this term.

Pak remains on FATF's "grey list" & OFAC can influentially change that, for good/bad.

While David Cohen is Deputy Director only, it is pertinent to consider the direction of Biden administration & those they select for posts of this magnitude.

From a Pakistani perspective, I would say that Pak, heading into a new era of fenced borders, CPEC, Afghan Peace Deal etc has too much to lose from being blacklisted by FATF. India, on the other hand, may be afforded leniency WRT Balochistan.

US have several strategic interests in Balochistan related to China- their primary threat & India is seen as highly important in balancing China's influence. Don't expect that we can play a tit for tat game with India WRT terrorism in Kashmir/India.

Pakistan's focus has been heavily leaning towards China, without considering complexities of US interests in the region. Pakistan has made significant effort to clamp down on terror financing, but that may not be enough.

Pakistan may have been bullish during Trump admin, but the Democrats have their own long term ideas on what Pakistan's role in terrorism is & what Pakistan as a future "partner" may be. I'd say Cohen as CIA Deputy Director indicates a pivot back to Obama era of viewing Pakistan.

My biggest fear is that Pakistan has only home out of its way since Kayani era to antagonise US & this extends to terror financing. Democrats relationship with Pakistan is not great, so I see Cohen back in his office as something to really consider.

In general, Pakistan must find a better way of balancing it's interests in Afghanistan, with those of US & find a way to not let Balochistan/CPEC/China create a situation for us that will be seen as a reason to view us as a strategic enemy for the US.

Sorry for the long, boring & probably useless thread!

Apologies for typos in advance.