Indo-US Deal to Rein in Terror Financing Likely in December

NEW DELHI: India and US are likely to sign an agreement to share real-time intelligence on terror financing and source of materials used in counterfeit currency during the India-US counter terrorism and Homeland Security dialogue in December. Sources said India is also close to signing a pact with US that will pave the way for exchange of terrorists’ information between Terrorist Screening Centre of USA and Indian agency.

The high-level meeting likely to be attended by Home Minister Rajnath Singh and his US counterpart, Secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, will exchange the intelligence inputs on Currency Materials Manufacturers (CMM), once the pact is signed. According to sources, the agreement will also consider cooperation in forensics, training of Indian forensic experts and testing of counterfeit currency and in identifying the sources of materials.

“Besides, exchange of intelligence on terror financing and expeditious execution of Letter Rogatory’s in terror funding cases will be part of the pact,” sources said.

Under the proposed agreement, India and US will black list the CMM if that is found to be involved in supplying machine, material of services to a country or entity known to be printing counterfeit currency notes. India and US will also prepare a joint strategy on terror financing issues during the meeting.

The US has already proposed Homeland Security Presidential Directive, a model text agreement to India for exchange of terrorist information. In US, the Terrorist Screening Centre (TSC), a single terrorist screening database of suspects is administered by the FBI.

The data in TSC is collected from different US agencies involved in terror monitoring and it includes name, nationality, date of birth, photos, fingerprints and passport numbers etc. The TSC provides near real-time identity resolution and shares information from the Terrorist Screening Database with key partners. Intelligence Bureau, which is nodal agency in India for counter-terror will be able to access US data after the pact.

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