228 THE BiG DROP
from U.S. equity and fixed-income investments.
It may be an easy way to participate in a good growth story
abroad. I encourage you to take a closer look at it.■ The Risks of Owning Bitcoin
In late 2014, I met with senior officers of the U.S. Special
Operations Command (USSOCOM) in a secure location near
their headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base.
USSOCOM includes the Navy SEALS, DELTA Force, Green
Berets, and other highly trained and specialized units operating
under joint military command to carry out the most difficult
combat and intelligence missions. They conduct these missions
both alone, and in conjunction with CIA paramilitary units de-
pending on the theatre of operations.
The particular unit of USSOCOM that sponsored our meeting
was “J36,” the Transnational Threats Division. J36 is command-
ed by U.S. Army Lt. Col. Joshua J. Potter, and is assigned the
task of detecting, disrupting and defeating threat networks that
transcend geographic and regional boundaries. Such networks
are both criminal and terrorist in nature, and may be involved
in narco-terrorism and terrorist finance among other activities.
Our meeting was attended not only by USSOCOM opera-
tors but also by members of other combat commands includ-
ing CENTCOM and AFRICOM, and other government agencies
including the U.S. Treasury, CIA and the Federal Reserve. Our
purpose was to consider ways to disrupt financial support for
the Islamic State and other transnational actors.
In particular, the Islamic State and associated terrorist
groups have the ability to use crypto-digital currencies such
as Bitcoin to transfer funds from wealthy Saudi Wahhabi sup-
porters to arms dealers and other suppliers of provisions and
services. We had assembled financial and computer experts
to work with the USSOCOM operators to disrupt the use of