From 9/11 to Surveillance Dollars — The Weekly

Politicology · Sep 12, 2026 · 1h 2m

Hagar Chemali (former spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations) and Nick Anthony (Policy Analyst at the Cato Institute and a Fellow at the Human Rights Foundation) join host Ron Steslow to trace how the financial surveillance regime born after 9/11 is being rebuilt for programmable money.

They begin with the machinery of financial surveillance: reporting, identification, blocking, seizing, and exclusion powers banks and payment companies wield on the government’s behalf, without warrants or recourse.

Next, they examine how private institutions became the system’s front line…