2001 USA Patriot Act

Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. Talk about an acronym. This here was a series of laws enacted after 9/11 to prevent terrorists from laundering money and using the stock market to fund their illegal activities.

The relevant part when it comes to money is Title III of the Act. It's called the "International Money Laundering Abatement and Financial Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001" (seriously, who names these things?). That part of the act requires banks to report suspected money-laundering activities and to create tougher rules to prevent money laundering in the first place. It also makes it tougher to do some types of high-falutin' banking between U.S. banks and financial institutions around the world.

9/11

On September 11th, 2001, America suffered a terrorist attack of massive proportions at the hands of the Islamist extremist group Al Qaeda. The terrorists hijacked four planes and flew them into various targets, including the World Trade Center in NYC. The attacks left over 3,000 Americans dead and united the nation in shock and sorrow.

Iran Hostage Crisis

During Jimmy Carter's administration, Iran's U.S.-supported monarch was overthrown by the supporters of the Shi'a fundamentalist Ayatollah Khomeini. When America offered refuge to the exiled shah (a.k.a. king), rebels marched on the American embassy in Tehran, holding all Americans inside hostage. The hostages were held for 440 days as the nation watched, disgusted that the Carter administration appeared to be doing nothing to alleviate the situation.

Iraq War

While America was busy waging war on terrorists in Afghanistan, Bush also declared war on Iraq based on the belief that Saddam Hussein was building a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. It later turned out we had some bad intel, as these weapons were never found. Many Americans began to really question the decision to enter the war once this critical piece of information came to light.

OPEC

The acronym stands for Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and consists of an economic alliance of Middle Eastern and African nations. During the 1970s, it became apparent that America was greatly dependent on OPEC for the vast majority of its energy needs and was thus subject to its whims. Inflation of oil prices during the Carter years made America look for alternate answers to its energy needs.

Shah

Shah is the Persian word for king or emperor. Yep—picture a guy with a crown and scepter and you have a Shah. He rules all.

Sunni Islam

The most popular branch of Islam. Sunni Muslims hold that no person after Muhammad has had any particular spiritual authority given by God, and thus all questions of faith should be directed to holy scriptures.

Terrorism

Terrorism involves scaring people (or a government) into doing what you want. That typically means using violence or the threat of violence as leverage, though you could probably do a lot of damage just by waving around a jar full of spiders (don't get any ideas). These days, a lot of us are most familiar with terrorism perpetrated by fringe political groups (e.g. the IRA and Al Qaeda), but governments can also use terroristic tactics to keep their own citizens in line.

War On Terror

The 9/11 attack introduced America to a new kind of warfare—terrorism. A terrorist organization had attacked America on its own soil, and President Bush declared that we would make no distinction between terrorists themselves and the countries that harbored them. This declaration of war on terrorist organizations led America into two seemingly never-ending conflicts in the Middle East.