Track Bin Laden or Seize Cigars and Rum? Bush Puts Cuba Sanctions First over
Fight against Terrorism Says Center for International Policy
4/29/2004 12:01:00 PM
To: National Desk
Contact: Sarah Stephens of the Center for International Policy, 202-232-3317
WASHINGTON, April 29 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Office of Foreign Assets Control
(OFAC), the Treasury department agency charged with stopping the transit of
illegal funds to terrorist organizations, allocates more employees to
tracking Americans for Cuban embargo violations than to investigating where
and how Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein get their money, according to an
OFAC letter to Congress. (note)
In the letter from OFAC to Senators Charles Grassley and Max Baucus of the
Senate Finance Committee it was revealed that just four full-time employees
were assigned to investigating Osama bin Laden's and Saddam Hussein's wealth
while nearly two dozen were working on Cuban embargo violations.
"This outrageous misallocation of resources clearly demonstrates the
absurdity of the Bush administrations's policy toward Cuba," said Sarah
Stephens, director of the Freedom to Travel Campaign of the Center for
International Policy. "American interests would be better served if
President Bush and Secretary Snow would direct OFAC to devote all of its
resources and energies to finding the financial sources of support for the
terrorists who seek to harm our country, rather than punishing law-abiding
Americans who want to travel to Cuba."
Additionally, in a letter to OFAC director Richard Newcomb dated December
22, 2003, Senators Grassley and Baucus write: "In at least two instances
since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, news reports have
highlighted that non-U.S. agencies have identified persons linked to
terrorism and terrorism financing before OFAC did so. If this is true, it is
cause for concern..."
"We applaud Senators Grassley and Baucus for exercising their oversight
responsibilities as leaders of the Senate Finance Committee," says Stephens.
"We urge Congress to call OFAC to account: stop wasting precious budgetary
resources on Cuba travelers and devote more time and effort to straightening
out its more pressing work, like stopping terrorism and the people who
finance it. Our security problem rests not with Cuba or its rum and cigars,
but with Al Qaeda. The Bush administration may not recognize that, but the
Congress should."
Note: Treasury Agents Track Bin Laden Money by John Solomon, Associated
Press, April 29, 2004
http://www.usnewswire.com/
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