Maybe someone can explain this to me, because I can’t figure it out.
The Treasury Department agency entrusted with blocking the financial resources of terrorists has assigned five times as many agents to investigate Cuban embargo violations as it has to track Osama bin Laden’s and Saddam Hussein’s money, documents show.
In addition, the Office of Foreign Assets Control said that between 1990 and 2003 it opened just 93 enforcement investigations related to terrorism. Since 1994 it has collected just $9,425 in fines for terrorism financing violations.
In contrast, OFAC opened 10,683 enforcement investigations since 1990 for possible violations of the long-standing economic embargo against Fidel Castro’s regime, and collected more than $8 million in fines since 1994, mostly from people who sent money to, did business with or traveled to Cuba without permission.
The figures, included in a lengthy letter OFAC sent to Congress late last year and provided to The Associated Press this week, prompted Republicans and Democrats alike to question whether OFAC has failed to adjust from the Cold War to the war on terrorism.
That last point was encouraging. This has nothing to do with partisanship and everything to do with misplaced administration priorities.
Dems were outraged:
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., threatened Thursday to start an effort in Congress to eliminate some funding for OFAC if more resources weren’t put toward the bin Laden and Saddam efforts.
“This is really astounding,” Dorgan said. “I hope somebody in the administration will soon come to his or her senses and start directing our resources where they are needed. Politics is clearly diverting precious time, money and manpower away from the war on terrorism here.”
And so were Republicans:
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the chairman of the tax-writing Senate panel, agreed.
“OFAC obviously needs to enforce the law with regard to U.S. policy on Cuba, but the United States is at war against terrorism, and al-Qaida is the biggest threat to our national security,” Grassley said. “Cutting off the blood money that has financed Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden must be a priority when it comes to resources.”
The administration’s response wasn’t exactly reassuring.
The Treasury Department, which oversees OFAC, said its workers “fully utilize the resources and tools available to us to protect our nation and the good-willing people around the world from those who seek to harm us, be they terrorist thugs or fascist dictators.”
That’s great, but there has to be a recognized threat hierarchy, right? Castro is a thug and a vicious dictator, but he never orchestrated a terrorist attack on the United States that killed 3,000 people and touched off a war on terrorism.
Kudos to Sen. Max Baucus, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, who initially requested the data from OFAC.