U.S. prepares to sanction Sudanese companies

Source: CNN:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush’s envoy to Sudan said Wednesday the administration is preparing to impose new economic sanctions because of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s refusal to allow U.N. peacekeepers to deploy to Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region.

Pending Bush’s final approval, envoy Andrew Natsios said, Sudanese companies will be subject to sanctions, and international transactions involving U.S. dollars will be blocked.

“I don’t want to presuppose the decision that the president is going to make,” he said. “It is pretty clear the president is angrier than anyone else. He gets very upset when he talks to me about the situation. He gets very frustrated by it.”

Later, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the world will have to consider new options, possibly further action by the United Nations.

“Of course the international community is going to have to look at other options. We are, indeed, looking at other options, including options that might require further U.N. action,” Rice told reporters after a discussion at the State Department with Israel’s foreign minister, Tzipi Livni.

“It’s simply the case that the Sudanese government needs to recognize that the international community can’t stand idly by while people suffer, while we’re unable to deliver humanitarian assistance to people and while the violence against innocent civilians continues,” Rice said.

Natsios spoke during a telephone conference call in which officials from humanitarian groups and other non-governmental organizations participated.

Al-Bashir made known his disapproval of the U.N. plan in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, details of which emerged earlier this week. Under the plan, a hybrid U.N.-African Union force totaling 22,000 military and civilian personnel would be deployed in Darfur.

“I was stunned by the letter,” Natsios said, adding it was practically an invitation by al-Bashir to “sanction us, come after us.”

Over the past four years, some 200,000 Darfurians have died and more than 2.5 million been displaced from their homes because of civil strife. The United States blames mostly the Sudanese government and government-backed militias for the “genocidal” situation.

Scenes of suffering in the region have produced an outpouring of concern and demands for international action to protect and provide for the victims.

The humanitarian situation is so grave that some members of Congress have recommended U.S. military action. But that idea appears to have scant support.

Though Darfur has seen repeated civil strife over the years, the violence of the past four years has been extraordinary.

U.S. to bar banks from business with Macau’s BDA

Source: CNN. Also an earlier CNN report.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The U.S. Treasury Department will bar U.S. banks from doing business with a Macau bank holding frozen North Korean assets believed connected to illegal activities, a U.S. official said on Tuesday.

The move would clear the way for Macau authorities to decide whether to release some of the frozen accounts — an estimated $8 million to $12 million — Pyongyang has demanded as a condition of negotiations on its nuclear program, other U.S. officials said.

Releasing the funds could take weeks and Washington’s prohibition on U.S. banks will continue to complicate the North’s access to the international financial system. This is expected to irritate Pyongyang and could shake efforts to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, officials and experts said.

For the past 18 months the Treasury Department has been investigating the Banco Delta Asia bank, known as BDA, over charges the institution for years accepted proceeds from North Korea’s counterfeiting, drug-smuggling and money-laundering operations.

As a result, Macau authorities who oversee the bank froze $24 million in North Korean accounts, causing Pyongyang to boycott six-country talks on its nuclear program for more than a year.

The figure is a fraction of the $500 million to $1 billion Pyongyang earns annually from criminal activity, according to the Library of Congress’ Congressional Research Service.

Some $15 million to $25 million is from high-quality counterfeiting U.S. currency, according to a report by the office of Republican Rep. Ed Royce of California.

Under a limited nuclear agreement reached with North Korea on February 13, the United States promised to resolve the BDA issue and the decision will be announced this week.

Announcement soon

“We plan to finalize the rule on BDA this week, most likely Wednesday or Thursday,” a U.S. official told Reuters on condition on anonymity. “Finalizing the rule means that U.S. banks can no longer open or maintain correspondent accounts for or on behalf of BDA.”

The decision to release any funds rests with the China-administered enclave of Macau. U.S. officials have said they expect between one-third and one-half of the $24 million to be released, reflecting accounts determined not to be connected to illicit activity.

The United States is expected to transmit results of its investigation, highlighting high-risk North Korea-related clients, to Macau authorities, who could take several weeks or longer to decide what funds to release.

China is concerned about the cloud of suspicion the U.S. decision will leave over BDA. Some U.S. officials say North Korea likely will reject the way Washington has chosen to interpret its promise to resolve the case.

The officials acknowledge Macau has taken steps to clean up its jurisdiction by tightening banking requirements and promoting transparency but say BDA’s shortcomings were systemic largely involving U.S. concerns about the bank’s ownership.

“Our concerns about the bank’s ownership have not been resolved,” another U.S. official said.

In 2005, the Treasury Department designated BDA as a “primary money-laundering concern [because it was a] willing pawn for the North Korean government to engage in corrupt financial activities.”

Some U.S. officials and experts have long wanted to resolve the dispute so Pyongyang would come back to six-party negotiations and the focus could be on persuading the North to abandon its nuclear program, rather than counterfeiting.

A shutdown of North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear plant by mid-April is the centerpiece of the February 13 accord reached in six-party talks grouping North and South Korea, Japan, Russia, the United States and host China.

Army Sergeant saves two ANP with quick response

CENCOM:

“We talk a lot in this culture about heroes and for some reason we think professional athletes are heroes, rock stars are heroes, and movie stars are heroes. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a hero.” That is how one lieutenant described Sgt. Taylor, because Taylor’s modesty would surely prevent him from ever describing himself as a “hero.”

On Feb. 22, 2006, Taylor and his intelligence team headed out to search for roadside bombs in a volatile region of Afghanistan. They had received word that a bomb had exploded in the area the night before, so his team – a combination of Afghan national police officers, Army intelligence personnel, and U.S. military police – planned to gather any information and evidence about the explosion. By studying the bomb’s components, they might be able to determine who manufactured it – and how to protect against similar devices in the future.

They climbed to the top of a ridge to scout the valley below, where the bomb was supposed to be. There were no civilians in sight, which instantly put Taylor on alert. The wooden box supposedly holding the shards of the bomb drew the team’s attention. Yet, instead of pieces of an exploded bomb, the box held a receiver for an anti-tank landmine – and a large rocket. Having hardly any time to think, Taylor grabbed the two Afghan police officers near him and jumped on top of them in a ditch, just as the weapon exploded. The flying shrapnel found its mark with Taylor – but his body armor protected him from serious injury. The Afghans had been wearing only flannel shirts, and so were saved by Taylor’s split-second decision. For his actions, he was awarded the Bronze Star with “V” on Jan. 6, 2007.

Photo: Army Reserve Sgt. Ryan Taylor.

“Palestine is Our Concern and the Concern of Every Muslim” – An Audio Speech by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri Presented by as-Sahab

By SITE Institute

The voice of Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, the number two individual in al-Qaeda, is featured in a twenty-one minute speech titled: “Palestine is Our Concern and the Concern of Every Muslim”, which was issued by al-Qaeda’s multimedia production arm, as-Sahab, today, Sunday, March 11, 2007. The speech is presented in a video format with a static image of Zawahiri in a right panel, and al-Aqsa Mosque in the left; English subtitles are also provided. Zawahiri references recent current events, such as the Taliban suicide bombing targeting U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan on February 27, giving him a “fine welcome”, indicating the audio recording to have been made recently.

Focus is placed upon the Hamas government and its alleged neglect of Palestinian Muslims in particular and Islam in general as they have acquiesced to international diplomacy, giving “respect” to past peace accords with Israel. Zawahiri believes that Hamas has “sunk in the swamp of surrender”, and has committed an act similar to deceased Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s reorganization of Israel to only maintain power in a “farcical” government authority. As Hamas has apparently abandoned its militant position, accepting bargaining over “martyrdom operation”, Zawahiri calls upon Muslims to reject politics and engage in jihad against the enemy. He states: “they must continue their Jihad in Allah’s path until the liberation of every land of Islam invaded by the infidels, from Spain to Iraq, and until the Word of Allah is supreme and the Caliphate returns to protect the sanctuary of Islam and spread its Shari’ah.”

Zawahiri argues within this appeal for physical jihad that American strength is waning and is suffering from defeats in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as such, “backtracking” in the jihadi project, such as he perceived Hamas to espouse, in impermissible. Confirming an American struggle in the fields of battle, Zawahiri also references the Baghdad security conference which may speed their withdrawal from Iraq. However, he reminds that to negotiate with the Iraqi government and Arab leaders is fruitless, for they are not the “real powers” in the Islamic world. Continuing to build a case against Western moral bankruptcy in its relationship with Muslims, Zawahiri cites hypocrisy in trials involving the International Criminal Court, particularly as it relates to genocide in Bosnia and war crimes in Darfur. He questions: “Who gave these murders the right to appoint judges to interfere in the affairs of Muslims? What right does the Security Council have to interfere in the affairs of Muslims, and set up the courts which acquit this one and condemn that one, when the hands of its criminal members drip with the blood of Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Algeria, Chechnya and East Turkistan? How can America refer the case of Darfur to an international court which it itself doesn’t recognize and refuses to be subject to? What sort of tyranny is this world ruled by?”

The video and transcript are provided to our Intel Service members.