Terror Financing Fines Fall After 9/11

[OhioChick]

WASHINGTON - Despite the Bush administration's pledge to battle terrorist financing, the government's average penalty against companies doing business with countries listed as terrorist-sponsoring states fell sharply after the Sept. 11 attacks, an Associated Press analysis of federal records shows.

The average penalty for a company doing business with Iran, Iraq (news - web sites), North Korea (news - web sites), Sudan or Libya dropped nearly threefold, from more than $50,000 in the five years before the 2001 attacks to about $18,700 afterward, according to a computer-assisted analysis of federal records.

After the attacks, Bush grouped North Korea, Iran and Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s Iraq together as an "axis of evil" countries with both weapons of mass destruction and links to terrorists.

A Treasury Department (news - web sites) spokeswoman said that despite the smaller average fines, the administration was doing a good job of enforcing economic penalties against nations considered sponsors of terrorism. Molly Millerwise said the department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, "is committed to ensuring that U.S. entities abide by U.S. sanction laws. We are not in the business of making money."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&u=/ap/20041107/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/terror_financing&printer=1

[KDLarsen]

1. Of course..

.. how on earth would the countries otherwise gain the equipment that Bush* is going to use as an excuse to invade them?

[Moderator]

2. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x967764