Reps. Maloney and Bilirakis Succeed in Effort Regarding Designation of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

Reps. Maloney and Bilirakis Succeed in Effort Regarding Designation of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

WASHINGTON, DC - Legislation to encourage the expansion of NATO, the "NATO Freedom Consolidation Act of 2007," has been cleared for the White House with the inclusion of language referring to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia or "FYROM" as such when referring to that entity. The bill, which had been passed by both the House and the Senate, differed in this designation with only S. 494 including the "FYROM" language. Co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus on Hellenic Issues, Representatives Carolyn B. Maloney (NY-14) and Gus M. Bilirakis (FL-09), sent letters to Chairmen Lantos and Biden and Ranking Members Ros-Lehtinen and Lugar of the House and Senate Foreign Affairs and Relations Committees urging them to include the Senate language. The full text of the Representatives' letters can be found at: http://maloney.house.gov/documents/hellenic/20070326_Conferees_FYROM.pdf .

"I am pleased that Congress continues to refer to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia as such when considering legislation," Maloney said. "We must respect the ongoing negotiations between Greece and the FYROM to resolve the name dispute, and I applaud my colleagues for accepting the Senate language on this matter."

Background:

Established in 1996, the Congressional Caucus on Hellenic Issues works to foster and improve relations between the United States and Greece. The Caucus brings a renewed congressional focus on key diplomatic, military, and human rights issues in a critical part of the world. The members of the Caucus introduce legislation, arrange briefings on current events, and disseminate information to interested parties. The topics on which the Caucus focuses include U.S. aid to Greece and Cyprus, the conflict in Cyprus, U.S. relations with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the status of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and developments in the Aegean. In the 110th Congress, the Caucus has more than 120 members.

Joe Soldevere

 A city strikes again, &c.

By Jay Nordlinger

 

US bill would force insurers to name Jewish clients in Holocaust

29 March 2007

Agence France Presse

       

WASHINGTON, March 28, 2007 (AFP) -

US lawmakers introduced legislation Wednesday that requires insurance companies doing business in the United States to reveal all Holocaust-era insurance policy holders.

The measure allows Holocaust victims and their descendants to sue in US courts to settle claims, estimated at billions of dollars, one of the bill's sponsors, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican Florida representative, said in a statement.

A week ago an international commission created to make sure insurance companies honored Holocaust-era claims wrapped up its work, saying that more than 300 million dollars had been paid to more than 48,000 claimants.

The ICHEIC, created in 1998, said it had rejected more than 43,000 claims for various reasons, including the failure of claimants to prove the policy holders were dead.

But the US lawmakers said the International Commission on Holocaust-Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC) had failed to adequately address the issue.

According to the legislation, experts estimate that insurers owe between

 

US bill would force insurers to name Jewish clients in Holocaust

29 March 2007

Agence France Presse

       

WASHINGTON, March 28, 2007 (AFP) -

US lawmakers introduced legislation Wednesday that requires insurance companies doing business in the United States to reveal all Holocaust-era insurance policy holders.

The measure allows Holocaust victims and their descendants to sue in US courts to settle claims, estimated at billions of dollars, one of the bill's sponsors, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican Florida representative, said in a statement.

A week ago an international commission created to make sure insurance companies honored Holocaust-era claims wrapped up its work, saying that more than 300 million dollars had been paid to more than 48,000 claimants.

The ICHEIC, created in 1998, said it had rejected more than 43,000 claims for various reasons, including the failure of claimants to prove the policy holders were dead.

But the US lawmakers said the International Commission on Holocaust-Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC) had failed to adequately address the issue.

According to the legislation, experts estimate that insurers owe between

 

House Approves Nonproliferation Initiatives
Pomper, Miles A

1 March 2007

Arms Control Today

The House of Representatives approved several nonprolifcration initiatives in January as part of a broader bill to fully implement the recommendations of an independent commission that investigated the September 1 1 terrorist attacks.

Implementing a campaign pledge of new Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the House approved the measure 299-128 on Jan. 9 in one of the first pieces of legislation of the new Democratic-controlled Congress. Congressional aides said that they expect the measure eventually to be reconciled in a House-Senate conference committee with similarly broad legislation approved Feb. 15 by the Senate Governmental Affairs and Homeland security Committee.

The 9/11 Commission, formally known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, had warned in 2004 that "the greatest danger of another catastrophic attack in the United States" comes from weapons of mass destruction (WMUJ. (see ACT, September 2004.)

Key provisions in the House bill would lift legal roadblocks to providing aid to Russia and other former Soviet states to safeguard or destroy nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons stockpiles as well as associated delivery vehicles and facilities; create a White House office to coordinate U.S. efforts to prevent WML) proliferation and terrorism as well as establish an independent commission guiding U.S efforts; and seek to use sanctions and foreign aid to prevent the emergence of new black market nuclear networks.

The House bill would overturn longstanding requirements that bar the disbursement of threat reduction monies unless the president annually certifies that former Soviet states receiving the aid are committed to meeting several criteria, including compliance with all arms control agreements. In December 2005, Congress granted the president permanent authority to annually waive those restrictions but stopped short of eliminating them outright. (see ACT, January/February 2006.)

The certification requirement became a major hurdle to threat reduction activities in Russia and other former Soviet states in 2002 when President George W. Hush refused to certify Russia's commitment to complying with treaties banning chemical and biological weapons. That refusal, the first since the program began in 1991, triggered a freeze of some threat reduction funds, stalling projects aimed at securing and dismantling surplus weapons and their fabrication facilities.

The bill included another provision that would create a new Senate-confirmed White House coordinator of efforts to counter the proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, particularly to terrorist groups.

Democrats have long campaigned for such a coordinator, saying that greater coherence needs to be brought to scattered efforts across the government. But the idea has won little support from the White House itself, which sees it as simply adding additional bureaucracy. Moreover, budget authority for individual programs would still remain with the relevant agencies.

In a related provision, the measure would establish a nine-member independent commission to assess the current initiatives in this area and recommend steps for moving forward.

A newer initiative included in the bill seeks to prevent the recurrence of black market nuclear networks like the one fashioned by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. Khan's network is said to have provided technology for enriching uranium to Iran, Libya, and North Korea.

It would require the president to impose sanctions for the transfer of enrichment or reprocessing materials or technology to some non-nuclear-weapon states that did not have functioning enrichment or reprocessing plants as of Jan. 1, 2004. In particular, penalties would be required if the transfers went to states that did not have in force an additional protocol to their safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) or had a nuclear weapons program. The most sweeping sanctions would include suspensions of arms licenses and foreign aid to countries that host such black market networks. However, these sanctions could be waived by the president.

Both uranium enrichment and the reprocessing of spent fuel for plutonium can provide the fissile material for nuclear weapons. Additional protocols provide IAEA inspectors with greater authority to investigate allegations of undeclared weapons programs.

The passage of the nonproliferation provisions was a victory for Democrats, such as Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), who have unsuccessfully pushed similar legislation in the previous Republicancontrolled Congress.

Tauscher told the House that, "[f] |or too long, the Bush administration and their congressional allies have left nonproliferation on the back burner. The bill before us today provides the tools we need to fight the threat of the world's most dangerous weapons."

Many Republicans, however, objected both to the broad scope of the bill and individual provisions. In particular, Rep. IIeana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), ranking member of the House foreign Affairs Committee, sought to strip a provision that would encourage the Hush administration to seek UN security Council authorization for its Proliferation security Initiative (PSI). The 2003 initiative launched by the United States aims to interdict shipments of weapons of mass destruction and related goods to terrorists and countries of proliferation concern.

"Giving the United Nations the ability to define what is permissible under the PSI will result in the imposition of unpredictable limitations, unpredictable conditions, and unpredictable interpretations and would result in a regulatory straightjacket overseen by the international bureaucracy," Ros-Lehtinen said. "If this recommendation were followed, the PSI would be undermined."

Democrats, however, countered that the provision was aimed at broadening international support for the PSI. The motion failed on a largely party-line vote of 198-230.

-MILES A. POMPER

 

U.S. congressional panel calls for expediting opening of Nazi files

English

(c) 2007. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

WASHINGTON (AP) - A U.S. congressional committee approved a resolution Tuesday calling for expediting the opening of millions of Nazi files on concentration camps and their victims.

Earlier this month, an 11-nation body overseeing the long-secret archive set procedures to open the war records stored in Bad Arolsen, Germany by the end of the year. But before the material can be accessed, all the member countries must ratify an agreement adopted last year to end the 60-year ban on using the files for research.

The resolution approved by the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives calls on the member countries who have not yet ratified to do so quickly in the interest of many Holocaust survivors, who may not have much time left to live.

Israel, the United States, Poland and the Netherlands have completed ratification.

Germany, Britain and Luxembourg have said they would ratify before the commission meets again in May. National elections in France and Belgium could cause delays in those countries, officials said, and the status in Italy and Greece was unclear.

The Associated Press, which was granted extensive access to the archive in recent months on condition that victims are not fully identified, has drawn attention to the importance of the documents.

AP researchers have seen a vast array of letters by Nazi commanders, Gestapo orders and vivid testimony from victims and observers of the brutality of camp life and the "death marches" when camps were ordered cleared of prisoners at the end of the war.

While much has been written about the Holocaust, scholars say the Bad Arolsen files will fill in gaps in history and provide a unique perspective gained from seeing original Nazi letters, the minutiae of the concentration camps' structures, slave labor records and uncounted testimonies of victims and ordinary Germans who witnessed the brutality of the Gestapo.

In the last 60 years, the Tracing Service has responded to 11 million requests from survivors and their families, but the overwhelming number of inquiries led to delays lasting years and resulted in only the sketchiest of replies. Once the files are available in Washington, Jerusalem and other locations, survivors will be able to search for information under the normal rules of each archive.

With the congressional committee's approval Tuesday, the resolution must be passed by the full House to take effect.

The files have been used since the 1950s to help locate missing persons or uncover the fate of people who disappeared during the Third Reich. Later, the files were also used to validate claims for compensation.

Only personnel of the Tracing Service, an arm of the International Committee of the Red Cross, had access to the files, which fill 16 miles (26 kilometers) of gray metal filing cabinets and cardboard binders in six nondescript buildings in the central German resort town.

Separately, Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen plans to introduce legislation Wednesday that would require insurance companies operating in the U.S. to disclose all Holocaust-era insurance policies.

The legislation would also allow Holocaust victims and descendants to sue in U.S. courts to settle claims.

Authors of the legislation hope the opening of the Bad Arolsen files can provide many descendants documents that would facilitate claims against insurance companies including death records and specific insurance policies confiscated by the Nazis.

"Although it has been more than 60 years since the end of WWII, insurance companies and many of the European governments have refused to disclose these documents, prolonging the injustice," said Ros-Lehtinen in a statement.

 

Afghan drug post created

By Shaun Waterman

UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

March 28, 2007

The Bush administration has created a post to coordinate efforts against drug smuggling and corruption in Afghanistan, and named a State Department official to the job.

    The White House named Thomas Schweich to be coordinator for counternarcotics and justice reform in Afghanistan.

    The announcement noted that Mr. Schweich, who currently oversees part of that portfolio as the principal deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement at the State Department, would be granted the personal rank of ambassador in the post.

    White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore told United Press International that the ambassador rank was a technical appointment "necessary for him to hold negotiations with foreign countries" in the new post and was not Senate confirmable.

    For additional information, she referred a reporter to the State Department, which did not return phone calls or respond to e-mail.

    Last month, senior Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, led by the ranking member, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Florida Republican, wrote to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, asking for the appointment of "a high-level coordinator of overall Afghan narco-terrorism policy."

    The bluntly worded letter said interagency rivalry and U.S. policy failures in Afghanistan risked allowing it to slide back into chaos. A second-consecutive record opium harvest is expected this year.

    "The open and public dispute with our British allies on opium-eradication methods, along with the many different and often conflicting views of NATO, our Department of Defense, the Drug Enforcement [Administration], and other U.S. agencies on how best to handle the narcotics challenge does not bode well for success," the letter said.

    Disputes have run the gamut of policy issues, from how to deal with local drug kingpins who might be allies of the U.S. or Afghan military to what priority to give to efforts at eradicating the opium poppy or taking down the smuggling networks which distribute the drugs.

    The letter said U.S. efforts against narcoterrorism in Afghanistan should be modeled on those in Colombia, which utilizes "all U.S. agencies, assets and assistance."

    The appointment of Mr. Schweich, who began his State Department career under his mentor, former Missouri Republican Sen. John C. Danforth, when the latter was ambassador to the United Nations, appeared to be an effort to respond to concerns in Congress and elsewhere.

 

Insurance bill may aid Holocaust survivors

By Jay Weaver

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

MIAMI - A decade ago, 100 Holocaust survivors and their relatives gathered in Miami Beach to implore state lawmakers to assist in recovering proceeds from life insurance policies bought in Europe before World War II.

The insurers insisted on death certificates for proof.

Wednesday, help may finally be on the way from Congress.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami is filing legislation that would give untold victims of Nazi concentration camps a legal right to sue European insurers in U.S. courts.

The Republican lawmaker said European insurance giants "unjustly enriched" themselves with money owed decades ago to Holocaust victims, almost all of whom were denied payments because they couldn't provide proof of their deaths.

"What death certificates were issued at Auschwitz?" Ros-Lehtinen said in an interview. "None. Shame on these insurance companies. If they have nothing to hide, then this is an opportunity to show they have nothing to hide."

Her proposal would force international insurers such as German-based Allianz AG and Assicurazioni Generali of Italy, which sold the bulk of Jewish policies, to open their secret books on hundreds of thousands of policyholders dating from before the war.

Generali declined to comment; Allianz did not return a call.

Passage is far from certain because it puts Congress on a collision course with the power of the presidency in foreign matters.

The legislation conflicts with a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision dealing with a California law that required any insurer doing business in that state to disclose information about all life insurance policies sold in Europe between 1920 and 1945. In a 5-4 vote, the justices ruled that national - not state - interests prevailed, setting the stage for voluntary settlements rather than litigation or sanctions.

Ros-Lehtinen's bill comes amid a decade-long global debate over compensation due to Holocaust survivors and their relatives. Emotions, politics and money have dominated the dispute, making it hard to strike a compromise.

For instance, a powerful Holocaust commission, supported by two U.S. presidents and the European insurers, has doled out about $270 million to 17,000 Jewish victims with confirmed life insurance policy claims. Yet some experts say that payout, formally completed this month, is a fraction of the billions of dollars in outstanding Jewish policies.

Another example: An unprecedented class-action settlement between Generali and a few thousand Jewish policyholders was approved in February by a New York federal judge, who himself admitted it was "not perfect" but might be the only means for victims to recover damages.

Thomas Weiss, a Miami Beach doctor who did not join the settlement - calling it a "sham" - is hopeful about Ros-Lehtinen's bill. Weiss' father lost his wife in the Nazi camps and was turned away by Generali after the war when he tried to collect on a $50,000 policy. "We never got a fair shake," he said.

Ros-Lehtinen said she believes there will be bipartisan support in Congress, saying it's a "heartstring" issue that should win over "fiscal hawks" concerned about the potential cost to the insurance industry.

She has support from South Florida's congressional delegation, including co-sponsor Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Delray Beach. Florida's Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson's staff said he supports the disclosure part, but is reviewing the rest of the bill.

One thing that could boost its prospects is hidden in a German archive that might open in months. It contains tens of millions of records on Holocaust victims, including insurance and other personal documents.

The archive, managed by the International Red Cross to trace the history of victims, falls under the authority of the United States, Israel and nine other countries. Most have formally supported full disclosure, but some have not weighed in.

The trove of records could help bolster claims by Holocaust survivors and their heirs against Generali, Allianz and other European insurers in U.S. courts.

Advocates for Holocaust victims said the disclosure of such records is long overdue.

Opening the German archive will be the subject of a House hearing Wednesday in Washington. Testifying: Auschwitz survivor David Schaecter of Miami.

"It's been 62 years since the atrocities, and for 62 years they have kept this information away from us," said Schaecter, 77, who lost his entire family in the Holocaust. "The survivors are dying. Why not let us know? We need to die in peace."

Miami attorney Samuel Dubbin, who represented Weiss and others in their legal battles with Generali, is accompanying Schaecter to Washington.

"The impact of these records could be huge," Dubbin said. "There are potentially hundreds of thousands of insurance policies that went unpaid. Why shouldn't these transactions be accounted for fully?"

 

US Efforts to Isolate Iran Economically Gaining Momentum By Mil Arcega Washington, D.C.

27 March 2007

At least five states in the U.S. are following Missouri's lead with proposals to divest public pension funds of shares in companies that do business with Iran.  On Capitol Hill, proposed amendments to the Iran Sanctions Act could make it harder for foreign-owned companies to invest in countries that the U.S. State Department considers "sponsors of terror."  VOA's Mil Arcega reports.

       

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (20 Feb 2007) Iran's defiance of international demands to suspend its uranium enrichment program is creating momentum in the United States for initiatives aimed at further isolating the oil-rich country.

At a recent Congressional hearing on foreign affairs, committee chairman Tom Lantos outlined new initiatives to limit U.S. investments in companies that do business with Iran.  "A variety of means will be used for this purpose from 'name and shame' for private funds to mandating divestment of public funds," he said.

Although U.S. companies are already restricted from trading or investing in Iran, Lantos' amendments to the Iran Sanctions Act would eliminate U.S. waivers given to foreign companies that pour money into Iran's energy sector.

       

Tom Lantos

"If Dutch Shell moves forward with its proposed $10 billion deal with Iran, it will be sanctioned," said Lantos. "If Malaysia moves forward with a similar deal, it too will be sanctioned.  The same treatment will be accorded to China and India should they finalize deals with Iran."

Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida says the aim is to undermine Iran's primary source of income.  "Iran's oil sector, which provides for about 85 percent of export revenues, is projected to shrink without huge injections of foreign investment, technology and expertise," the Republican congresswoman says.

"We call it, in my business, chicken soup diplomacy.  It sounds good, it makes you feel better but doesn't really cure anything," says Bill Reinsch, the president of the National Foreign Trade Council.  He says although the proposals are well intentioned, mixing politics with business could lead to bigger problems. 

        National Foreign Trade Council President Bill Reinsch "If you're going to inject political criteria into the investment process, it's not very long before you're going to have people saying we should be divesting from China, we should be divesting from Russia," says Reinsch.  "Any country that has a problematic human rights record is going to be fair game for divestment.  Pretty soon there won't be any countries left to invest in."

Reinsch adds that similar divestment proposals for so-called "terror-free public pension funds" from at least five states will also hurt retirees who can expect to see smaller returns on their investments.

A recent market report shows more than 400 publicly traded companies have financial dealings with countries on the State Department's terror list.  They include Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria.

 

Trading Outcry Intensifies

Firms Face More Calls to Cut
Ties With Censured Nations

By PAULO PRADA and BETSY MCKAY
March 27, 2007

American companies that do business with countries subjected to U.S. trade sanctions face increasing financial and political pressure to stop as tensions between Iran and the United Nations Security Council worsen.

As a result, many companies are severing connections -- or plan to when current contracts end -- with customers in the 13 countries or regions penalized after the U.S. accused them of supporting terrorism, human-rights abuses or other unacceptable behavior.

The clamor spotlights how scores of U.S.-based companies manage to do business in sanctioned countries either through offshore subsidiaries or using export licenses granted by the Treasury Department. After seeing this traffic grow briskly for several years, companies now find lawmakers stepping up efforts to tighten restrictions and shareholders and fund managers steering investments away from countries in Washington's doghouse.

Companies whose foreign subsidiaries operate in a sector dominated by a sanctioned nation's government -- General Electric Co., Halliburton Co. and Dresser-Rand Group Inc. among them -- have faced particularly harsh criticism. Securities filings show many other U.S. corporations acknowledge their overseas units conduct such business, and the federal government last year fined at least a dozen U.S. companies for violating sanctions in Iran, Sudan, Cuba and elsewhere.

"It's questionable and shameful, if not treacherous, behavior," Sen. Frank Lautenberg said. As part of an Iran sanctions bill introduced in the Senate last week, the New Jersey Democrat included provisions that would ban subsidiaries of U.S.-controlled companies that lack a special export license from doing business in Iran. The new Democratic majority in Congress tilts the odds in favor of his effort, which failed as an amendment to three bills in previous sessions largely because of Republican opposition.

The growing scrutiny comes amid political and grass-roots pressure on U.S. investors, such as state pension funds, to dump shares of non-U.S. companies with major investments in energy businesses in Iran. Earlier this month, Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida introduced a bill calling for federal pension funds to sell shares of any company with more than $20 million in Iran's energy sector. Such companies include Royal Dutch Shell PLC, based in the Netherlands; Total SA of France and Russia's OAO Gazprom.

"We're concerned most about...companies that have financial relationships with a government, helping to develop oil fields and profits that are then turned around to support terrorism," said Sarah Steelman, state treasurer in Missouri, who oversees one of the country's first "terror-free" public investment funds, the $29 million Missouri Investment Trust.

Florida lawmakers are considering requiring the state's pension fund to sell any holdings in companies found to have ties to Iran's energy industry. A separate bill could force the pension fund to divest itself of 12 companies operating in Sudan, in protest of militia attacks terrorizing the Darfur region. And pension funds in at least seven other states already have sold stakes in U.S. companies linked to Sudan.

The exact number of companies doing business despite trade embargoes isn't clear, partly because federal officials won't disclose which companies are legally allowed to export to proscribed countries, citing a trade-secrets law. Among those known to have interests in Iran are GE, which services power plants through contracts set up by non-U.S. subsidiaries; Xerox Corp., which sells spare parts and supplies, though no longer sells copiers there; and Overseas Shipholding Group Inc., which operates tankers that at times dock in Iran and transport Iranian oil to other foreign buyers.

Many in business and industry oppose any tightening of sanctions laws, which already put them at a disadvantage with overseas rivals. "Foreign competitors are not dummies," said William Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, a business group that promotes free trade. Sanctions can "destroy your reputation as a reliable supplier, and it's something that your foreign competitors will play up shamelessly with their customers."

U.S. exports to sanctioned countries surpassed $1.15 billion last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Exports to Iran were $85 million, up from $8 million in 2001. Those figures don't count services such as consulting or revenue generated through subsidiaries in embargoed countries. Despite the increase, trade with Iran is at less than 20% of its volume in the early 1990s, before the Clinton administration tightened restrictions on sales or investments by U.S. companies.

"U.S. companies are generally happy to do business in these places because they want to build a relationship in case things thaw," said Adam Pener, chief operating officer of Conflict Securities Advisory Group Inc., a consulting firm that advises institutional investors on the risks of buying stakes in companies with exposure to countries linked to terrorism. "As soon as people start shining the light on these things, it's a no-brainer...to leave because you don't want to be seen as supporting or associated with terror."

Under U.S. law, makers of agricultural products, medicine, equipment and services can get licenses to legally export items as long as they are used for food, health or humanitarian purposes. But that definition is broad enough to include photography equipment, musical instruments, plastics and tobacco, according to the Census Bureau.

Companies without a license still can do business through foreign subsidiaries if those units are run separately from the U.S. parent and don't have any U.S. citizens as managers, directors or employees. But non-U.S. units can be difficult to monitor, and some critics claim they offer a huge trade loophole for American companies.

In filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission this year, various U.S. companies acknowledge their foreign subsidiaries conduct business in embargoed countries. A recent filing by heavy-machinery maker Dresser-Rand, for instance, notes that "some of these countries...are or previously have been identified by the State Department as terrorist-sponsoring states" and that "our reputation may suffer due to our association with these countries."

Natco Group Inc., a Houston maker of oil-and-gas-production equipment, said in a filing that subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Japan and Canada "have made sales" and "expect to continue making sales...to customers in certain countries that are subject to U.S. government sanctions."

Dresser-Rand, of Houston, declined through a spokesman to comment. Calls to Natco seeking comment weren't returned.

Last year the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control fined more than a dozen U.S. companies for violations. Supermicro Computer Inc., a San Jose, Calif., maker of computer servers, paid more than $450,000 in fines because the company, through a Dubai-based distributor, knowingly sold 300 computer motherboards in Iran. Howard Kalt, an investor-relations manager for Supermicro, says the company severed its relationship with the distributor and launched an "export compliance program," and that violations by the company "are all past tense now."

The heightened scrutiny has led some companies to say they will wrap up operations their subsidiaries conduct in sanctioned countries when they complete existing contracts.

Flowserve Corp., a supplier of pumps, valves and other equipment, gets 1% to 2% of its revenue from Iran, Syria and Sudan. The Dallas company is making "a voluntary withdrawal" from pursuing additional business there but "may continue to honor certain existing contracts, commitments and warranty obligations," according to a securities filing last month. A company spokesman, in an email response to questions about the decision, said "once these legally compliant warranties and contractual commitments expire, these subsidiaries will no longer do any business in these countries."

Such withdrawals can be slow, though. GE and Halliburton, for example, reacted to pressure by announcing in 2005 they would stop seeking new business in Iran. Yet neither has actually pulled out.

GE still has "long-term service agreements and maintenance agreements" for power plants and sells spare parts for oil and natural-gas projects there, spokesman Gary Sheffer said. Its Iran operations are handled through units in Austria, Canada, China, France, Italy and the U.K.

Halliburton is "winding up our work in Iran, and will exit upon the completion of existing commitments," spokeswoman Melissa Norcross wrote in an email.

--Neil King Jr. contributed to this article.

 

Cuba Shows Off Oil Works to Foreigners

SANTA CRUZ DEL NORTE, Cuba (AP) - Cuban oil officials took foreign geologists and petroleum experts on a tour of the island's oil and natural gas works on Saturday in hopes of sparking more international interest in investment.

Attendees at an earth sciences conference were taken by state oil company Cuba Petroleos to several extraction facilities in a deposit-rich strip along the northern part of the island, including the US$200 million (euro150 million) Cuban-Canadian ENERGAS natural gas plant in an area called Boca de Jaruco.

"The geology we find here is very similar to that of eastern Mexico, of the southern United States," said Rafael Tenreyro, a drilling specialist with the state oil company, known as Cupet.

About 95 percent of Cuba's daily production of 85,000 barrels of petroleum and 120 million cubic feet (3.4 million cubic meters) of natural gas comes from the region along the north coast.

Cuban officials are betting on even richer deposits offshore, where foreign companies are already engaged in exploratory drilling in partnership with the communist government.

"We have just recently started and we are seeing the tip of the iceberg," Tenreyro said. "Our intent is to continue to explore and discover great oil fields."

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the North Cuba Basin holds 4.6 billion to 9.3 billion barrels of crude, along with 9.8 trillion cubic feet (280 billion cubic meters) to 21.8 trillion cubic feet (620 billion cubic meters) of natural gas.

Since 2003, companies from Norway, India, Malaysia, Spain and Venezuela have reserved blocks for petroleum exploration under production-sharing agreements with Cuba.

U.S. oil firms, however, are shut out by Washington's 45-year-old trade embargo on the island.

Earlier this month U.S. Sens. Larry Craig, a Republican from Idaho, and Byron Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota, introduced a measure containing a provision to let U.S. oil and natural gas companies work in Cuban waters.

But another Senate bill already introduced would seek to punish companies that invest in Cuban drilling near Florida. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban-born Republican who represents Florida, has pledged a similar measure in the House.

 

Durbin to introduce study abroad bill in late Sen. Simon's honor

BY CALEB HALE, THE SOUTHERN

 

CARBONDALE - U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin intends to again introduce a bill honoring one of late Sen. Paul Simon's last projects in life.

Spokeswoman Christina Mulka says Durbin on Tuesday will introduce the Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act, a program that gives federal funding to universities across the country to send students overseas for educational exchanges.

Durbin is co-sponsoring the bill with Republican Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman.

Durbin tried to pass similar legislation last year. The bill had bi-partisan support, but the legislative session ended before it could be called.

California U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos and Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen have already introduced a companion bill for a study abroad program named after Simon in the House. The bill calls for $800 million to build a program for millions of American college students to study overseas.

About 176 people attending Southern Illinois University Carbondale participate in study abroad programs, according to university statistics.

SIUC Interim Chancellor John Dunn said he is pleased Simon, who taught on campus from 1997 until his death in 2003, is being honored through the introduction of such programs on college campuses.

"Sen. Paul Simon was a visionary and he understood very well the importance of study abroad programs and their contributions to enhancing an understanding of global issues," Dunn said. "Federal support for the program would honor Sen. Simon and help to enhance his legacy of creating a much brighter future, where people in the USA and other countries value and respect one another."

SIUC University Communications contributed to this article.

 

State ag chief backs bill to ensure farm programs

By staff report
March 24, 2007

Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles H. Bronson is voicing support for congressional legislation that would ensure specialty crop farmers in Florida have access to a wide array of federal agricultural programs.

The measure, known as the Equitable Agriculture Today for a Healthy America Act, is being sponsored by Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Bartow.

The bill is co-sponsored by House members Tim Mahoney, D-Palm Beach Gardens, Allen Boyd, D-Panama City, Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, and Alcee Hastings, D-Fort Lauderdale.

 

Paul Simon's dream

March 23, 2007

Back in November 2003, former Sen. Paul Simon stopped by the Tribune to talk up an idea: Send a half million U.S. students to study overseas each year. Don't let them all congregate in London and Paris and take courses in English--encourage them to study in developing nations instead.

Simon died 19 days later. That prompted an editorial in which we praised his "last campaign" and suggested a single change in the proposal: It should bear his name.

Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the chairman and ranking minority member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, have introduced legislation to create the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act of 2007.

What a great idea.

They're calling for the creation of a government-sponsored foundation to administer a study-abroad program that would put more emphasis on the experience and less on the classroom.

The goal would be to send 1 million U.S. students each year to parts of the world that will play an increasingly pivotal role in American business and foreign policy. Topping the list: China, the Middle East, and other developing nations.

America will need a young workforce that has a broad knowledge of the world beyond the traditional capitals of Europe. Congress has a chance to promote that, and to honor one of Illinois' finest citizens.

 

U.S. Pushing Harsh New Measures to Isolate Iran

Kenneth R. Timmerman
Thursday, March 22, 2007

WASHINGTON -- As bargaining continues at the United Nations Security Council over a new sanctions resolution on Iran, top officials from the Treasury and State Departments revealed yesterday that they have won support behind the scenes for even harsher measures intended to isolate Iran and force its leaders to back off from developing nuclear weapons.

The U.S. has been working with its allies overseas to impose "new targeted sanctions," directed at "individual bad actors," Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey told the Senate Banking committee on Wednesday.

The U.S.-backed measures are aimed at "specific individuals, key members of the [Iranian] government, front companies, and financial institutions," Levey said. "Some require financial institutions to freeze funds and close the accounts of designated actors." Others include "bans on travel or arms transfers."

Only five of the 19 companies and individuals who have been subjected to these latest Treasury Department sanctions have been included in U.N. Security Council Resolution 1737, enacted in December. But Levey insisted that the lack of UN support for the U.S.-led effort against Iran has not made it less effective.

"I have traveled all over the world, sharing our list of Iran-related designations with foreign government counterparts and private sector representatives," he said. As a result of those talks, the U.S. list has been "incorporated into the compliance systems at major financial institutions worldwide."

The Iranians have gone to great lengths to conceal their activities. Front companies are used to disguise the purchase of weapons-related materials as benign commercial transactions, he said.

"We have also seen Iranian banks request that other financial institutions take their names off of U.S. dollar transactions when processing them in the international financial system," he said. "This practice is used even by the Central Bank of Iran."

The new, targeted sanctions the U.S. has devised are aimed at stopping Iran's covert procurement activities, as well as its use of the international financial system to transfer funds to terrorist groups, he said.

But Democrats pressed the administration to do more.

Banking committee chairman Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., displayed a chart at the hearing identifying investments totaling $126 billion in Iran's oil and gas industry in recent years. Those investments occurred despite U.S. laws intended to prevent them.

"We've given you very specific tools that allow you to do much more than just ask people to do things," Dodd said. Instead, the U.S. has not invoked the sanctions even once.

Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns argued that sanctions such as those contained in the Iran Sanctions Act, which target foreign oil and gas companies, could bring about the collapse of two years of efforts to build an international coalition to increase pressure on Iran. "We want the pressure of the sanctions on Iran itself and not on our allies," he said.

Burns pointed out that many of the 14 deals cited by Dodd have been put on hold, for fear of U.S. displeasure. Top U.S. officials have been "jawboning Shell, the Chinese, and the Malaysians . . . We've gone to their CEOs and said, ‘this is a bad idea.'" Burns said.

In the U.N. talks, Burns said the United States was trying to get the Security Council to impose a "specific set of sanctions against the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)," because of its involvement in terrorism and Iran's nuclear weapons program.

Congressionally-mandated sanctions, such as those contained in new legislation introduced earlier this month by Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., "might break up our coalition," Burns argued. "We need some help from our allies."

In 2005, the European Union approved $22 billion in export credit guarantees, to support sales to Iran by European companies, Burns acknowledged. "We'd like to see that come down," he said.

Top European companies such as DaimlerChrysler AG, Shell, or TotalFinalElf, continue to do extensive business in Iran. But the threat of U.S. or U.N. sanctions is beginning to have some impact.

In February, DaimlerChrysler announced it would scale back its Iranian-based businesses, which include the assembly of Mercedes Benz E-class vehicles, an interest in a truck plant, and a factory to make truck and bus engines.

In 2004, DaimlerChyrsler sold through a Saudi affiliate 270 Mercedes Benz commercial vehicles to Iran in a $22 million contract. Those vehicles have since been used by law enforcement authorities in Iran for riot control. A German prosecutor in Stuttgart opened an investigation into the sale.

A number of U.S. companies continue to do business in Iran through overseas subsidiaries.

Under the U.S. trade embargo on Iran, it is illegal for U.S. companies to trade directly with Iran. Earlier this month, the Treasury Department fined two U.S. firms for violating the trade embargo.

Guidant Corporation of Indianapolis, Ind., agreed to pay $277,017 for selling medical equipment to Iran through third countries, while Varian, Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif., paid $114,958 to settle allegations of embargo-busting stemming from sales of U.S.-origin software.

Both companies voluntarily disclosed their activities, a Treasury Department statement said.

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