Voice of America: Committee in US House Approves Iran Sanctions Measure Committee in US House Approves Iran Sanctions Measure By Dan Robinson Washington 26 June 2007

In another step aimed at increasing the economic cost to Iran of its controversial nuclear enrichment program, a key congressional panel has approved legislation to impose sanctions on Iran's energy sector. VOA's Dan Robinson reports from Capitol Hill. The House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee approved the legislation, called the Iran Counter-Proliferation Act of 2007, by a vote of 37 to 1, recommending that it be moved for consideration by the full House. Committee chairman Tom Lantos says the measure is designed to increase the cost to Tehran of continuing to pursue nuclear weapons.

It is also aimed at ensuring that provisions of an existing law, called the Iran Sanctions Act, are enforced with regard to companies investing in Iran's energy infrastructure. "Until now, abusing its waiver authority and other flexibility in the law, the executive branch has never sanctioned any foreign oil company which invested in Iran. Those halcyon days for the oil industry are over."

Under the legislation, which has the bipartisan support of nearly 300 House lawmakers, any country aiding Iran's nuclear program will be denied a nuclear cooperation agreement with the U.S. It calls on the U.S. president to declare Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps a terrorist group and would provide authority to the president to block assets of any entity providing support to the Revolutionary Guards.

Provisions also seek to increase pressure on foreign governments, including required presidential reports to Congress on specific steps they have taken and the outcome of these efforts, particularly with regard to actions against public or private companies engaged in Iran.

Saying the ultimate goal must be "zero foreign investment" in Iran, Congressman Lantos says the legislation goes to what he calls the ultimate legal limits of what is feasible in ratcheting up financial pressure.

Among other things, it extends sanctions to petroleum by-products and liquefied natural gas, and extends the scope of sanctions to include the sale of oil tankers or liquefied natural gas vessels.

However, both Lantos and the Republican co-sponsor Ileana Ros-Lehtinen emphasize that the bill is not designed to target the Iranian people, who they describe as being subject to a new crackdown on dissent. "The regime in Iran is currently stepping up its repression of even the slightest perceived opposition," Ros-Lehtinen said.

During committee consideration, Republican Congressman Jeff Flake expressed his opposition to any stepped up unilateral action against Iran. "It is unlikely that unilateral sanctions like this will have an effect, and I think it will be less likely to achieve the type of multilateral sanctions that we would need, with this vote," he said.

But Flake's Republican colleague Dana Rohrabacher disagreed. "I don't believe that the U.S. should be hamstrung by always having to go to the political leaders of other countries, who may lack courage, and may lack the same moral guidelines that we have and expect that we are not going to act unless they do," he said.

In outlining another provision, which would re-impose a ban on all Iranian exports to the United States, Lantos said one reason for doing so is that Iran continues to hold several Americans with dual Iranian citizenship.

Sanctions would end only when the president certifies to Congress that Iran has ended efforts to design, develop, manufacture or acquire a nuclear weapon or related materials or technology, chemical and biological weapons, and ballistic missiles and launch technology.

Iran would also have to be removed from the U.S. list of governments supporting international terrorism.

 Dow Jones: US House Foreign Affairs Panel Passes Iran Sanctions Bill US House Foreign Affairs Panel Passes Iran Sanctions Bill

June 26, 2007: 11:06 AM EST

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- A key House panel Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to pass a wide-ranging bill that would toughen U.S. sanctions on Iran and on companies that invest in the country.

The Foreign Affairs Committee voted 37-1 to pass the Iran Counter- Proliferation Act of 2007. The bill is part of a concerted congressional effort to tighten an economic stranglehold on Iran to deter it from a nuclear fuel enrichment program which the U.S. and other countries believe is for nuclear weapons.

"Our goal must be zero foreign investment - let me repeat this, zero foreign investment - in Iran's energy sector," Chairman Tom Lantos, D-Calif., said. " That is the only formula that can prevent Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons."

The chairman said the bill already had more than 300 co-sponsors before heading to the floor. In May, the House Financial Services Committee passed a " name- and-shame" bill that would require the federal government to publish the names of companies investing in Iran and allow public and private pension funds with hundreds of billions of dollars in assets to divest from companies on the list. The Senate is considering legislation similar to these two House bills. Although the bill, if passed into law, would sanction any investment in Iran, it particularly targets oil company investments and banking transactions. It requires the president's administration to enforce the Iran Sanctions Act, ending the State Department's ability to waive its enforcement. Under the Iran Sanctions Act, foreign companies that invest more than $20 million in Iran's energy sector can be penalized by the U.S. An approved amendment to the bill also allows the federal government to seize the assets of corporate officers of companies investing in Iran.

"Corporate barons running giant oil companies - who have cravenly turned a blind eye to Iran's development of nuclear weapons - have come to assume that the Iran Sanctions Act will never be implemented," Lantos said. "This charade now comes to a long overdue end this morning."

Several companies with multi-billion dollar operations in the U.S., or that are listed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA), Norsk Hydro ASA (NHY.OS), Total SA (TOT) and China's National Offshore Oil Corp. (CEO), are in negotiations for major oil and gas deals with Iran and could be hit by the bill if passed.

"My legislation will increase exponentially the economic pressure on Iran, and empower our diplomatic efforts by strengthening the Iran Sanctions Act," Lantos said.

Ranking member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., said the bill would also affect petroleum products and liquefied natural gas exports from Iran. Iran is in the process of contracting some of the biggest LNG projects in the world.

The lone dissenter on the bill, Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., argued a position the administration has repeatedly stated: Unilateral sanctions would undermine multilateral sanctions.

The U.S. State Department has balked at being forced to implement the Iran Sanctions Act, saying enforcement could jeopardize an international coalition that is seeking to persuade Tehran to abandon its nuclear program. Instead, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns has said he's been trying to persuade heads of state and companies not to invest in Iran. Burns told Congress he couldn't support the act.

"Abusing its waiver authority and other flexibility in the law, the executive branch has never sanctioned any foreign oil company that invested in Iran," Lantos said. "Those halcyon days for the oil industry are over."

By law, the administration has to declare companies that are in violation, even if it is going to use its waiver authority. Though many companies have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Iran, the government has yet to declare any company in violation of the Iran Sanctions Act.

The administration has also relied on U.N. Security Council sanctions - now in their third round of tightening - and financial transactions. The Treasury Department recently created the terrorism financial intelligence team, which has been able to persuade major banks such as Credit Suisse Group (CS), HSBC Holdings PLC (HBC) and Commerzbank AG (CBK.XE) to stop dealing with Iranian banks. The Treasury also has prohibited U.S. dollar transactions with two Iranian banks it linked to terrorism and support of the regime's alleged efforts to build a nuclear bomb.

The Foreign Affairs Committee's bill seeks greater exclusion of the Iranian banking sector. The bill authorizes an additional $60 million in funding for the terrorism team for next year, and the same amount until 2010.

Lantos' Iran Counter-Proliferation Act also would eliminate some U.S. tax incentives for oil companies investing in Iran and close a loophole that allows foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies to invest more than $20 million in Iran.

Victor Comras, a retired diplomat and a consultant on terrorist financing, told the Senate Commerce Committee in late April that around 35 subsidiaries of U.S. companies were known to be operating in Iran, including oil services company Smith International Inc. (SII), General Electric Co.'s (GE) Canadian, Italian and French subsidiaries, and a Swiss-owned Caterpillar dealership in Tehran. According to its Web site, Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB) also has a well services unit in Tehran.

The bill could affect economic production in Iran by prohibiting business deals with or funding for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, or the IRGC. The legislation, if passed, would designate the IRGC as a "foreign terrorist organization."

"The Revolutionary Guard, which is a major base of support for (President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad, owns huge economic enterprises in Iran," Lantos said. " Foreign banks will think twice about dealing with these enterprises once the Revolutionary Guard is declared a terrorist organization."

The IRGC's engineering arm, Khatam-al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters, or Ghorb, last year won a $2.3 billion contract to develop two phases of Iran's giant South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf. Ghorb also is building a $1.3 billion pipeline that will carry gas from southwestern Iran to the Pakistan border.

  Cuba Hails UN Rights Council's Plan to Stop Monitoring Island
By VOA News
21 June 2007
 
The Cuban government is welcoming a decision by the new United Nations human
rights watchdog to stop investigating the island nation.
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said Wednesday the U.N. Human Rights
Council's decision is a major diplomatic victory for Cuba over the United
States. He said the decision signals an end to U.S. influence over the
Council.

The Human Rights Council announced Tuesday that it would stop monitoring the
rights situations in Cuba and Belarus. The body replaced the U.N. Human Rights
Commission last year.

Washington has criticized the Council's decision, and a Cuban-American U.S.
congresswoman, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, says she will introduce legislation that
would cut U.S. funding to the U.N. body.

The U.N.'s former rights envoy to Cuba, Christine Chanet, was never able to
travel to the island, but expressed concerns about political prisoners,
censorship and a suppression of rights there.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.

  House Approves $50B to Fight TB Overseas
The Associated Press
Thursday, June 21, 2007; 3:23 PM


WASHINGTON -- Overseas health workers treating patients with drug-resistant
tuberculosis, the bug that set off a recent international health scare, would
get a $50 million assist under a measure adopted Thursday by the House.
The money would go to purchase drugs, train health-care workers and build,
equip and operate laboratories overseas, under an amendment approved by the
House. Most of the money would be spent in Africa.

TB can be successfully treated with antibiotics, but forms of the bacterial
disease that have developed resistance to those drugs are a growing worry. Of
particular concern is "extensively drug-resistant" TB, or XDR-TB.

Andrew Speaker, infected with that highly dangerous form, recently evaded
federal health officials as they tried to find and isolate him as he traveled
throughout Europe. He's now hospitalized in Colorado.

Federal health officials had warned him not to fly on commercial aircraft and
urged him to turn himself in to health officials in Europe. Instead, Speaker
flew to Montreal, rented a car and managed to drive across the U.S. border,
even though officials had flagged his passport.

The $50 million was attached to a $34.2 billion bill to fund State Department
operations and foreign aid. Its sponsors were Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-
Fla., and New Jersey Democrat Donald Payne.

  US House cuts UNDP NKorea funding
Published: Thursday June 21, 2007
 
(AFP) US lawmakers Thursday voted to cut 20 million dollars from US funding for
the UN Development Program, over claims Stalinist North Korea plundered money
from the organization.
 
The move passed by the House of Representatives by unanimous voice vote as an
amendment to a bill funding the State Department and US foreign operations.
 
"Rather than cooperating with US officials in investigating these allegations,
UNDP officials have circled the wagons and resorted to rhetorical denials in
the press," said Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, top Republican on the House Foreign
Affairs committee.
 
She said the reduction would "send a clear signal about our demands and
expectations for greater accountability from the UN Development Program, while
also continuing to make a substantial contribution to UNDP's core programs."
 
The 20 million dollars will diverted to two other funds. Fourteen million
dollars will go to the UN Democracy Fund and six million dollars will be sent
to the UN Entrepreneurship Initiative.
 
In 2006, the United States provided a total of 109 million dollars to the UNDP,
and the Bush administration requested 94 million dollars in the fiscal year
2007, according to the State Department.
 
Earlier this month, US diplomats presented the UN with new claims that funds
from the Geneva-based UNDP had been improperly diverted by North Korea,
including charges that nearly three million dollars in UN aid was used by the
Pyongyang regime to buy property in France, Britain and Canada.
UNDP issued a point-by-point rebuttal of the US charges, saying they did not
match its records.
 
An earlier internal audit of three UN agencies in North Korea found no proof of
earlier US claims of systematic diversion of large-scale UN funding to the
Pyongyang regime.
 
But the auditors however turned the spotlight on problems involving the "staff
hiring, foreign currency transactions and access to local projects."
In March, UNDP suspended operations in North Korea after Pyongyang failed to
meet operational changes endorsed and mandated by the development agency's
executive board. 
 

  Rangel Pushes for Eased Restrictions on Cuba
BY RUSSELL BERMAN - Staff Reporter of the Sun
June 22, 2007
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/57101 <http://www.nysun.com/article/57101>

WASHINGTON ? Bringing together a diverse coalition of lawmakers, Rep. Charles
Rangel of Harlem is taking another stab at his long-running push to ease trade
and travel restrictions on Cuba.

Mr. Rangel, the Democratic chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, is
introducing a bill to end the travel ban and make it easier to export
agricultural and medicinal products to the communist nation, which the State
Department has designated as a sponsor of terrorism.

The bill is being introduced jointly in the House and Senate, and it has
support on both sides of the aisle. But the lawmakers, including Mr. Rangel,
acknowledged that they had seen no significant shift in the political landscape
that would alter the opposition in many quarters to lifting the embargo. They
are hoping that Democratic control of Congress and President Bush's low
standing in the polls will give the bill a chance.

"We hope this bipartisan group will be much more effective than we've been in
the past," Mr. Rangel said as he stood with Senator Baucus, a Democrat of
Montana, Senator Crapo, a Republican of Idaho, and Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, a
Republican of Missouri, at a Capitol press conference announcing the
legislation. Citing the travel prohibition, he said it was an "insult" to all
Americans for the government to tell them "where they can and can't go."
While Mr. Rangel has long fought for normalizing relations with Cuba, he has
formed this coalition in the hopes of attracting broader support from
representatives with farming constituencies.

"I just think our backwards policy toward Cuba hurts U.S. producers much more
than it hurts Fidel Castro," Ms. Emerson said.

Messrs. Rangel and Baucus, the head of the Senate Finance Committee, are trying
to take advantage of their new chairmanships. By framing the bill so that it
will land in the Ways and Means Committee in the House and the Finance
Committee in the Senate, they can make it much more likely to come to a full
vote on the floor.

The bill drew a swift response from a leading supporter of the embargo, Rep.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican of south Florida. "Sending money to the
Castro brothers will not do a thing to free the Cuban people from the
oppressive chains that have tied them down for almost half a century," Ms. Ros-
Lehtinen, a Cuban American and the former chairwoman of the House Foreign
Affairs Committee, said in a statement.

Opponents of the legislation also criticized its timing, pointing to Mr.
Castro's age and reported illness and chances for reform in the country after
he dies. "It's not the time to be experimenting," a director of the U.S.-Cuba
Democracy Political Action Committee, Mauricio Claver-Carone, said.

Mr. Claver-Carone said he wasn't worried, however, that the embargo was in any
danger from Mr. Rangel's latest attempt to get it lifted. "At the end of the
day, there's no new dynamic," he said. He cited the passage in the House
yesterday of an amendment directing $45 million in American aid to Cuban
dissidents, families of political prisoners, and other groups promoting
democracy on the island.

Mr. Claver-Carone also took note of Mr. Rangel's collaboration with lawmakers
from the farm belt. "It's interesting to see Mr. Rangel promoting agriculture
trade, because he has so much agriculture in Harlem," he quipped.
The bill would remove verification and prepayment requirements on agricultural
exports to Cuba and allow direct payment by Cuban customers to American banks,
among other provisions.

  House OKs Lifting Contraception Aid Ban
By ANNE FLAHERTY
Friday, June 22, 2007 3:45 AM EDT

WASHINGTON - The House voted narrowly Thursday to reverse a ban on
contraception aid to groups overseas that offer abortions, challenging a pillar
of President Bush's foreign aid policy.

If the proposal passes the Senate, Bush is likely to swiftly veto it and be
upheld by conservative lawmakers, who say no assistance of any kind should be
given to organizations that promote or offer abortions.

The measure, approved 223-201, is intended by the new Democratic majority to
crack open debate on a policy it says is failing badly. Initiated by President
Reagan in 1984 at a population conference in Mexico City, the policy bars any
assistance to organizations abroad that perform or promote abortion as a method
of family planning.

Democrats say an unintended consequence is an alarming shortage of
contraceptives, particularly in poor rural areas.

The bill would help "reduce unintended and high-risk pregnancies and abortions
... and save the lives of mothers," said Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., who chairs
the House appropriations panel that oversees the foreign aid budget.
"It is simply not enough to say you support family planning, so long as the
current restrictions remain in law," Lowey said.

The House voted to attach the measure to a $34.2 billion bill that pays for
State Department operations and foreign aid in 2008.
The spending bill passed by a 241-178 vote. Before it reaches Bush, the measure
will have to pass the Senate, which is under control by a much more narrow
majority of Democrats.

Lowey initially drafted the legislation to guarantee funds to any group so long
as the assistance included funding for contraceptives. Facing stiff opposition,
Lowey wrote an amendment that restricted the aid to U.S.-donated
contraceptives.

Voting in favor of her amendment to expand contraception aid were 207 Democrats
and 16 Republicans. Voting against it were 24 Democrats and 177 Republicans.
More than a dozen members did not vote.

The legislation does not affect other aspects of the Mexico City policy and
would uphold the ban on other types of assistance to noncompliant groups.
Republicans still bristled at the proposal because they said the donation would
free up resources for groups to provide abortions. They also said it would
undermine the Mexico City policy, which is intended to pressure organizations
to abandon abortion services.

"The Mexico policy exists to draw a bright line between U.S. family planning
policy and abortion," said Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa. "However, it appears that
there are some out there who wish to blur this line, (which) is what leads to
coercive abortions and forced sterilizations."

Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., and Bart Stupak, D-Mich., proposed alternative
legislation intended to reinforce the existing policy. That was rejected 218-
205, with 25 Democrats and 180 Republicans voting to uphold Bush's policy.
While Republicans had been doubtful they had enough votes to pass Smith's
measure, they were confident they could sustain a presidential veto.
"If we provide either cash or in-kind contributions or anything of value to pro-
abortion organizations in other countries, we empower, enrich and enable them
to expand abortion," Smith said.

In a statement released Tuesday, the administration said the president would
veto any legislation "that weakens current federal policies and laws on
abortion."

For many of the 164 Republicans who opposed final passage of the spending bill,
it was an uncomfortable vote because it meant turning down hundreds of millions
of dollars in assistance for Israel. But members said they were confident the
bill would ultimately be sent to the president without the contraception
provision because Democrats did not have the two-thirds majority needed to
override a veto.

Members also used the bill to raise concerns about Bush's decision to resume U.
S. aid to the Palestinians, highlight human rights causes and chastise the
United Nations.

Adopted by a 390-30 vote was an amendment by Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., that
would reaffirm a long-standing restriction against any entity that does not
recognize Israel and renounces violence. The measure was mostly symbolic, as it
would not necessarily withhold money from Western-backed officials in the West
Bank.

The House also agreed to bar U.S. aid from benefiting Saudi Arabia and the U.N.
Human Rights Council, which has singled out Israel for investigation of alleged
rights violations. The bill also would divert $20 million from the U.N.
Development Program, under fire for its aid to North Korea.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., who sponsored the measures, said the votes
showed "palpable bipartisan frustration with the slow pace of U.N. reform and
the alarming deterioration of the U.N.'s commitment to protect human rights
around the world."

A service of the Associated Press(AP)

  Cuba sees U.N. rights body's move as triumph over U.S.
By Todd Benson
Reuters
Wednesday, June 20, 2007; 2:16 PM


HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba hailed on Wednesday a decision by the new United
Nations human rights watchdog to drop the communist nation from a list of
countries with poor rights records, calling it a major diplomatic victory over
its longtime ideological foe the United States.
The 47-state Human Rights Council, created in 2006 to replace its discredited
predecessor, the Human Rights Commission, agreed on Monday to remove Cuba from
a list of nations that will be scrutinized for rights violations.
The decision, which was criticized by Washington, means the U.N.'s special
envoy to Cuba will no longer produce periodic reports detailing alleged rights
abuses on the island.
"This is a decision that puts an end to 20 years of manipulating Cuba's human
rights record under the instigation and enormous pressure from the United
States in the old U.N. Human Rights Commission," Foreign Minister Felipe Perez
Roque said at a news conference in Havana.
"The Cuban government considers this a resounding and indisputable victory of
Cuban diplomacy," he added.
This month, U.N. rights envoy Christine Chanet expressed "deep concern" about
the health of some 60 Cuban dissidents jailed in a crackdown four years ago.
But Chanet, a French magistrate who has never been able to visit Cuba, also
recommended that the council stop producing special reports on the country
because of Havana's lack of cooperation.
The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, an illegal
opposition group that is tolerated by the one-party state, estimates that about
280 Cubans are in prison for political reasons.
DISSIDENTS DISMAYED
The Cuban government denies there are political prisoners on the island and
says the jailed dissidents are "mercenaries" on the payroll of the United
States, which has enforced a trade embargo against Havana for 45 years.
The U.S. State Department called the council's decision to drop Cuba from its
black list "seriously flawed."
In the U.S. Congress, Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban-American
from Florida, said she plans to introduce legislation that would prohibit U.S.
funding for the council.
Dissident groups in Cuba were also dismayed with the council's decision.
"Unfortunately, the Cuban government has become the leader of a group of
governments that violate human rights," said Elizardo Sanchez, a veteran rights
activist in Havana.
Perez Roque, who dismissed the criticism of Cuba's rights record as a smear
campaign orchestrated by Washington, also said that the European Union should
reconsider its policy toward the island in light of the council's decision.
Since 1996, the EU has conditioned an improvement in relations with Cuba on a
transition toward a multi-party democracy and greater respect for human
rights.
Perez Roque declined to say if Cuba would accept an invitation to discuss a
gradual thaw in ties with the EU, which said on Monday it was ready to resume
an open dialogue with Cuban authorities.
"We've taken note that the European Union has rectified its previous position
of closing all dialogue with Cuba," he said.
(Additional reporting by Rosa Tania Valdes)

  U.N. Secretary-General Makes a Trip to Washington
BY BENNY AVNI - Staff Reporter of the Sun
June 20, 2007
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/56960 <http://www.nysun.com/article/56960>
UNITED NATIONS ? Secretary-General Ban plans a trip to Washington, D.C., to
meet congressional leaders today, just as the capital ? despite a general
sympathy for the secretary-general ? is awash in criticism of U.N. bodies.
Among them:
? The House of Representatives is considering a motion to defund the U.N. Human
Rights Council, which in Geneva yesterday capped its first year of existence by
resolving to weaken its oversight of top human rights violators around the
world while intensifying its scrutiny of Israel.
? A report by an investigative arm of Congress earlier this week slammed
agencies across the U.N. system for weak oversight mechanisms and other
management failures.
? A House resolution, expected to pass today by a large margin, questions the
ability of the United Nation's crown jewel, the Security Council, to act on
crucial world matters.
? State Department officials have publicly locked horns with top bureaucrats of
the U.N. Development Program over UNDP actions in North Korea.
Despite all this, relations between the Bush administration and Mr. Ban have
warmed considerably, especially when compared with the tense standoff that
adhered during the second term of Mr. Ban's predecessor, Kofi Annan.
"He is on the phone with Condi almost daily," an aide to Mr. Ban, speaking on
condition of anonymity and referring to Secretary of State Rice, said
yesterday.
Often criticized at the United Nations for being too close to America, Mr. Ban
interlocutors today will include Rep. Tom Lantos, a Democrat of California, and
Senators Leahy, a Democrat of Vermont; Coleman, a Republican of Minnesota, and
Voinovich, a Republican of Ohio.
After his recent announcement of a tentative agreement with Sudan to allow a
20,000-troop force in to protect civilians in Darfur ? as has long been urged
by Washington ? Mr. Ban plans to ask the legislators to remove a restriction on
American funding for the U.N. peacekeeping department. Currently, Congress
allows funding of no more than 25% of the department's annual budget.
Meanwhile, in Geneva, the U.N. Human Rights Council decided on new rules that
include elimination of rights monitoring in Cuba and Belarus, while making
scrutiny of Israel a permanent institution. In response, the ranking Republican
in the House Foreign Relations Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida,
introduced legislation that would ban State Department funding for the council.
Although not a voting member, Washington contributes $3 million to the
council's annual budget.
The outgoing rights council president, Luis Alfonso de Alba of Mexico, had been
forced to ask a mariachi band to hold off a planned celebration of the end of
his year-long tenure Monday because China was blocking the proposed package of
new guidelines for the council's operations. Even after compromise was reached,
Canada argued yesterday against the singling out of Israel. In the vote,
however, it remained alone in opposition.
"To its shame, the U.N. Human Rights Council celebrated its first birthday by
giving gifts to Fidel Castro, the authoritarian regime in Belarus, and the
enemies of the democratic state of Israel," Ms. Ros-Lehtinen said yesterday,
adding that Washington "must refuse to pay for this poisonous charade."
A separate House resolution, expected to pass by a large margin today, calls on
the U.N. Security Council to charge Iran's President Ahmadinejad with violating
the U.N. charter by calling for the elimination of Israel. A milder statement
on the subject was introduced by America at the Security Council two weeks ago,
but was blocked by Indonesia, which in closed-door discussions said it feared
internal unrest if it appeared to support the statement. Failing to achieve the
necessary consensus, the council is currently deadlocked over the statement.
"Why would Indonesia not support the rules of the United Nations?" Rep. Steve
Rothman, a Democrat of New Jersey, told Washington legislators Monday as he
introduced the House resolution. "Whatever the reason, my friends, it's
wrong."
In another action critical of the United Nations, a report issued by the
Congressional investigative arm, the General Accounting Office, earlier this
week found, as Mr. Coleman described it, "widespread failures in crucial areas
like auditing, investigations, and disclosure still plague the U.N. system." If
it fails to improve such management tools, he said, America "no longer can be
used as a blank check" for funding the U.N. system.
Among the agencies criticized in the GAO report was the UNDP. On Friday, the
agency issued a press release refuting details of a story in that day's New
York Sun. According to the release, an associate administrator of the UNDP, Ad
Melkert, never threatened an American ambassador, Mark Wallace, with
"retaliation" over his scrutiny of the agency's North Korea program.
The assertion directly contradicted America's Ambassador to the United Nations,
Zalmay Khalilzad, who had complained about the threat made by Mr. Melkert in a
letter to UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis.

  Human Wrongs Council
Posted Wednesday, June 20th 2007, 4:00 AM
Editorial

The boldly reformed reiteration of the UN's human rights watchdog agency just
continues to be a real dazzler. Yesterday, this fine new Human Rights Council,
successor to the bad old Human Rights Commission, dropped Cuba and Belarus from
further official scrutiny, home free.

That would be Fidel Castro's fiefdom, where dissenters are imprisoned, and a
former Soviet republic that was just three months ago condemned by the General
Assembly for assorted appalling practices - among them, yes, jailing the
opposition.

After giving these upstanding global citizens a pass, the council proceeded to
give Israel a scolding. Evidently just on general principle, not that anybody
was singling out any alleged Israeli atrocity in particular. Indeed, the
councilpersons have now decided to designate Israel a "permanent agenda item,"
meaning, we suppose, that from now on all they need to do is push a "Scold
Israel" button and then go to lunch.

Tip of the hat to Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who declares she will
introduce legislation to halt U.S. funding of this ridiculous outfit.

 

The House passed a bill Monday that would help create an international nuclear fuel bank to discourage countries from enriching uranium that could be used for nuclear weapons.

By voice vote, the House passed legislation (HR 885) that would authorize $50 million in fiscal 2008 to help start the International Nuclear Fuel Bank, to be run by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The measure was written with Iran in mind. Tehran maintains that its uranium-enrichment effort will help it produce nuclear power for energy, but the Bush administration and others allege that it is seeking to build a nuclear weapon.

“It is imperative that we keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of Iran,” said Tom Lantos, D-Calif., who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee and who sponsored the bill.

Added Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, the ranking Republican on Lantos’ panel: “The legislation will prove to be significant to the global non-proliferation effort.”

The authorized amount would match the $50 million offered by the Nuclear Threat Initiative in September. The non-governmental organization, which focuses on non-proliferation, was founded by former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga. (1972-97), and mogul Ted Turner, and is backed by billionaire Warren Buffett.

The bill would require that any fuel made available by the bank be un-subsidized and offered at current market prices, and that any country receiving the fuel have effective nuclear-technology export controls.

It also would bar any country that possessed uranium-enrichment or spent-fuel processing facilities or was a state sponsor of terrorism from receiving fuel from the bank. The president could waive the provision related to sponsorship of terrorism.

The fiscal 2008 Energy-Water spending bill (HR 2641) approved by the House Appropriations Committee would put $100 million toward a fuel bank. Several Senate measures would authorize funds, including the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill (S 1547).

Michael Teitelbaum contributed to this story.

 U.N. rights council adopts reforms

By FRANK JORDANS -- Associated Press Writer
(Published: June 19, 2007)

GENEVA (AP) Members of the U.N.'s new human rights watchdog formally agreed Tuesday to continue their scrutiny of Israel while halting investigations into Cuba and Belarus - a move that immediately drew fire from the United States.

The decision was part of a package of reforms adopted by the members of the Human Rights Council to change how it conducts its work, including how and when to launch investigations into some of the world's worst rights offenders.

The council, which was formed last year to replace the discredited U.N. Human Rights Commission, passed the compromise package despite objections from Canada over plans to continue singling out Israel for scrutiny by the global body.

The European Union, which played a key role in the talks, said before the meeting that it remained to be seen how the council can perform on the basis of the agreement.

"The package is certainly not ideal, but we have a basis we can work with," said Ambassador Michael Steiner of Germany, which currently holds the EU presidency. "The package must prove its value in practice."

The United States - which is only an observer to the 47-nation body - has been skeptical of the council since its inception.

Warren Tichenor, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, said the reforms approved by the members "raise serious questions about the institutional priorities of the Human Rights Council."

Israeli Ambassador Itzhak Levanon said the accord was disappointing because the council had failed to ensure that it would be "non-selective and impartial."

"It is not a bright day for the protection of human rights," Levanon said, adding that the agreement "perpetuates the immoral fixation on Israel."

Rights groups were also skeptical about the agreement.

"The decision presents a floor for the council's work, but a great deal more needs to be built," said Peggy Hicks, global advocacy director for the New York-based Human Rights Watch. She said the agreement "gives leeway to countries that seek to weaken human rights protections."

The council's members had negotiated for a year on the ground rules for how it will operate over the next four years, but last-minute demands by China threatened to scuttle negotiations.

China had demanded that two-thirds of the council's members - rather than the current simple majority - agree before an expert is appointed to make a special investigation of alleged rights violations in a country.

It only dropped its objections after the council's outgoing president, Luis Alfonso de Alba of Mexico, engaged members in 14 hours of tense talks, eventually presenting the meeting with an updated compromise noting that resolutions against a country should have "the broadest possible support" - preferably co-sponsored by at least 15 member countries - before being considered.

Among the other changes was the establishment of a "universal periodic review" mechanism under which all countries will have their rights record examined regularly.

The new agreement also removes two mandates given to U.N.-appointed rights experts to examine the records of Cuba and Belarus, a move strongly criticized by non-governmental organizations, the United States and some European countries. The U.S. accuses Cuba of numerous rights violations, including the jailing of critics and limits on speech.

Nine other expert mandates, including on Haiti, Somalia, Congo, Sudan, Myanmar, North Korea and the Palestinian territories, will continue.

An influential Cuban-American member of Congress, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, said she would seek to halt U.S. funding to the council because of the "hopelessly flawed" rules exempting Cuba and Belarus and targeting Israel.

"To its shame, the U.N. Human Rights Council celebrated its first birthday by giving gifts to Fidel Castro, the authoritarian regime in Belarus and the enemies of the democratic state of Israel," said Ros-Lehtinen, the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

In Havana, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque called it "a historic victory in the fight of our people for justice."

The decision ends "the anti-Cuban practice that the United States created solely as a pretext to maintain and exacerbate the political genocide that are its blockade and aggressions against Cuba," he said. Washington's 45-year-old embargo chokes off nearly all U.S. commerce with Cuba.

The large Muslim and African groups which dominate the council had lobbied hard to minimize the scope for naming and shaming countries over their human rights records, but make an exception for Israel, the only government explicitly criticized so far by the body. Censure by the council brings no sanctions beyond international scrutiny.

The new agreement contains an agenda for future council meetings that provides for regular discussions of "human rights violations and implications of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and other occupied Arab territories."

 

Top U.N. Official Threatens ‘Retaliation' Against State Dept.

BY BENNY AVNI - Staff Reporter of the Sun
June 15, 2007
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/56688

UNITED NATIONS — A top executive of the U.N. development arm threatened "retaliation" against a State Department official this week even though America, the top financier of the agency, pays $100 million of its annual budget.

In Washington, meanwhile, a new piece of legislation introduced in Congress yesterday set reform benchmarks for the United Nations to achieve — or else risk the withdrawal of American funds. Along with growing disenchantment with the human-rights system, these developments raise the possibility of a new chill in relations between Washington and Turtle Bay.

In a strongly worded letter to the administrator of the United Nations Development Program, Kemal Dervis, Mr. Khalilzad expressed "surprise" and "concern" at the threats made by the UNDP second in command, Ad Melkert, toward an American U.N. ambassador, Mark Wallace.

A new batch of allegations, including the financing of a Pyongyang's purchase of items that could be used in advanced weapons systems, was reported in several newspapers this week. Spokesmen for the agency told reporters that the allegations were unsupported by documentation.

On Wednesday, Mr. Wallace presented Mr. Melkert with a batch of documents, including names of Korean companies involved in the relevant UNDP transactions, and the dollar amount and dates of the agency's payments to those companies. Mr. Wallace was accompanied in the meeting at the UNDP headquarters by another American official, and with Mr. Melkert was one of his aides, according to a source familiar with the meeting.

"I was surprised and concerned to learn" that during the meeting "Mr. Melkert suggested to Ambassador Wallace that UNDP viewed United States inquiry relating to such new information as justifying some kind of ‘retaliation' against the Government of the United States," Mr. Khalilzad wrote to Mr. Dervis yesterday.

Mr. Melkert, a former Dutch politician, played a central role in the recent ousting of the World Bank's president, Paul Wolfowitz, which was largely seen as a retaliatory move by European opponents of the Iraq war and other policies of the Bush administration against one of its central figures.

A UNDP spokesman, David Morrison, said yesterday that the agency intended to respond to Mr. Khalilzad's letter, adding that it considered the correspondence "private." Earlier this week, Mr. Morrison said that, based on agency's own record, the new allegations "don't add up."

The Washington Post detailed some of the allegations Sunday, including how UNDP money intended for agricultural development in North Korea was used to purchase such "dual use" items as global-positioning system equipment, computers and computer accessories, and a device known as a mass spectrometer.

Mr. Morrison told reporters Monday that the equipment in question was procured in 2006 as part of a project that the UNDP financed together with Britain. But a British official, who spoke to The New York Sun on condition of anonymity, said his country co-funded agricultural projects with the UNDP between 1999 and 2004, and ended the funding after London deemed the projects "unworthy of our support."

"Their job is not simply to refute every external criticism of UNDP, but rather to ensure the integrity of UNDP from within," An American U.N. ambassador, Richard Miller, yesterday told a General Assembly committee that oversees the development agency, referring to Messrs. Dervis and Melkert.

Introducing new legislation to limit U.N. funding yesterday, the ranking Republican in the House Foreign Relations Committee, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, of Florida, expressed similar criticism of the U.N. system as a whole.

"The delay, dilution, and defeat of various modest reform proposals by the General Assembly undermines support for the U.N.'s mission among Americans weary of that body's tepid respond to widespread corruption throughout the organization," Ms. Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement.

Her new legislation, which was immediately supported by 20 legislators after it was circulated among Republican House members yesterday, seeks to change the assessment set by the General Assembly for U.N. financing, while setting reform benchmarks. Two thirds of U.N. members pay 1% of the budget, but have the same influence over changes to the institution as America, which pays nearly quarter of the budget, to the tune of $5.3 billion a year, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen noted.

Meanwhile, Rep. Anthony Weiner, a Democrat of New York, yesterday wrote a letter to Secretary-General Ban to express his "outrage" that the Human Rights Commissioner, Louise Arbour, said it was a "good thing" for British institutions to consider boycotting Israel.

 

Frozen funds en route to N. Korea

By Bob Drogin
Times Staff Writer

June 15, 2007

WASHINGTON — Bush administration officials awaited confirmation Thursday of the long-delayed return to North Korea of about $25 million in allegedly tainted assets, a move that potentially clears the way for the communist nation to shut its chief nuclear weapons facility.

The expected financial transfer follows months of false starts and foul-ups as officials from the U.S. State and Treasury departments struggled to coordinate strategies aimed at persuading North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's regime to abandon nuclear weapons production.

Officials said the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of New York would act as a conduit for the electronic transfer of almost $25 million from a small bank in Macao through Russia's central bank to a commercial bank in Russia's Far East, where North Korea apparently holds an account.

"Basically all of it has been transferred…. For Macao, this incident has come to a conclusion," the Chinese territory said in an official statement.

White House, State and Treasury officials said they were still seeking to confirm the transfer late Thursday and hoped to announce progress today.

The convoluted transaction caps a bizarre chapter in the effort to rein in the North Korean government's nuclear program.

President Bush announced Feb. 13 that the regime in Pyongyang had agreed in six-party talks to shut down its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon within 60 days as the first step in a multiyear disarmament process. In exchange, Washington agreed to provide crucial fuel oil and to start the process of normalizing relations.

But the deal immediately ran aground on a provision of the Patriot Act aimed at curbing financial transactions that could assist terrorists. Congress passed the law after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In this case, the Treasury Department blacklisted the Macao-based Banco Delta Asia in September 2005 for allegedly laundering proceeds from North Korean criminal enterprises, including counterfeiting and drug smuggling.

The move so angered Pyongyang that it refused to participate in nuclear arms talks for more than a year and raced ahead with its weapons program.

The regime tested a small nuclear device in October and is believed to possess enough weapons-grade plutonium for eight to 10 warheads.

In January, State Department negotiators agreed to approve the return of the frozen North Korean funds to help persuade the regime to stop producing plutonium.

But in March, the Treasury Department moved to enforce its earlier ruling by barring U.S. financial institutions from dealing with the Macao bank. At that point, North Korea walked away from talks aimed at implementing the February accord.

The result was an impasse. North Korea made it clear that it wanted the money returned through normal banking channels. But the blacklisting caused financial institutions in Asia and Europe to sever ties with North Korea, and private commercial banks refused to handle the tainted funds for fear they would violate U.S. law and lose their access to the global financial system.

While Bush administration officials sought to untangle the morass, North Korea was free to continue operations at Yongbyon, though U.S. nuclear experts say it was out of commission at times for maintenance.

The decision to use the Federal Reserve Bank to return the money to the original account holders came after government lawyers concluded that the Federal Reserve was not subject to the same legal provisions as the commercial banks. U.S. officials said the Russian government also played a key role.

Christopher R. Hill, the State Department envoy who negotiated the disarmament accord, departed Wednesday for meetings in Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo aimed at reviving the six-party talks, which involve China, Japan, South Korea and Russia, as well as the United States and North Korea.

Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, said Thursday that "we all look forward" to getting the Macao bank case "behind us so we can get back to the real business of the six-party talks."

North Korean officials have said "both in public and in private" that they intend to honor the Feb. 13 agreement, he added.

Asked whether the agreement was back on track, he replied, "Well, let's see. We'll see what the coming days bring."

This week, six Republican lawmakers asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate whether the transfer of the $25 million violated U.S. law.

"If history is any indication, I have little confidence that the North Korean regime will adhere to any agreement despite our good-faith efforts to honor our side of the bargain," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Jon B. Wolfsthal, a nonproliferation expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said, "We're essentially helping the North Koreans launder money. But if that's what it takes to get them to freeze plutonium production, it's worth it."

 

Bolton Challenges N.Y. Fed on North Korea

BY GARY SHAPIRO - Staff Reporter of the Sun
June 13, 2007
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/56416

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Congressmen, human rights activists, and a former ambassador are challenging the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's plan to transfer $25 million in frozen funds to North Korea.

The plan puts on the spot Federal Reserve board members, some of whom are prominent New Yorkers, including the president of Columbia University, Lee Bollinger, who is a First Amendment attorney, and the president of New York State AFL-CIO, Denis Hughes. Each might be liable if the funds are used for nefarious purposes by North Korea, a country that does not allow organized labor.

"These are tainted funds and it would be bad enough to have a private bank handle them, let alone the Fed," a former American ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, who is now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said.

The chairwoman of the North Korea Freedom Coalition, Suzanne Scholte, said it was "appalling" that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was getting involved. "It's like we're trying to figure out a way to launder his money," she said, referring to North Korea's dictator, Kim Jong-il. She also pointed to the irony that the government of North Korea had already been caught counterfeiting American money.

North Korea has linked the release of frozen funds to its commitment made on February 13 to commence nuclear disarmament. Wachovia and other banks have previously refused to contravene the prohibition by the Treasury Department in September 2005 that labels Banco Delta Asia, a Macao-based bank where North Korea's funds are frozen, a "primary money laundering concern" under the USA Patriot Act. The Federal Reserve may lie outside the relevant provision of the Patriot Act covering commercial entities.

The ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, led a group of House Republicans yesterday in asking the Government Accountability Office to examine whether this recent move is consistent with anti-laundering and counterfeit laws.

Others signing the letter were Rep. Christopher Smith of New Jersey, Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana, Rep. Edward Royce of California, Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, and Rep. Joseph Pitts of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Bolton said the State Department was caving in to pressure from North Korea. He said North Korea was not going to comply with its obligation under the February 13 agreement.

Ms. Scholte, who is also president of the nonprofit Defense Forum Foundation, said America had fallen into a trap of letting North Korea decide the ground rules by focusing on the nuclear issue.

"It is absolutely foolhardy to free up the funds," the author of "Over the Line: North Korea's Negotiating Strategy," Chuck Downs, said. Such a move would make clear that any bank around the world could deal with North Korea and not be afraid of the U.S. Treasury Department, he said.

Ms. Scholte said releasing the frozen funds would strengthen North Korea's dictator enough to crack down further on the country's people. "Sadly, we're going down a slippery slope," she said, adding that the Kim Jong-il cares only about keeping himself in power.

The executive director of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, Debra Liang-Fenton, said she hoped human rights would be included in security talks with North Korea. "You can't have normalization with a country that tortures its own people." She said North Korea runs a vast gulag system, with political prisoners charged with offenses that are not punishable by international standards.

Mr. Downs said the original negotiating posture of America was a bad one of giving North Korea what it wanted first. "We knew that they were counterfeiting, drug smuggling, and money laundering through that bank," he said.

He added that America previously put the squeeze on North Korea financially, which he said was very effective.

Mr. Bollinger is one of three board directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York appointed to represent the public. Columbia's press office did not return calls for comment.

The other two are the president of Tishman Speyer, Jerry Speyer, whose spokesman did not respond to a query by press time, and Mr. Hughes of the AFL-CIO, whose spokesman referred comment to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Linda Ricci, declined comment.

A spokesman for the chairman of General Electric Co., Jeffrey Immelt, did not get back by press time.

Mr. Immelt is one of three board members elected by member banks to represent the public. Another is the chairman of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Richard Fuld Jr., a spokesman for whom said Mr. Fuld could not reply yesterday, as the company had released its earnings that day. The third is the president of PepsiCo Inc., Indra Nooyi, whose spokeswoman said she was away from the office and unable to be reached.

A spokesman for one of the three board members elected to represent member banks, Jamie Dimon, president of JPMorgan Chase, declined comment.

Mr. Bolton said the decision to unfreeze the funds was unfortunate, and referring to the head of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System, said: "Chairman Bernanke — call your office."

June 13, 2007 Edition > Section: Foreign > Printer-Friendly Version