Terrorism's business partners

Jewish World Review ^ | July 26, 2005 | Frank Gaffney Jr.

[radar101]

In the wake of recent bombings in London and Egypt confirming the vulnerability of even relatively vigilant societies to Islamofascist terrorism, the question occurs: Are we serious about fighting this menace with every instrument at our disposal?

A test of the seriousness of the U.S. Senate will be offered as soon as today [July 26]. Senators will be asked to choose between two amendments to the defense authorization bill (S.1042) bearing on one of this country's most powerful and yet largely unutilized tools: Denying U.S. investment capital, technology and other commercial benefits to state-sponsors of terror.

To be sure, successive administrations have imposed economic and trade sanctions on terrorist-sponsoring states like Iran, Libya, Sudan, Cuba, Syria and North Korea. Existing law — notably, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) — grants the President the authority to bar U.S. companies from doing business with nations that do business with terrorists.

Unfortunately, there is a loophole in the law, a loophole some American firms have used to circumvent and undermine U.S. sanctions. By establishing an offshore subsidiary, these companies have proceeded to engage in commerce with sanctioned states even though the parent is prohibited from doing so.

This practice has properly inspired bipartisan outrage in the Senate. Last week, two Senators — Frank Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, and Maine Republican Susan Collins, who chairs the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee — expressed incredulity and anger at this flouting of the law and outdid each other offering amendments intended to put an end to it.