Thursday, March 18, 2004
DIVERTING FROM THE WAR ON TERROR? Not Iraq, but Cuba (link from the Center for American Progress)
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, is charged with tracking and freezing terrorist assets, enforcing the Cuba embargo, and enforcing embargoes on other “rogue” nations. Increasingly, however, OFAC has been spending its limited time and resources on cracking down on people who travel to Cuba. In a written response to the questioning of a Senate committee, OFAC’s director, Richard Newcomb, reported recently that his agency has committed close to 17 percent of its workforce to enforcing the embargo on Cuba.I've never fully understood why the travel ban and sanctions on Cuba have lasted as long as they have. Given that European and other nations are alreatravelinging to and doibusinessess in and with Cuba in large numbers, it doesn't seem to make any sense to cling to an outmoded American policy.
