Senators question treasury's lapses in blocking terrorist funding sources.

Emergency Preparedness News, January, 2004

Choking off financing "is crucial in the war on terrorism," and two high-ranking members of the Senate Finance Committee have expressed doubt that the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is functioning effectively to stop the money flow.

Chairman Charles Grassley (R.-Iowa) and Ranking Member Max Baucus (D.-Mont.) sent a letter calling OFAC Director Richard Newcomb on the carpet to answer for perceived lapses in the agency's charge to ensure that financial institutions do not engage in transactions with terrorists, and enforce civil and criminal penalties when they do.

The senators noted, for example, that news reports identified people linked to terrorist financing before OFAC at least twice since 9/11. Grassley and Baucus...

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