[House Hearing, 112 Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] FINANCIAL HARDBALL: CORRALLING TERRORISTS AND PROLIFERATORS ======================================================================= HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON TERRORISM, NONPROLIFERATION, AND TRADE OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION __________ APRIL 6, 2011 __________ Serial No. 112-9 __________ Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ ______ U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 65-629PDF WASHINGTON : 2011 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800; DC area (202) 512-1800 Fax: (202) 512-2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402-0001 COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida, Chairman CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey HOWARD L. BERMAN, California DAN BURTON, Indiana GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York ELTON GALLEGLY, California ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American DANA ROHRABACHER, California Samoa DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey EDWARD R. ROYCE, California BRAD SHERMAN, California STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York RON PAUL, Texas GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York MIKE PENCE, Indiana RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri JOE WILSON, South Carolina ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey CONNIE MACK, Florida GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas DENNIS CARDOZA, California TED POE, Texas BEN CHANDLER, Kentucky GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida BRIAN HIGGINS, New York JEAN SCHMIDT, Ohio ALLYSON SCHWARTZ, Pennsylvania BILL JOHNSON, Ohio CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut DAVID RIVERA, Florida FREDERICA WILSON, Florida MIKE KELLY, Pennsylvania KAREN BASS, California TIM GRIFFIN, Arkansas WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina ANN MARIE BUERKLE, New York RENEE ELLMERS, North Carolina VACANT Yleem D.S. Poblete, Staff Director Richard J. Kessler, Democratic Staff Director ------ Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman TED POE, Texas BRAD SHERMAN, California JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island BILL JOHNSON, Ohio GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia TIM GRIFFIN, Arkansas BRIAN HIGGINS, New York ANN MARIE BUERKLE, New York ALLYSON SCHWARTZ, Pennsylvania RENEE ELLMERS, North Carolina C O N T E N T S ---------- Page WITNESSES Mr. Juan C. Zarate, Senior Adviser, Center for Strategic and International Studies (former Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism, and former Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes, U.S. Department of the Treasury)............. 7 David Asher, Ph.D., non-resident senior fellow, Center for a New American Security (former Senior Adviser, East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and Coordinator, North Korea Working Group, U.S. Department of State)...................................... 32 Professor Orde F. Kittrie, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Arizona State University....................................... 39 LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING The Honorable Edward R. Royce, a Representative in Congress from the State of California, and chairman, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade: Prepared statement..... 4 Mr. Juan C. Zarate: Prepared statement........................... 10 David Asher, Ph.D.: Prepared statement........................... 34 Professor Orde F. Kittrie: Prepared statement.................... 42 APPENDIX Hearing notice................................................... 62 Hearing minutes.................................................. 63 FINANCIAL HARDBALL: CORRALLING TERRORISTS AND PROLIFERATORS ---------- WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2011 House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 3:04 p.m., in room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Edward R. Royce (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Mr. Royce. This hearing of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade today will look at corralling terrorists and proliferators--financial hardball, in other words. Economic sanctions have long been a key diplomatic tool. Athens imposed a trade boycott on Sparta's ally Megara. And, of course, it is a long history, but in recent years the United States has increasingly relied upon reputational financial sanctions, particularly against North Korea and Iran. These sanctions target financial institutions employed by rogue states for illicit transactions. To preserve their reputation and protect their businesses, other banks shun the targeted institution, restricting the rogue's ability to finance proliferation or terrorist activities. This model was effectively used in 2005 with Banco Delta Asia hitting North Korea. Once BDA was identified as complicit in North Korea's money laundering and WMD activities, banks throughout the region shunned Banco Delta Asia and other North Korean transactions, effectively shutting the regime out of the international system. As Dr. David Asher, a key architect of this policy, will testify, this was a ``financial shot heard around the world.'' The key to this action was Section 311 of the PATRIOT Act, which allows the Treasury Department to designate a particular financial entity as a ``primary money laundering concern,'' barring it from the U.S. financial system. One witness, Juan Zarate, pioneered the use of this sanction against ``bad banks'' during his tenure at Treasury. After being used against North Korea and BDA, this ``unprecedented power'' took a 5-year vacation. That is until this year, when the Beirut-based Lebanese Canadian bank was sanctioned. Treasury found that as much as $200 million per month in drug money was laundered through this bank to the benefit of Hezbollah, financing weapons, financing logistics, financing training. The ``market-based financial isolation'' that was used against North Korea set the stage for Treasury's campaign against Iran. Beginning in 2006, senior U.S. officials visited some five dozen banks, seeking to persuade them to reconsider their business with Iranian financial institutions. Dubious transactions by Iranian banks, like the $50 million transmitted by Iran's bank Saderat through a London subsidiary to Hezbollah, were spotlighted. In this ``whisper campaign,'' Treasury officials revealed the high cost foreign institutions could bear if found to be facilitating illicit Iranian transactions. This has caused economic hassle and even pain for the regime in Iran, but it is yet to alter its nuclear weapons drive. But neither has our financial pressure been turned to the max. Treasury has yet to designate a single bank under Section 311 of the PATRIOT Act for Iran-related sanctions. Nor has Treasury imposed any sanctions against Iran's Central Bank, which has reportedly assisted Iranian banks to sidestep U.S. financial pressure. Nor have new financial sanctions that were included in the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act been fully implemented. Nine months after the bill was signed, Treasury is yet to issue regulations to bar foreign banks from doing business with designated Iranian entities from the U.S. financial market. If fully implemented, this would transform Treasury's whispers into a loud bark and a bite. Successive administrations have shown little interest in sanctioning firms investing in Iranian's energy sector. Last week's sanctioning of an already sanctioned and largely insignificant Belarusian energy firm was embarrassing for the Obama administration. It was just a gesture. Our witnesses today suggest that financial sanctions, if made a cornerstone of a coordinated campaign, could tip the playing field. In North Korea's case, one suggests they could have proven ``decisive'' had naive diplomats not demanded that they be dismantled. Lastly, I should note that our hearing comes as the Treasury Department is in transition. Under Secretary Stuart Levey left his post just days ago. He was innovative and aggressive. The administration insists his departure won't affect policy. Let's hope that is the case. I will now introduce our witnesses. Mr. Juan Zarate is a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Mr. Zarate previously served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Adviser for Combating Terrorism from 2005 to 2009. Prior to that, Juan served as the first Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes. He is actually from my county, Orange County, California. I am going to mention the ranking member after I go through the witnesses and then go to you for your opening statement, if that is all right. Mr. Sherman. Very good. Mr. Royce. Dr. David Asher is a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. Previously, Dr. Asher served as a Senior Asia Adviser at the State Department and was the Coordinator for the North Korea Working Group that attacked Kim Jong Il's illicit activities and finances. He is a coauthor of a new report, ``Pressure,'' in which he documents those efforts. Professor Orde Kittrie is professor of law at Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law. He focuses on legal and policy issues relating to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Prior to academia, Mr. Kittrie served for 11 years at the State Department as an attorney. I would like to turn now to our ranking member, Mr. Brad Sherman from California, for his opening statement; and then we will go to Mr. Zarate, Dr. Asher, and Mr. Kittrie, in that order, for their statements. Mr. Sherman. [The prepared statement of Mr. Royce follows:]Mr. Sherman. American national security depends upon our nonproliferation efforts, particularly against Iran. The issue is raised, can sanctions work? The answer is, obviously, of course, definitely, but only if you are willing to make our international businesses and trading partners angry. We have been absolutely unwilling to do that to any degree whatsoever, and our sanctions program has manifestly failed to slow the times centrifuges. Let me give an extreme example that demonstrates what I am saying. Imagine if the United States had a rule that you could not trade with the United States, not one paperclip, if you conducted any trade with Iran--a single paperclip, perhaps excluding medicine and food. The result would be an immediate shutdown of the Iranian economy, as it couldn't get spare parts for oil field equipment, elevators, et cetera. Iran would have to discontinue its program within weeks. And, of course, this would make all of our trading partners angry, not the least of which would be the Chinese. We would see our ports locked to their exports until such time as they bend to our nonproliferation strategy, which I think they would do within hours. Wall Street is simply too powerful, the business community is too powerful, the State Department is too deferential for us to do anything close to what I am talking about. So, instead, we have a policy of sanctions to the full extent that can be implemented without making anybody upset, except the Iranians. And within that range we have at least been able to annoy the North Koreans and the Iranians with our very limited efforts. Financial measures play an important role in applying this level of pressure, and financial institutions seem particularly concerned about their reputations and susceptible to things that pose reputational risks. You can demonstrate tactical results. A bank quits doing business for Iran, for example. But what does that mean? That just means they have got to go to another bank. Iran is not going to abandon its nuclear program just because they have to go to the bank with the high ATM fees. Big Western banks do tend to be wary institutions. They respond to pressure, to whisper campaigns. Stuart Levey did an outstanding job within the constraint that he couldn't make anybody angry. He accomplished all that could be. Financial institutions, in an effort to protect their reputation, often go well beyond letter of the law. At least initially the Bush administration designated Banco Delta Asia under the PATRIOT Act in September, 2005. The order only affected that one bank. Yet almost all reputable institutions stayed away from North Korea and its banking institutions, causing a cash crunch for the North Korean Government that led to a little bit of more reasonable negotiating from them for a while. We have to play financial hardball and will learn about that at these hearings. But we also have to impose trade as well as financial pressures. The fact that we are doing the exact opposite was illustrated a couple weeks ago when, on March 16th, the State Department sent notice to Congress saying that it was going to give a license to GE to repair the jet engines of supposedly civilian Iranian aircraft. Well, how civilian are these aircraft? We know that they are used to take weapons to Hezbollah. We know that they were used in intelligence operations involving Iranian dissidents and assassinations and assassination attempts. And we know that they were used, as shown on page 240, 241 of the 9/11 Commission Report, to ferry 9/11 highjackers in and out of Afghanistan prior to the 9/11 incident. These are their civilian aircraft. We are going to license their repair. What we should have the guts to do is simply tell Iran, ground your airplanes until you ground your nuclear program. Unfortunately, while many of us, including, I believe, the chairman, the chairwoman of the full committee, the ranking member of this full committee, are urging the State Department to do just that, I suspect that the administration will bow to corporate pressure and license this, while at the same time telling the American people that we are using all the economic power of the United States to try to prevent the Iranians from developing a nuclear weapon. We can and should go way beyond CISADA. Last Congress, joined by our chairman, I introduced the Stop Iran's Nuclear Weapons Program Act. That would, among other things, sanction those who would buy bonds from the Iranian Government. Recent news reports suggest that some $4.2 billion in bonds will soon be issued by an agency of that government, the Power Oil and Gas Company. I will be reintroducing that legislation next week, and I want to urge all our colleagues to cosponsor that legislation. Finally, I want to mention that some $33 billion was seized and frozen by Treasury because those assets were owned by Libya and the Qadhafi family. It is time that those assets be used to pay the costs of Operation Odyssey Dawn. That is an operation designed to protect the Libyan people. The fact that we have not even asked the Benghazi government--I don't think we need to ask, but we haven't even bothered to ask--for a clear declaration that those funds should be used to support our efforts shows a real lack of respect to the American taxpayers. I would point out that Libya produces more oil per capita than any country that you can find on the map without a magnifying glass. So there is still much to be done. I want to commend our Treasury Department for what they have been able to do under the political constraints they face, and I yield back. Mr. Royce. Thank you, Mr. Sherman. Mr. Zarate. STATEMENT OF MR. JUAN C. ZARATE, SENIOR ADVISER, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES (FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT AND DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR FOR COMBATING TERRORISM, AND FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR TERRORIST FINANCING AND FINANCIAL CRIMES, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY) Mr. Zarate. Thank you Chairman Royce, Ranking Member Sherman. It is an honor to be here with you today. Thank you for the invitation, always an honor to be with southern Californians. I submitted written testimony and ask that it be entered in the record, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I was privileged to serve at the Treasury Department and the National Security Council after 9/11 with a team of remarkably dedicated public servants like Dr. David Asher sitting to my right, who are dedicated to deploying these innovative financial tools to promote and defend the national security of our Nation. David, in particular, was critical as the State Department's point man in devising new ways of integrating law enforcement, financial, and diplomatic tracks to squeeze the regime in Pyongyang. Mr. Chairman, I would also like to thank you for your consistent support on these issues, especially as we deploy targeted financial sanctions against international scofflaws like Viktor Bout and his international business empire. Mr. Chairman, between diplomacy and war lies the realm of economic influence and financial power. Over the past decade, we have developed a new brand of financial suasion used to constrict the budgets and global reach of terrorist networks and to isolate and diminish the international financial and commercial access of rogue regimes like North Korea and Iran. This new paradigm leverages the integration of complementary financial and national security objectives to protect the integrity of the international financial system and isolate rogue financial activity. What makes this approach so powerful is that it relies more on the risk-based calculus of global financial and commercial institutions than the policy decisions of governments. This is why we have seen banks and insurance companies end their dealings with North Korea and Iran, even absent government decrees or U.N. sanctions. Enabling this new power is the suspect or illicit behavior of rogue actors themselves. With sensitivities embedded in the financial system to illicit financial behavior, such activities become the Achilles' heel of rogue actors. This is why the Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces growing control of the Iranian economy is a central vulnerability. This system of financial suasion relies on a virtuous cycle where rogue behavior is exposed or targeted by governments and shunned by the private sector, reinforcing financial isolation. This then puts a premium on government exposure of masked financial transactions. Importantly, this new paradigm has done away with the old orthodoxy that defines sanctions as being either unilateral or multilateral. This new brand of financial power is multilateral by nature. This explains why a domestic proposed administrative rule under Section 311 of the PATRIOT Act can lead to the global financial isolation of the North Korean regime. Financial suasion is now central to our national security approach. It can cut off funding for rogue regimes, heighten scrutiny of suspect international activity, amplify the financial pressure and political fissures within regimes and societies, and anchor the international isolation of the rogue regime and its leadership. These financial campaigns also alter the strategic environment, and so we need to be aware of the trends that could dull the sharp edge of this new power. Criminal and terrorist networks and sanction states will continue to need access to the international financial system. This will breed innovation in circumventing sanctions and the creation of shadow banking networks. We then need to continue to shine a light on those actors engaged in illicit and suspect conduct, especially the financial facilitators. Governments need to remain acutely aware of the reliance on the private sector and maintain focus on conduct-based sanctions that have direct relevance to the integrity of the financial system. It is critical as well that we tend to the economic and enforcement environment that makes this power possible. In the first instance, it requires maintaining and using the tools and authorities we already have in place, drawing the sharp distinction between legitimate and illegitimate financial activity. It also requires strengthening the United States as a central financial and commercial center to ensure that what the United States says and does has global impact. And we can't remain static in our application of financial pressure against rogues. We need to integrate law enforcement and other tools to amplify the effects of these powers and launch new campaigns to address plutocracy and human rights to underscore the illegitimacy of rogue actors in the international financial arena. The recent steps taken to expose Hezbollah's international drug trafficking and money laundering activity is a welcome strategic move. We may also need to think more creatively about positive finance incentives, both to reward the right behavior by the financial community and punish illicit financial actors. It is important as well as not to view these powers as a magic bullet for all our hard transnational problems. This power needs to be an enabler for our broader national security strategies. Finally, Congress plays an important role in this realm. Congress should hold the executive's feet to the fire in implementing existing authorities to isolate rogue behavior. As it has done with CISADA, Congress can affect the international environment and pressure on foreign governments, the private sector nongovernmental organizations to ensure there is a clear dividing line between legitimate financial activity and activities that serve to circumvent controls on illicit behavior. As the world faces challenges from rogue states' networks and actors, there now exists a well-developed international system to use financial information, power, and suasion to isolate rogues from the legitimate financial system. If maintained properly and used aggressively, this new paradigm of smart financial power will remain an effective cornerstone of our national security approach, keeping both the financial system and our citizens safe. Thank you very much, and I look forward to your questions. [The prepared statement of Mr. Zarate follows:]
Mr. Duncan [presiding]. Dr. Asher. STATEMENT OF DAVID ASHER, PH.D., NON-RESIDENT SENIOR FELLOW, CENTER FOR A NEW AMERICAN SECURITY (FORMER SENIOR ADVISER, EAST ASIAN AND PACIFIC AFFAIRS, AND COORDINATOR, NORTH KOREA WORKING GROUP, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE) Mr. Asher. Chairman Royce, Ranking Member Sherman, and members of the committee, thank you very much for the opportunity to testify here today. I had the great pleasure, as a colleague and counterpart of Juan Zarate during the Bush administration, to go to work on the North Korea problem set in particular but also to help develop the use of finance as a fulcrum element in applying nonkinetic pressure against some of our most difficult adversaries and most defiant regimes and networks. Recently, I had the pleasure of being a coauthor of this report from the Center for New American Security called Pressure, which reviews the history not only of the Bush administration's North Korea Illicit Activities Initiative but also the Clinton administration's path-breaking initiative to put financial pressure on Slobodan Milosevic, something which I encourage people to pay attention to. And with your permission, sirs, I would like to submit for the record at least the text as well as my written statement today. I would like to highlight five points briefly from this report. The first is essentially covering what Juan just mentioned. In the last decade, the Treasury Department has pioneered a new era of financial operations other than war and created what I would say is a revolution in financial affairs equivalent to the revolution in military affairs engendered by the use of precision-guided munitions and sort of smart warfare capabilities. We have the ability today, given the interconnectivity of the global financial system to apply nonkinetic pressure coercively against nations by combining economic sanctions, precision-guided financial measures using Treasury authorities and, really importantly, law enforcement, in my mind, in a way that you can essentially intimidate, deter, deny, coerce, and I think even defeat, in some cases, adversaries who may otherwise be difficult to have any effect on. And I think on the Iran problems set we would have to look at nonkinetic ways and means as the primary. The effectiveness, of course, of economic statecraft, a second point, really depends on the clarity of the desired end state. That is why, Ranking Member Sherman, I totally understand your point. I mean, the administration has to decide what it wants to achieve and what it is willing to do to achieve it. Because the stakes on the Iran problem set are so incredibly high they go well beyond just Iran's nuclear threat, which is considerable looking ahead, but also the threat of proliferation throughout the Middle East triggered by the Iranian regime's development, especially in the wake of this revolutionary sea change in the political environment in the entire Middle East. The third point, which I already sort of touched on, is I believe law enforcement remains the most neglected element of national power. One of the most important things we did together, working with the Department of Justice during the Bush administration, was launch global undercover investigations against the North Korean networks which were engaged in weapons proliferation and illicit procurement as well as the funding of the regime of Kim Jong Il. Law enforcement evidence is much more compelling than intelligence in convincing foreign governments to act; and by providing an evidentiary basis that is acceptable under national legal rules, as well as the rules of foreign partner countries, I think we can find we can freeze much more money than we can simply through Treasury designations or even the United Nations sanctions. But what is one very important point is that the financial actors that are complicit within the world of weapons proliferation, for example, have to be held accountable. The Department of Justice apparently has investigated maybe as many as a dozen banks for complicity and falsifying wire transfers on behalf of the Iranian regime, billions and billions of dollars. None of those bankers has been essentially taken away in handcuffs or with his head on a stick, in effect, as a criminal. Instead, they have been given fines. I don't believe that policy is a sound policy in the long haul. The fourth is the economic course of diplomacy has a very important role within the military context, and I think that these threat finance cells within Afghanistan and within Iraq are playing an important role and continue to play an important role within the military complex. It is not just a shaping mechanism. Denying the means of sustainment to our adversaries has been a fundamental principle of warfare since time immemorial. After all, Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote, I think in 44 B.C., that endless money forms the sinews of war; and its insight remains very significant today. We can be doing a much better job I believe going after, for example, the financing of the Taliban, but the problem is we would have to look at Pakistan, and this is the problem set we are going to have to face. Finally, the power of economic and financial coercive diplomacy which we found in reviewing the history in this report can be underestimated. Had we known how successful our sanctions had been against Saddam Hussein there would never have been a need to invade that country. Not underestimating ourselves and having an accurate measure of the actual effects of our policies is critical. On that note, I turn over to you. Thank you, sir. [The prepared statement of Mr. Asher follows:]
Mr. Duncan. Thank you. Professor Kittrie is recognized for 5 minutes. STATEMENT OF PROFESSOR ORDE F. KITTRIE, SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR COLLEGE OF LAW, ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY Mr. Kittrie. Thank you, Mr. Duncan, Ranking Member Sherman. Thank you for the invitation. It is a pleasure to be here today. Since you have such great experts alongside me on North Korea and terrorism finance in David Asher and Juan Zarate, who literally have those topics covered from A to Z, and I primarily follow Iran issues, I will focus my remarks on the application of sanctions to Iran. U.S. Government officials have stated that the current sanctions on Iran are designed to both coerce and constrain Iran. How is the international community, led by the U.S., doing in achieving those goals? With regard to coercion, while sanctions on Iran have undoubtedly increased the costs to Iran of its illegal behavior, they have clearly not raised the costs sufficiently to outweigh the benefits to the Iranian regime of proceeding with its nuclear program and state sponsorship of terrorism. We know that because Iran is clearly still choosing to proceed with both. The bottom line with regard to the efforts to constrain Iran is that, while Iran's capacity to pursue its illicit behavior is undoubtedly being hindered, it is clearly still making progress, albeit somewhat more slowly, toward its illicit goals. What more needs to be done if we are to tip the balance and succeed in both coercing Iran and halting its capacity to conduct illicit activities? I have detailed in my written testimony several ideas for tipping that balance. The following are some highlights, which I would be happy to discuss in more detail during Q&A. In light of the hearing's title, I will start with some financial measures. Number one, sanctioning the Central Bank of Iran. In light of the key role played by the Central Bank of Iran in financing Iran's illicit state sponsorship of terrorism and illicit proliferation activities, the imposition of sanctions on the Central Bank, ideally in conjunction with key allies, is looking like an increasingly smart option. Number two, curtail Iran's ability to issue bonds. With most major international banks and energy companies having stopped doing business with Iran, it is harder for Iran to attract the investment it needs to develop its energy sector. In response, as Ranking Minority Member Sherman mentioned, Iran recently announced the issuance of billions of dollars in bonds to support development of its South Pars natural gas field. The Stop Iran's Nuclear Weapons Program Act, H.R. 6296, which was introduced in the last Congress by the chair and ranking member of this subcommittee, would address this by making sanctionable the buying or facilitating of Iranian bonds. I am glad to hear that excellent bill is going to be reintroduced soon, and I hope it gains the widespread support it deserves. Number three, probably the most important steps to be taken to ratchet up the pressure on Iran involve China. Only some of the steps involve financial sanctions, but I will mention them all because they are so important. China is reportedly failing to comply with the several U.N. Security Council resolutions which prohibit the transfer to Iran of proliferation-sensitive equipment and materials. Robert Einhorn, the State Department's Special Advisor for Nonproliferation and Arms Control, last month stated that, ``We continue to have concerns about the transfer of proliferation- sensitive equipment and materials to Iran by Chinese companies.'' Such transactions are crucially important to the Iranian nuclear program, which reportedly is still dependent on the import of high-strength maraging steel, vacuum pumps, and other critical items. In light of the continued contributions by some Chinese companies to Iran's proliferation activities, it may be wise to sanction those companies, for example, under the Iran, Syria, North Korea Nonproliferation Act and/or Executive Order 13382. It may also be worth considering a more systemic response, such as assessing whether China meets the criteria set forth in CISADA for designation as a destination of diversion concern. Chinese banks are also reportedly involved in violating sanctions on Iran, including by facilitating the provision to Iran of restricted technology and materials. A failure to take decisive action in response to Chinese violations and backfilling provides Iran with an important loophole in the sanctions regime. It also risks undercutting the more helpful compliance records of other companies and countries. A fourth and final idea I would highlight involves hindering Iran's ability to benefit from crude oil sales. Doing to Iran's crude oil exports what CISADA did to Iran's refined petroleum imports could have an enormous impact on Iran. Crude oil exports are the lifeblood of the Iranian regime, reportedly accounting for 80 percent of Iran's export earnings and a quarter of its GDP. In light of the current worldwide price of crude, I don't see much support out there for a blanket sanctioning of all companies that are involved with Iran's crude oil exports. However, there are measures short of such blanket sanctions that might be able to hinder the Iranian regime's ability to benefit from its crude oil sales without depriving the world market of so much Iranian crude. These measures include Treasury publicly identifying IRGC subsidiaries which are involved in Iran's crude oil export chain and enactment of the provision in H.R. 6296, introduced by the chair and ranking member that would sanction entities that pay in advance for oil deliveries or sign long-term contracts to purchase oil and gas from Iran. If members of the international community have to buy Iranian crude oil and natural gas, they should at least do so on a cash basis, without long-term commitment, lest they provide the Iranian Government with a financial lifeline it doesn't deserve. There is plenty of work to be done if we are to tip the balance and succeed in our efforts to peacefully coerce and constrain the Iranian regime and achieve a halt to its illicit nuclear weapons program and support for terrorism. Thank you. [The prepared statement of Mr. Kittrie follows:]
Mr. Duncan. Thank you, gentlemen, for a very timely testimony today. And Mr. Zarate--have I pronounced that correctly? I wasn't here during the opening of that--you have written that China, Malaysia, Russia, Qatar, and Venezuela may serve as potential alternate banking outlets that would be willing to file U.S. pressure for economic or political reasons. And I know that was a few years ago, but the question I have for you is, have you changed your view, and if you could elaborate on your perspective there. Mr. Zarate. I have not. I think my diagnosis is that you have very real potential of the creation of alternate banking networks, what I call shadow banking networks or alliance of financial rogues, that are intended to circumvent existing legitimate financial controls on rogue behavior. And so could you very well have--and we have seen in the past--a merger of those rogues who are outside the legitimate financial system beginning to cooperate to provide each other the financial facilities to not only trade but then to reenter the financial system in a layered way, that is, to hide their activities but ultimately to gain access to the international financial system. That I think is a fundamental challenge to this very power that we developed. And as Professor Kittrie mentioned, a major dimension of that is the challenge of China, which is a major economy now, the second-largest economy the world, which has a thriving banking sector and which is playing both sides of the fence in many ways, both wanting to be a legitimate financial power and wanting to play by the rules but also then facilitating activity that skates the line in terms of its international obligations. It is not just with respect to Iran but it is also North Korea, with some of the mining contracts and deals that have been made recently. And so I think this is a major concern, and I think we need to not only shine the light on the individual entities that exist that are providing the services but also the regimes that provide the legitimacy for that kind of activity. That is why I think countries like Venezuela deserve greater scrutiny. Mr. Duncan. As a follow-up, other than the countries mentioned, would you identify any other countries that may act in that same capacity? Mr. Zarate. Well, the first thing I would do in looking at the strategy is look at where there are legitimate alternate banking centers around the world and where are there potential outlets or safety valves for illegitimate financial actors who are trying to avoid the scrutiny in New York or London or Frankfort but may find financial institutions in places like Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, or in other capitals. So the first thing I would do in this context is map the world in terms of where there are outlets. And then I would start to look at where the particular institutions are being used or misused for purposes of illicit financial behavior. We have seen some very good actions by the Treasury Department, for example, with joint ventures between Iran and Venezuela. I think that is helpful. So I would continue to look for those points in the system that are the manifestations of that vulnerability, and I would shine a light on it. And you can do it in a variety of ways. As David mentioned, you can use not only Treasury tools but State Department tools, law enforcement tools. And there is a real sort of all-of-government approach that can be applied to this problem. Mr. Duncan. I thank you for that. The chair will now recognize the ranking member, Mr. Sherman, for 5 minutes. Mr. Sherman. Thank you. For the record, I mentioned the importance of this proposed license to GE to repair the supposedly civilian aircraft. That would be bad enough. It certainly undercuts our argument that others should sanction Iran. But I should point out that four of the planes that will be the subject of this inspection and possible repair are owned by Mahan Air, which has already been designated by the U.S. Department of Commerce as a company of proliferation concern. It has already been designated similarly by the U.K. Government, and most in the field view it as an IRGC front company. So if American companies can make a buck providing jet aircraft engine repair to an entity so deeply involved in the terrorist activities and proliferation activities of Iran, then it makes a mockery of everything we are discussing here today. What I would like each of the witnesses to do is to submit by Friday, if at all possible, a list in as close to statutory language as possible of everything that should be added to the Stop Iran's Nuclear Weapons Program Act. Include mandatory designations of certain entities in Iran instead of leaving it to the administration to designate this or that bank or this or that company or this or that airline. Let's put them in by name. I think you know me well enough to know that you should not be shy in your draftsmanship, and I look forward to getting your comments, and hopefully this will just add to the enthusiasm of our cosponsors. One thing I want to focus on here are those sanctions that have an immediate affect. You know, the original idea of the Iran Sanctions Act, once known as the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act, was to deter investment in oil fields. Well, that affects revenue maybe a decade later, maybe a little less; and then the lack of revenue begins to pinch when you burn through your currency reserves. That is a long time. What acts much more quickly is when Iran cannot get replacement parts for every elevator, for every oil pump, for every aircraft, et cetera. I don't know which of the witnesses want to comment, but what can we do to have an immediate effect on whether things in Iran work or fail to work? Mr. Kittrie. Thanks, and thank you for the invitation to submit. My own sense is that with regard to Iran the two things that can be done most quickly would be, one, to respond vigorously to Chinese violations and backfilling, as I mentioned. Iran still needs to purchase parts---- Mr. Sherman. Now, what would you tell the Chinese? You are going to be sending them a really strong letter or would we have to, say, find a day or a week when this or that boat filled with tennis shoes couldn't be inspected or unloaded in the L.A. Harbor. What do you do to China, other than point your finger and look stern? Mr. Kittrie. I think probably the first thing to do would be to consider sanctioning those Chinese companies, for example, under the Iran, Syria, North Korea Nonproliferation Act or Executive Order 13382, that are involved in this activity. Mr. Sherman. That would be a good first step. Although it is easy for companies to come up with aliases, even easier if their host governments cooperate. So that might work, depending upon how agile the company is. Mr. Kittrie. Well, it has been reported that at least some of the transfers to Iran may be taking place without the knowledge of the Chinese Government and are the result of a kind of lax oversight and weak enforcement. To the degree that that is true, it may help to encourage the Chinese to crack down. For instance, as I mentioned earlier it may be worth considering a more systemic response, such as assessing whether China meets the criteria set forth in CISADA for designation as a destination of diversion concern. It has been reported that it has not just been parts and components manufactured in China that have ended up in Iran, but also some of these parts and components apparently originate with European companies who are duped into selling it to Chinese companies that are fronting for Iranian smugglers. To the degree that that may be happening also--and I have no information on that--to the degree that that may be happening also with U.S. origin parts and components, that would certainly bring China--or might bring China within the criteria for designation as a destination of diversion concern. Mr. Sherman. Or maybe that should be specified by statute, which is more likely to occur than a State Department designation. I look forward to you including that on your list, even if you list it as nonrecommended. Mr. Zarate. Mr. Zarate. Ranking Member Sherman, I would take the approach of picking targets and actions that have a strategic impact and a ripple affect, as opposed to doing things, designations, other activities that appear to be more ``Whac-A- Mole'' as you described with companies, individuals renaming themselves. So I would recommend three categories of activities. One, I think a Section 311 designation of the Central Bank of Iran, something I have been calling for a long time, I think that would have a dramatic ripple affect in terms of Iran's ability to finance its activities. Second, I would pick a Chinese bank that is of grave concern and not only use it as a prompt for diplomatic discussions with the Chinese but hold the Sword of Damocles of some sort of designation or action against that Chinese bank. Mr. Sherman. You want to pick one? Mr. Zarate. I am not in a position---- Mr. Sherman. I look forward to talking to you. Mr. Zarate [continuing]. To know all the ins and outs. But I would say a good place to start, sir, is the March 10th, 2011, letter from the senators concerned with this issue to the Secretary of State which lays out a number of companies and banks of growing concerns. Mr. Sherman. I would say if we want to actually do something we have got to pick one in Congress, and we have got to decide what sanctions would be applied and make them mandatory, with no waivers. Mr. Zarate. The one thing I would recommend, Congressman, is coordination with the administration. Because I think, again, this cannot be--in all seriousness, this cannot be a one-off action. It has to be part of an ongoing campaign. Mr. Sherman. Did I mention this is the administration that wants to take affirmative action to license the repair of the aircraft, the very aircraft that were used to ferry the 9/11 highjackers in and out of Afghanistan? Mr. Zarate. Congressman, I don't disagree with you and sort of subscribe to your view of that decision as being a mistake, but I would say that a piece of legislation that has a singular action in it or a set of actions that doesn't have a commitment by the administration to make it part of a strategy and a pressure strategy that is going to be part of the leverage change to the decision making in Tehran---- Mr. Sherman. Sir, if we leave the decision making to this or the last administration, we will see Iran have a nuclear and then a thermonuclear device. There is no doubt about that. Mr. Zarate. Well, I agree with you, sir. There is an important role, and I mentioned in my testimony, for Congress to not only hold the executive's feet to the fire but also to push particular actions. But, again, having one-off, Whack-A- Mole actions is not the right approach. I think having strategic steps of the kind you mentioned and the kind that we are talking about here is really---- Mr. Sherman. Do any harm to whack a few moles while you are taking the strategic steps? And I see no reason to have a short bill when they will print a long bill for me for the same price. Mr. Asher. Ms. Asher. Thank you very much, Congressman Sherman. I would add a focus on the potential sources of nuclear weapons. Because what is missing from our picture right now is an understanding, based on our own experience and personal experience, is that the Government of North Korea, for example, blasted through every redline we ever delivered in the Six- Party Talks which I participated in and helped start as well as was involved in the pressure. They really just--it was very, very difficult to stop them. They are sanctioned under the United Nations Security Council now. But I would sense that many entities that are sanctioned are still actually in business. They are operating under diplomatic cover, through the network of North Korean Embassies around the world and their commercial officers in the Embassies or their intelligence service. And there really needs to be a look at the potential connection of the dots between North Korea's rapidly growing supply of apparently highly enriched uranium or at least certainly enriched uranium which could be highly enriched and Iran's demand. I just feel like the North Korea problems that have been sort of put off to the side, but you can't approach the Iran problem set as seriously as I know you do and I know Chairman Royce does without understanding North Korea is the most likely source of nuclear material and even weapons to the Iranian regime in the world. And the Iranians, the more they get financially squeezed and the more the North Korean's economy erodes, supply and demand seems to set the price. I urge to you consider adding that to your legislation. Mr. Sherman. Can you be more specific on the legislation? I realize the chairman has already indulged me with way too much time. Ms. Asher. Well, I think there should be serious review of the current sanctions and whether they actually have effectively crippled the companies which have been designated, to include Nom Chom Gong Corporation, ComEd, the missile company. Are these companies out of business or not? I mean, one simple thing I saw a reporter do was just start making phone calls looking up numbers in the phonebooks in different countries, and people were answering the phones. So, obviously, somebody must be in business to some degree. That is a problem, and that we may need to remedy perhaps through a further U.N. Security Council action or further unilateral U.S. action. Mr. Sherman. My bill to revoke MFN for China might be called for here, and I yield back. Ms. Asher. I yield back. Mr. Royce [presiding]. Thank you, Mr. Sherman. Dr. David Asher, you call for relaunching the Illicit Activities Initiative. Last summer on a trip to South Korea, Secretary Clinton announced that the administration would take steps to tackle the illicit activity coming out of the North. Is there evidence of the type of coordinated campaign that you led in the past, the type of success we saw? Is there evidence of that? Because I haven't seen any. Ms. Asher. The ultimate evidence of the Illicit Activities Initiative was evidence. We developed tremendous undercover investigations through the Department of Justice with the State Department's full support. And I sort of acted as a bit of an ambassador, opening doors for Department of Justice law enforcement officers globally, into 15 different countries, 5 global investigations. And at the end of the first term of the Bush administration-- actually, at the beginning of the second term, I should say--it was decided essentially to remove that evidence from the judicial process. We had two of the largest Asian organized crime cases in United States history, involving the Gambino crime family at one end, Chinese triads at the other, and the North Korean Government sort of in the middle. It was quite spectacular stuff. And although there were people arrested in some pretty interesting operations in the United States and elsewhere, the hand of North Korea was never fully identified. Mr. Royce. You think that was for diplomatic reasons? Ms. Asher. It was for diplomatic reasons, and I seriously objected to it. Because it wasn't like the North Koreans didn't know they were engaged in counterfeiting the U.S. dollar, cooperation with organized crime groups, including Chinese triads, and work on illicit proliferation, which we approached as a criminal activity as well. There was preparation to bring criminal charges against some of the proliferation networks down the road as well. So the question is, whatever happened to all that information? Mr. Royce. Right. Ms. Asher. At the very least, I would encourage this administration to consider briefing the American people on what we learned and perhaps briefing the United Nation's Security Council, probably in the context of reexamining whether they should be back on the terrorism list. I found the Cheonan incident, where the South Korean ship was sunk, vicious, savage, and absolutely inconsistent with a terrorist-type approach. I think that would cause North Korea some concern if it were coupled with revelations of some of the law enforcement information or restarting of an active initiative which involved, in our case, 14 different government agencies and departments and 15 government partners around the world. I can't imagine that is going on right now. Mr. Royce. This takes me to an issue that we have long talked about in this committee. But you note that the Illicit Activities Initiative could have had a much broader impact to affect North Korea's proliferation activities. And, as you said, ``we never were given sufficient latitude to have a deeper and sustained counterproliferation impact, and on repeated occasions were waved off from taking actions that were well within our mandate and authorities.'' You have laid out some of this, and I know a lot of it just from our engagement at the time. I remember how desperate the effort was to shut down what you were doing. What do you think drove that? Ms. Asher. I think there was--I have discussed this with several senior colleagues before. Part of it appears to be a misperception at the highest levels in the administration as to what was actually going on. I recall a conversation I had with Secretary Powell at the very end of his time where he said, what do you mean? We are not doing this stuff? I think that sometimes there were discussions--and this is in some of these memoirs which are coming out--at the principals' level during the Bush administration where they sort of agreed on something and then it sort of got--somehow it didn't quite happen. I did co-chair a coordinating committee at the National Security Council in addition to being at State, and it was directly involved in this issue set. Mr. Royce. It was a coordinated campaign that somebody shut down. Ms. Asher. We were essentially abbreviated, and then we were emasculated. And this was a problem. Because this was right when the North Korean Government was building illicitly a Syrian nuclear reactor. All sorts of very strange and extremely disturbing stuff was going on with Iran. We have heard about Burma in the press recently. Mr. Royce. And you had them dead to rights. I was in Macau. I have seen the phony Treasury notes that were counterfeited by the North Koreans, our Treasury notes. Ms. Asher. Yeah. That was really a tool. The fact that they were engaged in illegal activities put them in their own trap. We thought it was almost essentially self-sanctioning. So all we had do, without using sanctions, which we felt we couldn't get without the evidence coming out on nuclear proliferation, was just to start charging them for their own offenses, knowing that the leadership in North Korea itself was directly engaged in those activities. Mr. Royce. Right. Now, let me ask a question of Juan Zarate. You call in your testimony for deploying the 311 sanctions against Iran and its Central Bank. I talked about that in my opening statement. What is the holdup and does the fact that Section 311 sanctions were only just deployed after a 5-year hiatus reflect the difficulty of identifying targets, or is it the result of the restrictions that political considerations place on their use? Mr. Zarate. I think there are three issues, Congressman Royce. I think, first, that was a tendency not to use 311 after Banco Delta Asia. There was a string of 311 actions that we used against bad banks in my tenure at the Treasury. And I think a tendency was shifted to use other tools, executive orders and other tools of financial suasion, which is fine, but there was less of an emphasis on the development of the use of 311. Second, you have a concern about using a financial tool of this magnitude against the central bank of a country, which has never been done before and would call into question how the mechanics of that would actually work. And I think there are ways of crafting a 311 regulation that would allow you to get around some of the sensitivities of targeting a central bank while getting at the illicit activity that the Central Bank of Iran is actually facilitating. Finally, I think there is a deeper policy question at play, which is how far are we willing to go to actually strangle the Iranian economy? Part of the challenge here has been a message and a policy decision that the efforts we would undertake publicly and diplomatically would be targeted at the regime itself. Mr. Royce. Yeah, but we targeted Iraq's Central Bank under Saddam Hussein, so---- Mr. Zarate. That is right. Again, this goes to the deep fundamental policy question. Will this be a maximalist pressure campaign that ultimately impacts the people in Iran or will we constrain ourselves to the effect we really don't want to demonstrate we are going after the whole of Iranian society? And so I think that is at play as well in the context of the debate about 311. Mr. Royce. Mr. Zarate, I want to thank you and Dr. Asher and Mr. Kittrie and all of those who have been architects of a policy here that had great promise, great likelihood of success if fully deployed, in my opinion. I hope you will continue to work in this direction. Because I think it is the least confrontational way in order to engage and prevent the types of proliferation activities that we have seen, for example, in North Korea. If they can't get the hard currency--we know from talking to detectors who worked in their military and their civilian government, if they can't get the hard currency, it is very difficult for them to buy the gyroscopes on the black market that they need for their missile systems. It is very difficult for them to pay for the type of hardware that they need to go forward. So I want to thank you. We appreciate the time and expertise you brought to this; and when considering states like Iran and North Korea, the stakes for us, frankly, do not get any higher. So we appreciate your insights in how to tackle the challenges that these two states pose, and we look forward to pressing the Obama administration on many of the points that you made here today. This hearing is adjourned. [Whereupon, at 4 o'clock p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] A P P E N D I X ---------- Material Submitted for the Hearing Record
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