More Sanctions Against Iran?

Today, the Senate Banking Committee approved a new Iran sanctions bill, aiming to discourage companies from doing business with Tehran. The committee reached a 19-2 vote with, believe it or not, two Republican Senators, Michael B. Enzi (R-Wyo) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb), breaking ranks and voting against the sanctions, claiming, “This bill does not in fact sanction Iran; it directly sanctions allies, friends and others,” said Hagel.

Hagel makes a great point, but I'm also concerned with the timing of the passing of the bill, especially as Undersecretary of State William J. Burns heads to Geneva this weekend to meet with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and top Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, according to the State Department.

The meeting is a departure from the Bush Administration's long standing policy that it would not have "preliminary" talks with Iran until it stops its uranium enrichment program. This is a huge step in what could be a chance to improve relations between our countries. It has never been a policy of the U.S. to "not" meet with our enemies until the Bush Administration came into existence, and I'm afraid that it has been these types of hardline policies that have weakened our country abroad. And, this sanctions bill does nothing to help.

Terrorist Screening Center

This week, the U.S. government's anti-terrorist watch list grew to include 1 million names, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. And so, I went to the FBI's website today trying to find out if I was on the list. I was curious because a while back my Iranian-born friend, Goli, and I noticed several of our emails had suspiciously never made it to our inboxes, and that some of them had actually been delayed by as much as a month. Some of those emails were politically themed, but never the less honest dialogues between two old college classmates. Unfortunately, on the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) page of the website, there is not a way to satisfy my curiosity because, according to the TSC:

"The TSC cannot reveal whether a particular person is in the TSDB [Terrorist Screening Database]. The TSDB remains an effective tool in the government’s counterterrorism efforts because its contents are not disclosed. If TSC revealed who was in the TSDB, terrorist organizations would be able to circumvent the purpose of the terrorist watchlist by determining in advance which of their members are likely to be questioned or detained."

However, all of these guys are listed on TSC's main page and "are" on the watchlist:

• Bin Laden• Al-Zawahiri• Al-Nasser• Abdullah • Ali Atwa• Shallah• Hapilon• Al-Badawi
• Al-Liby• Izz-Al-Din• Hamed Ali• Mohammed• Mugniyah• Swedan• Aziz Awda• Elbaneh
• Yasin• Msalam• Al-Mughassil• El-Hoorie• Al-Adel• Al-Yacoub • Hamadei• Gadahn

Apparently, accept for these guys, the most vicious of all terrorists, only the government knows who is on the list. However, is the government saying that it's alright to know these guys, but not the others? And if so, why? What difference does it make to know only these guys and not the 999,976 others? Shouldn't we, U.S. citizens, be able to protect ourselves and our country by knowing the others as well?

By the by, if you were ever to meet Goli, you would know right away she is as far from being a terrorist as it gets. She's a beautiful, peace-loving, vegan hippie, living amongst the wineries in Northern California. How more anti-terrorist than that can you get?