READ MY LIPS, NO NEW TERRORIST FINANCING

On September 24, 2001 George Bush had these strong words to say about the US response to terrorist financing:

"Money is the life-blood of terrorist operations...We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them against each other, rout them out of their safe hiding places, and bring them to justice."

Since then, Globalize This! has reported a number of times about how the Bush administration accomodates global financial corporations, and chemical and weapons manufacturers that launder money, provide armaments and otherwise aid and abet terrorists.

Last Monday, Treasury Secretary John Snow once again boasted of "agressive enforcement" of laws in the financial war on terror.

And, once again, major corporations that are in bed (or at least in business) with the terrorists and terrorist countries are getting slaps on the wrist from President Bush for their role in enabling terrorists to wreak havoc around the world.

This month's release of civil penalties assessed by the Treasury Department shows somewhat lighter activities than previous releases. Whereas in past months, companies assessed fines were largely laundering money through private banking accounts in a number of offending countries, this month companies mostly were involved in trading (or helping others to trade) contraband materials with Iran and Iraq. In the most serious incident, the AT & C Corporation sold Iraq aluminum tubes ostensibly intended for a nuclear weapons program. AT & C contracted to provide some 60,000 of these babies for a total price tag of $900,000.

In keeping with their pledge of agressive enforcement, the Bush administration fined AT & C Corp. a hefty $66,250.