In UNSC, US Promotes Counter-Terrorism Draft Amid Rhetoric for UNGA Jerusalem Vote

By Matthew Russell Lee, Photo

UNITED NATIONS, December 20 – The UN Security Council is set to adopt a US-drafted resolution on foreign terrorist fighters on December 21, and the afternoon before the Administration held a background press call to promote the draft. It would require UN member states to implement Passenger Name Record systems and watch lists for terrorists. Inner City Press asked about safeguards on governments which call their opponents terrorists, as has recently happened for example in Cameroon with the assistance of the UN, whose envoy Francois Fall calls all secessionists “extremists.” An Administration official said it is a question of concern and that the draft is sprinkled through with references to human rights. (A largely EU-funded publication attributes these references to France, Italy and Sweden.) December 21 will also see a vote in the UN General Assembly to condemn and ostensibly nullify the US administration moving its embassy to Jerusalem. There is much talk at the UN about the Administration saying it will takes names of those who vote against it, with an eye on funding. Of course, Saudi Arabia threatened to cut UN funding if it remained on the UN Children and Armed Conflict annex; countries offer financial support in exchange for various votes in the UN, as for example South Korea did in promoting Ban Ki-moon for Secretary General. (The process continues today). So we'll see.  Amid talk of increased enforcement of sanctions on North Korea - including now U.S. President Trump's announced that he's putting the country back on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list -  the US Comptroller of the Currency has "rescued" a Japanese bank from a sanctions violation investigation, see below, including Inner City Press' scoop on no-notice. Trump on November 20 said, " Today, the United States is designating North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism.  It should have happened a long time ago.  It should have happened years ago. In addition to threatening the world by nuclear devastation, North Korea has repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism, including assassinations on foreign soil. As we take this action today, our thoughts to turn to Otto Warmbier, a wonderful young man, and the countless others so brutally affected by the North Korean oppression.  This designation will impose further sanctions and penalties on North Korea and related persons, and supports our maximum pressure campaign to isolate the murderous regime that you've all been reading about and, in some cases, writing about. Tomorrow, the Treasury Department will be announcing an additional sanction, and a very large one, on North Korea.  This will be going on over the next two weeks.  It will be the highest level of sanctions by the time it's finished over a two-week period. The North Korean regime must be lawful.  It must end its unlawful nuclear and ballistic missile development, and cease all support for international terrorism -- which it is not doing." Inner City Press then asked UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq if this meant the UN's World Property Organization would stop helping North Korea with cyanide patents. It's just a US thing, he said. So's this: a November 13 letter from the New York State Department of Financial Services cites Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi for “continuing compliance failures in Hong Kong, which has a 'repeat transaction' program for certain high risk clients in Chinese cities bordering North Korea. The repeat transaction program results in not more but less scrutiny of these clients transactions.” The NYSDFS letter also notes that BTMU has processed transaction through its New York branch for “Burmese parties” on the OFAC sanctions list. How did Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi react to the New York regulator's investigation of these issues? It applied on October 30 to switch to the more lax Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and had its application approved in a mere week, then threw the state regulators out of its New York branch on Sixth Avenue. All this just a few blocks from the United Nations whose Security Council, on which Japan has a seat until the end of the year, has imposed rounds of sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear weapons program, and was set to vote for a new UN Special Envoy on Myanmar, or Burma, on November 16. What's going on? Now Inner City Press can exclusively report a further outrage, not included in the NYSDFS letter nor a Wall Street Journal article which quoted it. The OCC gave its approval in a week even while belatedly listing Bank of Tokyo - Mitsubishi's filings under "THESE APPLICATIONS APPEARED INCORRECTLY IN A PRIOR WEEKLY BULLETIN." Photo here; link to Bulletin here. The public, as is the trend under the OCC, was cut out. The face savings compliance agreement, here, does not cure or address this.