May, 09 2011, 01:42pm EDT
Kucinich Demands Accountability if Frozen Assets Disappear
Frozen Assets are for the Libyan People, Must not be ‘Lost’ Like Money ‘Lost’ in Iraq and Afghanistan
WASHINGTON
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), who has consistently challenged the Administration's and North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) military intervention in Libya, wrote to Treasury Secretary Geithner to request that he "assiduously ensure the safekeeping and close tracking of the seized assets with proper oversight so as to guarantee that they are used for the purpose of rebuilding Libya," following news reports that the United States was planning to provide some of the money seized from the Libyan government to rebels in the country.
"Given the U.S. government's history of difficulty in closely tracking reconstruction funds in Iraq and Afghanistan, I am gravely concerned that if illegally appropriated or managed poorly, the frozen Libyan assets could be untraceable or lost entirely," Kucinich wrote. "The recent comments of other Administration officials now place a serious legal burden upon your office."
The full text follows:
May 6, 2011
The Honorable Timothy Geithner
Secretary of the Treasury
Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20220
Dear Secretary Geithner:
I write to express my deep concern regarding the United States government's management of the assets of the Libyan government under U.S. jurisdiction.
As you know, on February 28, 2011, the United States announced that the Department of Treasury had frozen over $30 billion of assets under U.S. jurisdiction belonging to the Libyan government, pursuant to Executive Order 13566. President Obama stated in his March 28, 2011 address that the United States "will safeguard the more than $33 billion that was frozen from the Gaddafi regime so that it's available to rebuild Libya. After all, the money doesn't belong to Gaddafi or to us -- it belongs to the Libyan people."
Yet during an international meeting of the Libyan Contact Group in Rome this week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the United States would make available some of the frozen assets for the benefit of Libyan rebels. Assets of the Gaddafi regime which have been seized by the U.S. government are the rightful property of the Libyan people and every effort should be made to maintain their integrity so that they can be repatriated upon the resolution of the conflict there.
Given the U.S. government's history of difficulty in closely tracking reconstruction funds in Iraq and Afghanistan, I am gravely concerned that if illegally appropriated or managed poorly, the frozen Libyan assets could be untraceable or lost entirely. The recent comments of other Administration officials now place a serious legal burden upon your office.
Consistent with your fiduciary responsibilities as Secretary of the Treasury, I urge you to assiduously ensure the safekeeping and close tracking of the seized assets with proper oversight so as to guarantee that they are used for the purpose of rebuilding Libya. Please be assured that this correspondence does not conclude my interest in this matter.
Sincerely,
Dennis J. Kucinich
Member of Congress
Cc: Adam J. Szubin
Director of Office of Foreign Assets Control
Department of the Treasury
Cc: Eric Thorson
Inspector General
Department of the Treasury
Dennis Kucinich is an American politician. A U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1997 to 2013, he was also a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in 2004 and 2008.
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Apr 20, 2024
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While the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act passed the Republican-led House by a vote of 366-58, party insiders said it was significant that such a large number of Democrats had opposed it, with more centrist lawmakers joining progressives who have called for a cease-fire since October.
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"There is no defense for putting a tool this dangerous in the hands of any president, and doing so is a historic mark of shame."
Section 702 is the provision that allows U.S. intelligence agencies to spy on non-U.S. citizens abroad without a warrant. Currently, they are able to do so by acquiring communications data from electronic communications service providers like Google, Verizon, and AT&T. The existing provision has already been widely abused and criticized, as the communications of U.S. citizens are often caught up in the searches.
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Goitein used similar language to condemn the vote.
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Schumer announced a deal late Friday to vote on a series of amendments to the bill clearing the way toward its passage, according toTheHill. However, all five amendments that would have added greater privacy protections were voted down, The Washington Post reported.
"If the government wants to spy on the private comms of any American, they should be required to get approval from a judge, as the Founding Fathers intended."
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Wyden was not the only one who pledged to keep fighting government surveillance overreach.
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The American Civil Liberties Union also responded to the vote on social media.
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Workers at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, became the first Southern autoworkers not employed by one of the Big Three car manufacturers to win a union Friday night when they voted to join the United Auto Workers by a "landslide" majority.
This is the first major victory for the UAW after it launched the biggest organizing drive in modern U.S. history on the heels of its "stand up strike" that secured historic contracts with the Big Three in fall 2023.
"Many of the talking heads and the pundits have said to me repeatedly before we announced this campaign, 'You can't win in the South,'" UAW president Shawn Fain told the victorious workers in a video shared by UAW. "They said Southern workers aren't ready for it. They said non-union autoworkers didn't have it in them. But you all said, 'Watch this!' And you all moved a mountain."
"This incredible victory for labor will transform Tennessee and the South!"
According to the UAW's real-time results, the vote tally now stands at 2,628—or 73%—yes to 985—or 27%—no. Voting at the around 4,300-worker plant began Wednesday.
The Chattanooga workers announced their current union drive in December 2023. Friday's victory follows two failed unionization attempts at the plant in 2014 and 2019.
"We saw the big contract that UAW workers won at the Big Three and that got everybody talking," Zachary Costello, a trainer in VW's proficiency room, said in a statement. "You see the pay, the benefits, the rights UAW members have on the job, and you see how that would change your life. That's why we voted overwhelmingly for the union. Once people see the difference a union makes, there's no way to stop them."
The union's win comes despite the opposition of Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.
"Today, I joined fellow governors in opposing the UAW's unionization campaign," Lee said on social media Tuesday. "We want to keep good-paying jobs and continue to grow the American auto manufacturing sector. A successful unionization drive will stop this growth in its tracks, to the detriment of American workers."
However, Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones (D-52) celebrated the win.
"Watching history tonight in Chattanooga, as Volkswagen workers voted in a landslide to join the UAW," he wrote on social media Friday night. "Despite pressure from Gov. Lee, this is the first auto plant in the South to unionize since the 1940s. This incredible victory for labor will transform Tennessee and the South!"
Other national labor leaders and progressive politicians also congratulated the Chattanooga workers.
Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, said the win "shows what we already know—workers in every part of this country want the freedom to join a union, and when we stand together, we have tremendous power. Even though the deck is stacked against us, momentum is on our side, and we're winning."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said: "This is a huge victory not only for UAW workers at Volkswagen, but for every worker in America. The tide is turning. Workers all across the country, even in our most conservative states, are sick and tired of corporate greed and are demanding economic justice."
"I think it's a great push for the entire South, and people will follow suit."
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called the results "an utterly historic victory for the working class."
"Tennessee is shining bright tonight," she wrote on social media Friday. "We are in a new era. Congratulations to the courageous workers in Chattanooga and the entire UAW. Absolutely heroic. Solidarity IS the strategy—across the South, and all over the country."
More Perfect Union said the victory would "change the auto industry, and the future of American labor," and the campaign organizers themselves are aware of the importance of what they've accomplished.
"We understand that the world's watching us," worker Isaac Meadows, who has been at the plant for one year, told More Perfect Union. "You know there's a labor movement in this country, you know, we're poised to be the first domino of many to fall."
Worker Kelcey Smith, who has also been at the plant for one year, added, "I think it's a great push for the entire South, and people will follow suit."
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"The real fight begins now," Fain told cheering workers. "The real fight is getting your fair share. The real fight is the fight to get more time with your families. The real fight is the fight for our union contract."
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