(C) OFAC'S CHANGE OF HEART ELICITS GOK REQUEST FOR

S E C R E T KUWAIT 000091 SIPDIS NOFORN EB/ESC/TFS FOR GGLASS AND NROTHSTEIN; S/CT FOR SFOX; IO/PHO FOR APEREZ E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/10/2014 TAGS: EFIN ECON ETTC PTER PREL KU SUBJECT: (C) OFAC'S CHANGE OF HEART ELICITS GOK REQUEST FOR EXPLANATION REF: A. KUWAIT 5188 ¶B. KUWAIT 4840 ¶C. KUWAIT 3044 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Frank C. Urbancic, reasons 1.4(d) and (e) ¶1. (U) Action request at paragraph 5. ¶2. (C) Post has received a diplomatic note dated December 28, 2003 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the October 5 meeting between OFAC Director Richard Newcomb and representatives from Kuwaiti charitable organizations. The note says that "with reference to the recent meeting of the US Treasury delegation headed by Mr. Richard Newcomb with representatives of the Social Reform Society (SRS) in the presence of Member of Parliament Dr. Nasser Al-Sane, the Ministry would like the Embassy to provide it with the questions and enquiries raised in the meeting by the American delegation regarding the money transfers made by Lajnat al-Dawa al-Islamiya, (LDI) which belongs to the Social Reform Society" (informal translation). ¶3. (S/NF) During the October 5 meeting referenced in the dip note, Newcomb said that OFAC would provide the charities with data on financial transactions carried out by the Kuwait Finance House on behalf of LDI after LDI had been designated as a supporter of terrorism. (Ref A). Dr. Al-Sane contacted the Embassy and OFAC directly on several occasions following his meeting with Director Newcomb, following up on OFAC's promise to provide the transaction materials. On December 7, post received the data (which were also promised to the Central Bank of Kuwait for further investigation). On December 8, we passed that information to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and on December 9 we shared it with the Central Bank. However, while acknowledging that they had promised to provide the charities with the information, OFAC informed post in email traffic that the charities should not receive the promised information directly because of a non-disclosure agreement OFAC had made with Citibank, the source of the transaction data. ¶4. (S/NF) COMMENT. It appears to us that Member of Parliament Dr. Nasser Al-Sane, who attended the charities' session in October, has elevated to the MFA the charities' request for the information OFAC promised to provide them. Dr. Al-Sane is a leading member of the Islamic Constitutional Movement, the political wing of the movement whose social wing is SRS, LDI's parent organization. MFA now wants a recapitulation from post on what occurred. END COMMENT ¶5. (C) ACTION REQUEST. We should defuse this issue right away. Post seeks Department's immediate assistance in arranging a clarification from OFAC to the charities and the Central Bank directly as to why Treasury cannot fulfill its offer to provide the charities with the relevant financial data. We understand that Treasury and the GOK have been in telephone contact, as have OFAC and Dr. Al-Sane. The Central Bank and the GOK requested that OFAC engage the charities, which seems reasonable (Ref C); OFAC concurred, and promised to provide the data. We want to ensure that the charities' own promise to provide additional information about their operations in Kuwait is not withdrawn due to any misunderstanding. The easiest and surest way to avoid that is for the Kuwaitis to learn from their interlocutors directly why the USG cannot provide the promised data. END ACTION REQUEST. URBANCIC