Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06KHARTOUM1155
2006-05-15 16:52:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Khartoum
Cable title:  

SUDAN: OFAC WAIVER NEEDED IN SUPPORT OF SAWA START-

Tags:  ETTC BEXP PREL KPAO OIIP PGOV US SU 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXYZ0000
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHKH #1155/01 1351652
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 151652Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2822
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEATRS/DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY WASHDC IMMEDIATE
UNCLAS KHARTOUM 001155 

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR D, PD, AF/SPG, AF/PD, AND EB/ESC
DEPT PLS PASS BBG
USDOC FOR BIS
TREASURY FOR OFAC

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ETTC BEXP PREL KPAO OIIP PGOV US SU
SUBJECT: SUDAN: OFAC WAIVER NEEDED IN SUPPORT OF SAWA START-
UP

REF: A) Hume - Snyder e-mail of 14 Dec 05, B) Moseley - Hird

e-mail of 19 Feb 06, C) Moseley - Hird e-mail of 12 March 06

UNCLAS KHARTOUM 001155

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR D, PD, AF/SPG, AF/PD, AND EB/ESC
DEPT PLS PASS BBG
USDOC FOR BIS
TREASURY FOR OFAC

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ETTC BEXP PREL KPAO OIIP PGOV US SU
SUBJECT: SUDAN: OFAC WAIVER NEEDED IN SUPPORT OF SAWA START-
UP

REF: A) Hume - Snyder e-mail of 14 Dec 05, B) Moseley - Hird

e-mail of 19 Feb 06, C) Moseley - Hird e-mail of 12 March 06


1. (U) This is an action request - see para 7.


2. (SBU) SUMMARY: After long negotiations, an agreement for
the establishment of Radio SAWA in Sudan is nearing the
point of signature. At this juncture, Post has learned that
the Department of Treasury's Office Foreign Assets Control
(OFAC),while approving a license for overall SAWA
operations in Sudan, has refused a waiver request to allow
purchase of U.S. spare parts and equipment needed by the
host institution, the Sudan Radio and Television Corporation
(SRTC). Post continues to feel that these imports -
representing an important goodwill gesture on our part - may
be essential for the SAWA deal to go through. Radio SAWA
offers an important opportunity to assist in disseminating
information in Darfur in support of the recently signed
Darfur Peace Agreement. Post requests the Department to
reconsider its apparently negative recommendation to OFAC
concerning a license for these spares. END SUMMARY.


3. (SBU) On August 10, 2005, the Embassy Khartoum CDA
Limbert, along with Amin Hassan Omer of the Sudan Radio and
Television Corporation (SRTC),initialed a Letter of Intent
to establish Radio SAWA in Sudan. The plan was to establish
FM transmitting stations at Khartoum and up to 11 other
eventual sites, all to be constructed, operated, and
maintained for SAWA by the SRTC.


4. (SBU) Darrell Duckworth, representing the USG's
Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG),was charged with
negotiating the Radio Sawa agreement. The SRTC was
cooperative, but at the same time approached Duckworth to
help them on another matter: obtaining badly needed
transmitter spare parts from the Harris Corporation in the
U.S., manufacturer of some of the SRTC's main transmitters.
While no explicit quid pro quo was mentioned, it was

Duckworth's strong impression that a license for importation
of the spare parts would ensure that the SAWA deal went
through.


5. (SBU) The SAWA license request (Case # SU-1686, License #
SU-1207) thus included two parts: a request for rights to
supply $200,000 worth of U.S.-made spare parts, and another
for approval of SAWA operations in Sudan. The SAWA
initiative was approved, the spare parts were not, for
reasons unknown. Without the spare parts, however, the SRTC
may be less inclined to sign.


6. (SBU) CDA Hume has expressed his support for waivers
permitting the U.S. sourcing of any SAWA-related new
equipment as well as of any spare parts needed by the SRTC
(Ref A). In response to questions about the SRTC, Post's
PAO wrote that its broadcasting was "reasonable and fairly
balanced" and "scrupulously careful not to air material
offensive to the U.S." (Ref B). Post believes that OFAC
should reconsider the matter, and lend its support to the
waiver request for the purchase of spare parts. The win-win
result would support the more constructive relationship that
has developed since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace
Agreement in 2005 - and the Darfur Peace Agreement of May 5,

2006. Embassy Khartoum believes that the importance of
ensuring the viability of Radio SAWA outweighs any possible
downside of permitting the spare parts. Radio may be used
extensively in Darfur, or instance, to propagate information
about the Darfur Peace Agreement. Gaining broad public
understanding and support for the Agreement is of paramount
importance in ending the atrocities in Darfur, a
Presidential priority.


7. (SBU) Action requested: Embassy Khartoum requests that
the State Department request Treasury OFAC to reconsider its
waiver decision and to allow the export of radio transmitter
spare parts for the SRTC in Sudan.

HUME










"Letter of intent" 10 aug 05


Jennifer, please excuse the delay in reply.

I have also confirmed that the equipment being asked for now
is only ($200,000 worth of) spare parts for existing
equipment owned by Radio Omdurman. It would be a
"sweetener" to encourage progress on the SAWA deal.

OFAC exemption for the new SAWA equipment would then be
asked for separately.

In Darrell Duckworth's view:
"If we do not get the authorization for the spare parts
then we will have more problems with the .. . to get the new
equipment. It appears that the only fly is in the State
response. If State gives a positive supportive response to
the spare parts we will proceed with the agreement and the
new equipment requests."

My own view is that these sanctions affecting general
infrastructure are generally not constructive, and that any
chance for exception should be taken.

Moreover, I would like to make a special recommendation of
Omdurman TV and Radio. I periodically watch the TV (which
has similar news to the radio),and have talked to my staff
about the radio. It is our collective impression that these
are reasonable and fairly balanced broadcasting media, and
that -- compared with what one hears about the media in some
parts of the Arab world -- are quite scrupulously careful
NOT to air material that would be offensive to the U.S.
Many improvements could be made, especially in giving more
airtime to non-Arab material relating to other parts of the
country, and dissenting points of view from within the
country. As far as U.S. interests are concerned, however, I
think the overall moderation of these stations deserves to
be rewarded.

Best,

Kay Moseley
Public Affairs
Khartoum


-------------- Original Message --------------
From: Hird, Jennifer L(AF/SPG)
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2006 12:32 AM
To: Moseley, Katharine P
Cc: Whitaker, Eric P
Subject: RE: Board of Broadcast Governors question

Kay,

Please see the application attached. From my read, it
does not include equipment only spare parts. If we need
to, I can go back to BBG and request exactly what parts
they would like to provide.

Jennifer

>

_____________________________________________
From: Moseley, Katharine P(Khartoum)
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2006 5:11 AM
To: Hird, Jennifer L(AF/SPG)
Cc: Whitaker, Eric P
Subject: RE: Board of Broadcast Governors question

Jennifer, a quick clarification if possible:

Does the first part of the BBG-SAWA application, that you
refer to below, also include EQUIPMENT?

Thanks, k.

-------------- Original Message --------------
From: Hird, Jennifer L(AF/SPG)
Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 9:32 PM
To: Whitaker, Eric P; Moseley, Katharine P
Cc: Klein, John Marshall
Subject: Board of Broadcast Governors question

Eric and Kay,

We received an OFAC license application from the Board
of Broadcast Governors. Ambassador Hume asked me about
it in December/January. We received their answers
below; however, I wanted to reach out to the Embassy as
well. There are two parts to the application - one is
to take part in a 10 year agreement with the Sudanese
government for the establishment of up to 12 FM radio
stations. This part seems fine. Additionally, however,
BBG also requests authorization to provide spare parts
to repair one of the Sudan government's medium wave AM
radio transmitters.

We reached out to BBG regarding this transmitter and
received the response below. It seems the Sudanese
government, specifically the Radio and TV Network Corp,
will be using this radio transmitter, not BBG. Do you
think we should support this? What kind of information
flows through the Network Corp? We could approve just
one part of the application and not the spare parts.
Please let me know your view.

Thanks,
Jennifer

_____________________________________________ _
From: Klein, John Marshall(EB/ESC/TFS)
Sent: Monday, February 13, 2006 11:41 AM
To: Hird, Jennifer L(AF/SPG)
Subject: Re BBG questions

Hi Jennifer,

The BBG folk just got back in touch with me.
Unfortunately, they were not able to provide complete
answers.

On Question 1: Will the BBG be using the medium wave
AM radio? - The answer is no. It helps the BBG only
indirectly by facilitating their broader deal with the
GOS to permit Radio Sawa operations.

Question 2: Will this transmitter be used by and for
the GOS? Yes. It will be used by the Radio and TV
Network Corp. of Sudan, a Govt-affiliated network.
Range of the transmitter is unclear. Potentially, as a
medium-range AM transmitter, it could reach the whole
country. The BBG may be able to find out a bit more
about the range issue.

In re potential programming content and prior GOS use
(or abuse) of radio, BBG has no idea. They suggest
asking the embassy. This makes sense to me, and I think
is something we probably need to know before making a
recommendation. Would the public diplomacy section
there have this info?



John-Marshall Klein, Ph.D.
EB/ESC/TFS
(202) 647-9452









Kay good to hear from you. The Spare parts are for exisitng
SRTC equipment
in the amount of +$200K. We will ask for the Additional
radio Sawa


equipment after we get an agreement with the SRTC














We give them m oney and they from wherever they can. I
don't like it either but that is the requirement from
State. The costs are going to be high.

DD


Subject: FW: Sudan agreement
Date: Fri, 12 May 2006 18:14:06 +0300
From: MoseleyKP@state.gov
To: dduckworth6@hotmail.com

This is really hard to believe. so how/where will the
necessary NEW equipment come from? We just give money and
they buy from the Chinese? We rent facilities??


From: Darrel Duckworth [mailto:dduckworth6@hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, May 12, 2006 5:03 PM
To: Moseley, Katharine P
Subject: RE: Sudan agreement

Kay,

It does not include th new equipment either. We were a
litle dissapointed in the lack of support from State. If
State had given a positive response we would not have a
problem. Maybe you and hte Ambassador can get State o
change its position. We understand that Sudan is going to
permit UN assistance in darfur and troops as well. This
could be what is needed to turn it around.

See you in June.

DD


Subject: RE: Sudan agreement
Date: Fri, 12 May 2006 16:23:22 +0300
From: MoseleyKP@state.gov
To: dduckworth6@hotmail.com

Sorry to hear this!
Does the license at least cover the NEW equipment that Sawa
would bring in?

By the way, was down in Juba some time ago, and they too
have these old Harris Corp transmitters (or some-such major
equipment) that need spare parts.


From: Darrel Duckworth [mailto:dduckworth6@hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, May 12, 2006 3:54 PM
To: Moseley, Katharine P
Subject: Sudan agreement

Kay,

-------------- Original Message --------------




From: Hume, Cameron (Khartoum)
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2005 12:06 PM
To: Snyder, Charles R(AF/SPG); Sams, Duane E(AF/SPG)
Cc: Moseley, Katharine P; Steinfeld, Andrew
W(Khartoum)
Subject: BBG Waiver

Gentlemen,
I will fax to SPG today correspondence relating to a BBG
request to OFAC to renew license SU-1207. You may already
have a copy of this.
Some of the prose is obscure to me, but it seems there are
two issues: 1) permission to export from Harris Corp in
Quincy, Illinois, $600k of FM broadcasting equipment for
Radio Sawa; 2) permission to export $2million of spares from
Harris for the Sudan Radio Corporation, a transaction that
would facilitate BBG operations here to some extent. #1 is
a no brainer, it would appear; #2 could well be in our
interest.
Could you coordinate in Washington on this, as all of the
action agencies are there? BBG should be able to provide
quickly any additional information. Of course, we will in
Khartoum do whatever we can to move it forward.
Thanks for your help. Cameron





-------------- Original Message --------------
From: Hume, Cameron (Khartoum)
Sent: Monday, December 12, 2005 12:37 PM
To: Ranneberger, Michael E(AF Front Office); Snyder,
Charles R(AF/SPG)
Cc: Padilla, Chris; Steinfeld, Andrew W(Khartoum);
Whitaker, Eric P
Subject: USG FM Radio in Sudan!

The Board of Broadcast Governors is in the last stages of
concluding an agreement (expected to be signed here in
January) to set up about 10 FM broadcasting stations
throughout Sudan. These stations will broadcast Radio Sawa,
using a special "Sudan Stream" of programming. This
agreement will be a major step forward for USG public
diplomacy in Sudan, and it should have positive spin-off
effects on the domestic political evolution here.
Normally, BBG would use equipment from the Harris
Corporation in Illinois, but OFAC has already determined
that USG sanctions prohibit this export (even though the end
user is the U.S. government!). Isn't this crazy? Why
should the USG sanction its own programs? Wouldn't even
Senator Obama understand a waiver for this export? I have
asked for more precise information on this issue; I am
inclined to ask that a waiver be considered to permit this
export.
Sudan's own radio corporation has also used Harris
equipment and now is in need of replacement parts. A
request relevant to that might also make sense, but I
understand that would be a subsequent issue.
Let me know if you have any advice on how best to raise
this. Thanks. Cameron



We have received the OFAC license. Unfortunately, it does
not permit the procurement of the MW spare parts as the
Comittee had told IBB earlier in the week. It does permit
us to broadcast in Sudan. This is an unfortunate turn of
events. The state department input was " not consistent
with current U.S. Policy. ". I am still planning a trip to
Khartoum wih hat in hand to try to get a signing of the
agreement. We may need to increase the quid to get
signing. If we can not get an agreement signed soon we will
lose the money.

I will be in Washington May 21-26 to get my visa. I will
keep in touch.



I have just learned today of the favorable decision on the
spare parts. We will be forwarding the License to the
USEmbassy Khartoum as soon as I receive it. We have
committed $100,000 FOR THE SPARE PARTS. I will ask Kay
Mosely to request a signing date for the agreement from Mr.
Omer.
Please advise your Ministry of Foreign affairs , that I will
be in Washington the


The spare parts issue is be held by State department. If
the State department Sudan desk would give the approval then

the ofac license will be issued and the spare parts purchase
can be made. To date (since December) the Sudan desk in
State Deparment hass not given their approval. I ahve
exchanged emails with Kay and she and the COM have requested
State to give their input. State has yet provided and are
dragging their feet fearing SRTC will use the spare parts to
bring a transmitter into service that will broadcasst
programs detrimental to US interests.

Our feeling is that not having Radio Sawa in place is a
greater detriment to US Interests than any broadcastss by
the SRTC. it seems to be a catch 22. We can not get Radio
Sawa into Sudan to provide alternative news unless State
gives their approval for the spare parts. We (IBB) are
hopeful state will see the error in their logic.




The spare parts is a quid for the SRTC
>if we can get the authorization. I fwe do not get the
authorization
>for the spare parts then we will ahve more problems with
the to get the
>new equipment. It appears that the only fly is in the
State response.
>If State gives a positive supportive response to the spare
parts we
>will proceed with the agreement and the new equipment
requests.



To: Assistant Director for From: Mr. Jan S. McNutt
Licensing Assistant General
ATTN: Jan Brown Counsel
Fax: (202) 622-0447 Pages: 1 (including cover)
Phone Date: January 3, 2006
:
Subje Case # SU-1686 Tel: 202-203-4550
ct License # SU-1207
Fax: 202-203-4585


Dear Ms. Brown:

Further to my facsimile dated December 28, 2005, in response
to your request for information concerning the spare parts
we addressed in our letter dated November 8, 2005. The
Harris Corporation informed use today that all the parts we
are considering for export to Sudan are classified EAR99.
This includes both Harris made and vendor parts.
Previously, Harris was not sure of the vendor parts, but
confirmed to us today that these are also EAR99. All the
parts are used in and are part of the model DX-600 600kW
Medium Wave transmitter, which Harris Corporation designs
and manufactures.

We hope this information is useful to you. Please contact
us if you require additional information.

Regards,

Jan S. McNutt
Assistant General Counsel