[Infowarrior] - Western Union blocks Arab cash deliveries

[Richard Forno]

Western Union blocks Arab cash deliveries

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060706/ap_on_bi_ge/emirates_muslim_money

By ANJAN SUNDARAM, Associated Press Writer Thu Jul 6, 3:24 AM ET

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Money transfer agencies have delayed or
blocked thousands of cash deliveries on suspicion of terrorist connections
simply because senders or recipients have names like Mohammed or Ahmed,
company officials said.

In one example, an Indian driver here said Western Union prevented him from
sending $120 to a friend at home last month because the recipient's name was
Mohammed.

"Western Union told me that if I send money to Sahir Mohammed, the money
will be blocked because of his name," said 36-year-old Abdul Rahman
Maruthayil, who later sent the money through UAE Exchange, a Dubai-based
money transfer service.

In a similar case, Pakistani Qadir Khan said Western Union blocked his
attempt this month to wire money to his brother Mohammed for a cataract
operation.

"Every Mohammed is a terrorist now?" Khan asked.

Dubai-based representatives from Western Union Financial Services, an
American company based in Colorado, and Minnesota-based MoneyGram
International said their clerks are simply following U.S.
Treasury Department guidelines that scrutinize cash flows for terrorist
links. Most of the flagged transactions are delayed a few hours. Some are
blocked entirely.

In many cases, would-be customers like Maruthayil simply find another way to
send the funds ‹ often through informal exchanges with less stringent
monitoring.

Critics say the screening is far too broad. The number of people
inconvenienced in the Emirates alone, which closely cooperates with U.S.
counterterror operations, is thought to be in the tens of thousands. One
Western Union clerk said about 300 money transfers from a single Dubai
franchise were blocked or delayed each day ‹ none of which has turned up a
terrorist link.

In Washington, U.S. Treasury spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said foreign banks
have used the department's list of terrorist names to freeze $150 million in
assets since Sept. 11. Millerwise didn't know the value of money transfers
blocked using the list, but said frustrations endured were regrettable but
necessary.

"We have an obligation to do all we can to keep money out of the hands of
terrorists," Millerwise said.

The list of names, available on the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets
Control Web site, contains hundreds of Mohammeds.

Inconveniences from the screening go far beyond money transfers in the
Middle East.

In the United States, banks, car dealers, title companies, landlords, and
employers have used the list to unjustly block scores of ordinary
transactions, said Shirin Sinnar, a San Francisco attorney with the Lawyers'
Committee for Civil Rights.

In one case, a couple in Sacramento, Calif. was thwarted from purchasing a
treadmill on a financing plan, simply because the husband's first name was
Hussein, Sinnar said in an e-mail interview.

Western Union's caution is perhaps understandable. Sept. 11 hijacker
Mohammed Atta sent money from two Western Union agencies in Maryland before
boarding a plane he helped crash into New York's World Trade Center.

The money transfer crackdown comes amid revelations that the U.S. Treasury
and
CIA have tracked millions of confidential transactions handled by the
Belgium-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.

In Dubai, a Western Union branch manager said he was forced to obey U.S.
rules he and others consider too broad.

"Mohammed and Ahmed have become problematic names because they are so common
on the list of terrorists," said Nixon Baby, who runs a Western Union
franchise in Bur Dubai, a neighborhood packed with South Asian businesses.
"These are regulations that Western Union is required to obey. We have no
control."

At another Western Union office, an executive who deals with security
measures said about 1 percent of the store's 30,000 daily money transfers ‹
about 300 a day ‹ are delayed or blocked because of suspected terrorist
links. Thus far, all have proven false, the executive said on condition of
anonymity, because she wasn't permitted to speak to a reporter.

Western Union routinely delays or blocks transfers between customers whose
names even partially match names on the Treasury list. The money is usually
released once suspects show identity documents that prove they are not on
the list, the executive said.

Bernie Rabina, a representative at Dubai airport's MoneyGram outlet, said
her company follows a similar process. Rabina didn't know what percentage of
her franchise's daily transactions were blocked.

The U.S. regulations apply to Western Union money transfers made anywhere,
said Marc Aubry, the company's Dubai-based Mideast marketing director.

But the United Arab Emirates, where Dubai is one of seven city-states, is
especially susceptible to the Treasury's restrictions because it is home to
more than a million foreign laborers who sent home a collective $14 billion
last year, according to a government report.

The Emirates government has cooperated with the U.S. Treasury in tightening
oversight after a 2004 U.S. investigation found that Emirates banks handled
most of the $400,000 spent on the Sept. 11 attacks.

Dubai expatriates like Khan and Maruthayil say Western Union, which earns
about $3 billion annually from operations in 200 countries, has no valid
basis for delaying cash meant for their families.

They say Treasury guidelines are sending more people to informal money
transfer networks called "hundis" or "hawalas" that have been used by
gangsters and terrorists because they circumvent such scrutiny.

"Sending money by hawala is cheaper and it does not get checked by banks, so
it is quicker," said a Pakistani taxi driver who called himself Munir Ahmed.
"They say it is not legal, but it is a reliable alternative to Western
Union."

At the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, spokesman Corey
Saylor said Treasury needs to reform its rules.

"The Treasury program interferes with even the most innocent transactions,"
Saylor said. "Just because Ahmed is a common name on their list, everyone
with that name is suddenly stuck."