United States set to impose fresh sanctions on hundreds of individuals

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On International Human Rights Day, which will be observed on December 10, 2022, the United States Department of Treasury will release fresh list of at least 98 individuals from around the world imposing sanctions by accusing them as “perpetrators of serious human rights abuse”. Individuals from a number of countries including China, Russia, DPRK, Myanmar (Burma), Iran, Turkey, and Pakistan will be in the list. According to a credible source, United State’s Department of Homeland Security’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center is assisting in “identifying perpetrators of serious human rights abuse and corruption”. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OAFC), a financial intelligence and enforcement agency of the US Treasury Department is also coordinating in preparing the list.

Biden administration has been putting emphasis on imposing sanctions on various individuals throughout the world under ‘Global Magnitsky Sanctions’. According to the US Department of Treasury sources, OFAC issues interpretive guidance on specific issues related to the sanctions programs it administers. OFAC issues general licenses in order to authorize activities that would otherwise be prohibited with regard to the Global Magnitsky sanctions program.  General licenses allow all US persons to engage in the activity described in the general license without needing to apply for a specific license.

The Global Magnitsky Sanctions program represents the implementation of multiple legal authorities. Some of these authorities are in the form of an executive order issued by the President. Other authorities are public laws (statutes) passed by The Congress. These authorities are further codified by OFAC in its regulations which are published in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). Modifications to these regulations are posted in the Federal Register.

The source further said, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) of the US Department of the Treasury administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on US foreign policy and national security goals against targeted foreign countries and regimes, terrorists, international narcotics traffickers, those engaged in activities related to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and other threats to the national security, foreign policy or economy of the United​ States.

In addition to providing guidance on specific sanctions programs, OFAC provides information on a number of sanctions-related issues that span multiple programs or that may affect specific industries

OFAC administers a number of different sanctions programs. The sanctions can be either comprehensive or selective, using the blocking of assets and trade restrictions to accomplish foreign policy and national security goals.

Anti-Bangladesh activity within the US Capitol

For the past several months, at the request of BNP’s “acting chairman” Tarique Rahman, former US diplomat and senior official William B Milam has been making frantic bids in the US Capitol with a list of over 50 Bangladeshi nationals and an US passport holder Bangladeshi politician with the effort of getting them sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Sanctions program.

William Bryant Milam is an American diplomat, and is Senior Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. Milam was a career diplomat. He retired from the United States Foreign Service at the end of July 2001 but was recalled after September 11, and spent nine months helping to set up the multilateral mechanism for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. He was also recalled to serve as interim Charge d’Affairs at the United States Embassy in Tripoli, Libya, prior to the re-establishment of a permanent American ambassadorial post to Libya. His last post before retirement was as Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan where he served from August 1998 to July 2001.

Willaim B Milam was US Ambassador to Bangladesh from August 1990 to October 1993.

According to information, Milam also is the president of an entity named ‘Right to Freedom’ in the United States. This entity is funded by Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and works as a secret lobbyist for this pro-Islamist party.

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