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THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ AND PARTICIPATE: MUCH IS AT STAKE! URGENT!

Folks:

Senator Byron Dorgan (ND) is scheduling hearings to investigate OFAC (the office within the Treasury Department that both grants travel licenses to Cuba and sends out fines to those who are caught traveling illegally) and its administration of travel regulations on January 29th, (less than two weeks away!) in response to widespread inconsistencies along with massive 'irregularities' and a recent trend of alarming license denials, or non-response to applications and inquiries which have been reported in licensing procedures for travel to Cuba. It appears OFAC (Office of Foreign Asset Control) is taking 'creative license' in its interpretation of the regulations in their issuance/conditioning/refusal of licenses.

Reflecting constituent pressure, there is an also strong and growing movement in Congress to redress this issue, or to scrap travel restriction altogether. In two recent votes, congress voted to withhold the use of public money in the prosecution of any U.S. citizen who traveled to Cuba unlicensed and suffered harassment or penalty fines by OFAC as a misuse of public funds.

In order for Senator Dorgan to conduct these hearings, he needs factual information on people's experiences with trying to get a travel license from OFAC. We need to demonstrate the variety of requests, and the variety of responses given by different individuals to similar requests by OFAC personnel to show how arbitrary these determinations actually are.

Therefore, we need you to fill out the following questionnaire and return it to Senator Dorgan's aides Brian Moran (Brian_Moran@dorgan.senate.gov) AND Ian Woodward (Ian_Woodward@dorgan.senate.gov) as soon as possible, as these hearings are scheduled to commence January 29th, and they needs time to process them into data.

The questions reflect the basic type of data we are seeking, preferably with as much detail as possible -- verbal follow-up, conversations, etc., and especially about exactly what the license request is for. It would help if we could get copies of the license request and any correspondence received from OFAC in time for the hearings. You are invited to submit written testimony to be entered into the record.

If possible, we ask you to copy them to USCSCA@aol.com to make sure we also have a database which we can use to begin to make sure that OFAC is not impeding what should qualify as legitimate travel. Our copies will be kept confidential and only shared with the legal team investigating this issue.

For people who have traveled without licenses and would like to report their adventures with enforcement, we need that testimony also. Your name will not be used without your full permission, but your story is part of what must be told for Congress to understand the nuances of this policy and its affect on ordinary people, in real life.

Given Bush's recess appointment of Otto Reich, that circumvented congressional approval, to the top State Department post for Western Hemispheric Affairs and the ultra-hardline stance he has on the maintaining the embargo, it is particularly important get a lot of individuals and organizations to sign the petition to Congress on ending the travel ban, to write their congressional reps. and to give testimony about their licensing process/ or letters from OFAC: fines levied, etc.

Finally, I also want to give you all the link to an International Policy Report that Wayne Smith recently updated on the legal and historical particulars of the travel ban, which may be of interest to you all as well. That report is at: http://www.ciponline.org/cuba/ipr/TravelBan.htm.

For us, much is at stake, as hearings without factual information on the depth of how difficult it is to navigate OFAC, could mean the system will only deteriorate further. PLEASE participate, this is really an opportunity we cannot refuse to move towards our goal of reclaiming our unrestricted freedom of travel, and keeping our access to Cuba from narrowing or even being further restricted under the pretense of these new antiterrorist provisions.

* We ask that you share this survey with anyone else you may know who has had licensing problems.

RIGHT TO TRAVEL QUESTIONNAIRE on page for printing out or convenient emailing.

PLEASE RETURN THE SURVEY/STORIES/TESTIMONY TO THE FOLLOWING FOUR EMAILS:

cuba@ffrd.org  and Brian_Moran@dorgan.senate.gov  and Ian_woodward@dorgan.senate.gov  and USCSCA@aol.com  NO LATER THAN JANUARY 25. The hearing will be held on January 29.

Sincerely,

Lisa Valanti
President
US-Cuba Sister Cities Association
USCSCA@aol.com

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