Sudan: Congress Moves to Block Obama’s “Cookies and Gold Stars” Approach

Morgan Lorraine Roach / March 09, 2011

The Obama Administration has pursued an incentive plan for Sudanese President Omar al Bashir to try and secure his cooperation and support for the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement between Sudan and the nascent independent state of Southern Sudan. One of the Obama Administration’s preliminary offers was the removal of Sudan from the state sponsors of terrorism list. Aside from rewarding Bashir (accused by the U.S. of genocide in Darfur) for promises of support that may prove ephemeral and are certainly unenforceable, it would also willfully ignore the possibility that Sudan may still be supporting at least one group—the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)—included on the Terrorist Exclusion List as directed by Section 212(1)(3) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(3)) of the U.S.

As The Heritage Foundation observed earlier this year: “The label ‘state sponsor of terror’ should not be treated as a political tool. Such a status should be removed only if a country legitimately ends its support to terrorist organizations.” So far there is little evidence that Bashir has renounced his support of the LRA as required by the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). According to the International Crisis Group, as early as March 2010 the LRA’s leader, Joseph Kony, “was in the southern Darfur region of Sudan hoping to receive support from his former benefactor, the Khartoum government.” Whether Bashir provided support is uncertain, but Kony’s presence in Sudan indicates that he thought such support would be forthcoming. (more…)