Bush Approves Plan To Pressure Sudan (WP)

Bush Approves Plan To Pressure Sudan
Treasury Would Block Transactions

By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 7, 2007; Page A12

President Bush has approved a plan for the Treasury Department to aggressively block U.S.
commercial bank transactions connected to the government of Sudan, including those involving
oil revenues, if Khartoum continues to balk at efforts to bring peace to Sudan's troubled
Darfur region, government officials said yesterday.

The Treasury plan is part of a secret three-tiered package of coercive steps -- labeled
"Plan B" -- that the administration has repeatedly threatened to unleash if Sudan continues
to sponsor a campaign of terror that has left as many as 450,000 dead and 2.5 million homeless.
But the administration has held back on any announcement of Plan B, even after setting a Jan. 1
deadline, in hopes of still winning Khartoum's cooperation.

-snip-

Some aspects of Plan B have already been stealthily launched, such as stationing four U.S. Army
colonels last month as observers on the Sudan-Chad border in full view of Sudanese intelligence.
The unannounced move was intended as a signal to Khartoum, which the administration accuses
of launching a "quiet war" against Chad's government to widen the Darfur conflict.

"I find this all very dubious. They have talked about Plan B, but they have never explained what
Plan B is," said J. Stephen Morrison, director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic
and International Studies. "The deadlines have come and gone, and the Sudanese have thumbed
their noses."

-snip-