Interesting Stuff # 46

No More Secret Numbered Accounts
In 1970, the U.S. government passed the Bank Secrecy Act which (among many other things) required U.S. citizens and residents to file a report that gives the location and account number of all foreign financial accounts held by or for U.S. persons. The Act introduced severe penalties for a willful failure to disclose the existence of any foreign accounts but proving that a failure to report such accounts is willful is difficult and only a few people were assessed penalties.

In 2004, the Government introduced a new penalty of up to $10,000 for a non-willful failure to file the Foreign Bank Account (FBAR) form. And, in the past few years, the IRS has acquired information about offshore credit cards from a variety of sources. Now they have a way to identify scofflaws who have foreign accounts that are not reported on Treasury Department Form 90-22.1 on or before June 30th of the year following the reporting year.

US Jews leading Darfur rally planning
Thousands of people will be marching this Sunday in Washington, DC under a banner that carries a simple two-word demand: "Save Darfur."…
Little known, however, is that the coalition, which has presented itself as "an alliance of over 130 diverse faith-based, humanitarian, and human rights organization" was actually begun exclusively as an initiative of the American Jewish community….
Though there are other major religious organizations, like the United States Conference on Catholic Bishops and the National Association of Evangelicals, both of which have giant constituencies that number in the millions, these groups have not done the kind of extensive grassroots outreach that will produce numbers….
…the other striking aspect of the coalition is the noted absence of major African-American groups like the NAACP or the larger Africa lobby groups like Africa Action. When asked to comment, representatives of both groups insisted they were publicizing the rally but had not become part of the coalition or signed the Unity Statement declaring Save Darfur's objectives.
She thinks the strong Jewish response has to do with the memories of Rwanda. "The Jewish community has probably had a higher level of lingering guilt over Rwanda than the average person," Messinger says. "And now learning about another genocide, I think people are beginning to understand that we are close to making a mockery of the words 'Never Again.'"

Estimates of Unauthorized Migrant by State, per Pew

State Senate Supports Immigrant Walkout On Monday (Are they out of their darn minds!)
California's state senators on Thursday endorsed Monday's boycott of schools, jobs and stores by illegal immigrants and their allies as supporters equated the protest with great social movements in American history.

Iran has missiles that put Europe in range: report
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Iran has received a first shipment of missiles from North Korea that are capable of reaching Europe, Israel's military intelligence chief was quoted on Thursday as saying.
Known in the West as BM-25s, the Russian-designed missiles have a range of around 1,500 miles, giving them a longer reach than the Iranian-made Shihab-4 missiles which are capable of hitting Israel.
The intelligence chief, Major-General Amos Yadlin, was quoted by Israel's Haaretz newspaper as saying in a lecture on Wednesday that some BM-25s had arrived in Iran.
The BM-25 was originally manufactured in the Soviet Union, where it was known as the SSN6, a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, Haaretz reported.
After the Russians decommissioned the SSN6, the missiles were sold to North Korea, which adapted them to carry a heavier payload, the newspaper's military affairs correspondent said.
In February, a German diplomat, citing his country's intelligence data, confirmed a German newspaper report that said Iran had purchased 18 disassembled BM-25s from North Korea.

EXTREME SWEDEN

Counterterrorism in African Failed States