Secrecy on Arab Investments to Be Curbed by Proposed Bill

Rep. Benjamin Rosenthal (D. NY) has announced he will introduce legislation to end the secrecy on Arab petrodollar investments in the United States.

Addressing the annual meeting of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith at the Grand Hyatt Hotel here, Rosenthal said the Arab investments, which he said could hold this country “hostage to foreign government control,” may total between $75 billion and $200 billion.

Rosenthal said his proposed legislation would have a three-pronged approach. It would require a permanent registration system to identify all past and future investments; country-by-country disclosure on the breakdown of foreign investments, and establishment of an independent government agency to “delay or prohibit foreign-directed investment” in areas sensitive to the economy and national security of the U.S.

The Congressman, a member of the House Government Operations and Foreign Affairs Committee, said the legislation is needed because of a 1974 Treasury Department agreement with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates to keep confidential the bulk of their investments in the U.S. He said the agreement must be terminated.

Rosenthal told some 400 American Jewish community leaders that Senate approval of the sole of AWACS reconnaissance planes to Saudi Arabia illustrated the extent of petrodollar influence on U.S. policy. “If the vote had been taken in secret, it never would have been approved,” the lawmaker said, “because a majority of members of Congress believed it was not in the U.S. national interest.”

Organized by Saudi Arabian lobbyists, a massive effort was mounted to enlist support for the AWACS sole on the part of American companies which do business with Saudi Arabia, Rosenthal added. “Tens of thousands of telegrams were received by senators from business leaders, including the heads of such firms as Rockwell International, American Airlines, Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, Proctor and Gamble and Wells-Forgo Bank.”

Rosenthal warned that Arab government investments jeopardized the integrity of the American political process and can threaten U.S. national security. In the recent takeover of the Santa Fe International Corp of California by Kuwait, the Kuwaitis not only obtained control over five percent of the world’s oil rigs but of a Santa Fe subsidiary which is engaged in highly sensitive nuclear research and engineering for the Defense Department.