On Tuesday Congress finally passed the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act of 2006, which broadens somewhat the existing sanctions scheme in place against Sudan.

Under the existing scheme, U.S. companies and individuals may not engage in transactions with senior officials of the government of Sudan that have been named as Specially Designated Nationals and all the assets of such officials in the United States have been blocked. Under the new legislation, beginning 30 days after its enactment, the President may name as SDNs (in addition to senior government officials of Sudan) any individual who the President determines is responsible for acts of genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity in Sudan. As with designated senior government officials, no U.S. individual or company may engage in any transactions with the named individuals, and their assets in the United States will be blocked.

Additionally, the new legislation provides that these newly named individuals will be denied visas to enter the United States. Finally, the new legislation gives the President the power to deny access to U.S. ports to oil tankers or cargo ships involved in the Sudanese oil trade or involved in shipment of arms for the use of the Sudanese military.

These new sanctions are not likely to have much effect on the on-going crisis in Darfur. The provision denying visas to people guilty of genocide is, frankly, somewhat risible. It is hard to imagine that someone intent on committing crimes against humanity will reconsider that course of action if he realizes that it might prevent him from taking his family to Disneyland or Sea World.

A prior version of the legislation had a provision that would have permitted state pension funds to divest from companies doing business in Sudan. That provision was eliminated at the request of the National Foreign Trade Council that is involved in litigation with the state of Illinois over its divestment provision.

In its relentless quest to keep America safe from terrorism, OFAC recently fined a group of Baptists missionaries $34,000 who were on licensed travel to Cuba and who stayed in a hotel near the beach and visited Old Town Havana. Under OFAC rules, American missionaries must devote every single moment in Cuba to their mission and are subject to fine if they engage in any activity that might be considered a tourist activity. I am certain that we will all sleep better tonight knowing that OFAC has a watchful eye on Baptist missionaries in Cuba.

OFAC has also been doing its share to make sure that traveling Cuban officials stay at Le Meridien instead of the Intercontinental. The Chicago Tribune reported yesterday that a meeting between Cuban officials and U.S. oil executives in Mexico City in February was disrupted after OFAC forced the American-owned hotel (which may or may not have been the Intercontinental) to evict the Cuban officials. The meeting between the Cubans and the oil interests had been prompted by the U.S. Geological Survey’s recent estimate that Cuba’s northern offshore basin contains 4.6 billion barrels of oil.