Morales continues to campaign off WorldPeace's web page

Dan Morales continues to campaign off my web page. There is not a single issue that Dan Morales has brought up in his six weeks campaign (compared to my 13 months) that he did not pull from my web page. The following article has been on my web page since October 20th. It has been number seven on my list of ten problems with Tony Sanchez for a very long time.

I think Dan is losing it in his attempt to tie Tony to the terrorist. Tony is not into terrorism. He is into laundering drug money. That is how the International Banc of Commerce was built.

If the legislation had been in place, the terrorist would have banked elsewhere. Did anyone tell Dan that there are banks in other parts of the world. Did he know that Russia and China have banks. And there are the offshore banks in the Bahamas, and old banks in Switzerland, Mexico and Indonesia. I hear that even the Arabs have them.

Coming soon. "DIVA". 

In the end WorldPeace

John WorldPeace
The next governor of Texas
No more corruption. No more Monicas.
God Bless Texas

February 15, 2002
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Morales attacks foe on bank's laundering view 
Legislation would have helped foil terror attacks, ex-AG says 

02/15/2002 

By WAYNE SLATER / The Dallas Morning News 

AUSTIN – Democrat Dan Morales said Thursday that opponent Tony Sanchez shares some responsibility for the nation's vulnerability to terrorists because his bank fought efforts to crack down on money laundering. 

Stepping up his political attacks, Mr. Morales said federal legislation blocked by executives of Mr. Sanchez's Laredo bank and others "would have done much to thwart the recent terrorist attacks." 

"It should not have taken the worst attack on the United States to get Mr. Sanchez to finally align himself with law enforcement and criminal justice interests," the former Texas attorney general said. 

Mr. Sanchez dismissed the charge as "shameless and hysterical ravings" by a political foe trailing in the race for the Democratic nomination for governor. 

At issue were congressional efforts in 2000 to pass legislation that would have made it harder for drug cartels and terrorist networks to launder money through U.S. banks. 

Officials of Mr. Sanchez's bank, International Bank of Commerce, were among interests that opposed tough money laundering provisions. 

Citing published reports, Mr. Morales said representatives of Texas banks, including IBC, were among the most vociferous critics of the crackdown at meetings on Capitol Hill. 

After terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, Mr. Sanchez and other banking interests abandoned their opposition. 

"Before September 11th, the entire American banking industry, Congress and the administration had concerns over the loss of bank customer privacy," he said. "After the attacks, all of us recognized that the war on terror required some trade-offs." 

Nevertheless, Mr. Morales said efforts by Mr. Sanchez's bank to quash the anti-money laundering legislation made it "every bit as culpable" in the terrorist attacks "as those who are directing and profiting from those criminal activities." 

"I believe every sheriff, every district attorney, every law enforcement official in Texas is owed an explanation from Mr. Sanchez as to why he fought one of the toughest and one of the most effective proposals to attack money laundering and to attack the ability of terrorists to finance their illicit activities," he said. 

Mr. Morales accused Mr. Sanchez, a millionaire banker and oilman from Laredo, of campaigning largely through more than $6 million in television commercials. He repeated his challenge to meet in a series of televised debates before the March 12 primary. 

Paraphrasing a comment by President Bush about pursuing terrorists, Mr. Morales said, "We are going to smoke him out of his ranch in Laredo." 

Dennis Nixon, IBC chairman, said the legislation under consideration in Congress focused on drug-money laundering, not terrorism. He said the bank's opposition was based on an interest in customer privacy. 

Mr. Nixon said that under law, banks report transactions of $10,000 or more as a way to spot large movements of money. He said there are so many reports that few are acted on by law enforcement and none has resulted in a money-laundering investigation. 

Mr. Morales and Mr. Sanchez have committed to a March 1 debate in Dallas. But negotiations appeared stalled for Spanish-language debate from Laredo. 

At Thursday's news conference, Mr. Morales said he still hopes that the pair will meet in other televised forums, but acknowledged that the March 1 event might be his only opportunity "to directly put these questions to my opponent." 

Mr. Morales, repeating charges made this week, said Mr. Sanchez should have known that Mexican money-brokers laundered $25 million through a now-defunct savings and loan that Mr. Sanchez operated in the 1980s. 

Mr. Sanchez, who was chairman of the thrift, said he was unaware of the money-laundering and took steps to assure it didn't happen again. 

Mr. Morales also questioned whether Mr. Sanchez, a member of the University of Texas Board of Regents, had missed too many meetings because of political campaigning. 

According to UT records, Mr. Sanchez missed two of 11 regents meetings in 2001. 

John WorldPeace, an attorney from Houston, and Bill Lyon, a businessman from Waxahachie, also are running in the March 12 Democratic primary. 

The winner faces Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who is unopposed in the GOP primary. 

Staff writer Christy Hoppe in Austin contributed to this report.