Plan B on Darfur

Back on Nov 20 of last year, Andrew Natsios, president Bush's envoy on Darfur, said that should Sudan not consent by Jan 1 to a peacekeeping force that included UN troops, the U.S. would go to "Plan B". When pressed for details, he didn't specify.

January 1 came and went, and nothing happened. It's been unclear if the U.S. has been doing nothing, or if they've at least been doing something behind the scenes.

Wednesday's Washington Post reveals some info on this, finally. Apparently we're going to block bank transactions connected to Sudan's government, and we've already placed four army observers on the Sudan-Chad border. Are these steps significant?

"Treasury's plan to block commercial bank transactions connected to the Khartoum regime, even those involving oil revenues, will be only a minor, short-term inconvenience," said Eric Reeves, a Sudan expert at Smith College, who noted that Khartoum has already violated the three triggers since the start of the year. "This element of Plan B only reveals more fully its vacuous nature."