Banks: how can we freeze Qaddafi’s assests when we can't spell his name??

[dixiegrrrrl]

That essentially is the interesting problem facing not only banks but Government watch lists:

"International banks, acting on government orders to freeze assets from Libya, Egypt and Tunisia, are scouring hundreds of millions of client files for individuals on the new watch lists. But in doing so, bank compliance officers are grappling with a peculiar challenge: the myriad ways of transliterating Arabic names.

The arcane problem is opening the door to niche players, including a unicycling polyglot, who promise to help banks ensure they don't miss anyone because of misspelled names.
"

snip: "The U.S. Treasury Department offers 12 possible spellings for Moammar Gadhafi, though language experts say there are more than 100 for the family name alone."


the article goes on to describe why Arabic translation is such a problem AND introduces a man who has made the solution a niche market for himself.

Quite interesting, I do recommend a read.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704004004576270931677317512.html?mod=wsj_share_twitter

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. even better - regime change is now "Moammar Gadhafi" out, "Muammar Qaddafi" in

Simples!

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. And next week: Ghedeffi.

In the story, there is a box to the left of the column, with a list of all the ways the Treasury Dept so far has spelled his name. clicking on it enlarges it for better reading, rather interesting. I had been curious abut the problem after reading so many spellings in the news.

[snagglepuss]

5. LOL. So true every week there's a different spelling. IMO the different

spellings indicate pretension on the part of journalists.

[Demeter]

3. "He Who Cannot Be Named"

It's a simple fix.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Remember Al-Kada's #2 man we keep killing over and over?

I think it is a mis-spelling issue, one guy, 100 different spellings.:evilgrin:

[damntexdem]

6. How did they HOLD Qaddafi's assets if they couldn't spell his name?

If they could hold them, they can freeze them. It's just a matter of hitting all the versions of his name under which he has accounts.

I hope they include "Daffy Duck." ;-)

[EFerrari]

7. Who has the authority to order those assets to be frozen

in the first place? I guess I missed the trial!

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. Dunno...news just says "the United States"..you know, that personhood thing we do.

[EFerrari]

9. It's worth noting the extra-legal stuff our government does to this guy.

Because it comes home eventually and sooner rather than later.

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. Not to mention we do it to other countries, too, mostly notabley Iran

and we did to Egypt, to Iraq, etc.