Patrick Leahy: “on May 12, Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos is planning to visit Washington for meetings with President Bush…”

“on May 12, Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos is planning to visit Washington for meetings with President Bush and other top administration officials. I mention this because welcoming President dos Santos to the United States is contrary to President Bush's January 12, 2004, proclamation barring corrupt foreign officials from entering the United States. President Bush's proclamation suspends entry into the United States of public officials, and their spouses, children, and dependents, if their ``solicitation or acceptance of any article of monetary value, or other benefit, in exchange for any act or omission in the performance of their public functions has or had serious adverse effects on the national interests of the United States.'' It also bars officials ``whose misappropriation of public funds or interference with the judicial, electoral, or other public processes'' has harmed the national interest. If this standard does not apply to President dos Santos, it is hard to imagine to whom it could apply. He presides over one of the world's most corrupt governments. The IMF has concluded that between 1997 and 2002, Angola could not account for the expenditure of $4.2 billion in public funds, attributing this loss--equivalent to 10 percent of Angola's GDP--in substantial part to high-level corruption.”