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Show A10 Calif, locals Tear housing vets Consumers tangle with U.S. with lylSI) near their homes Treasury over terror watclilist Scott lindlaw Ellen Nakashima s ,LI.KM.VlIJ.i;,(.alif a Merry I il ! shaded by redwfKKls in Sonoma ' 1 ! County wine country, would seem a pleasant place to recover from the psychic wounds of war. Nadia McCaffrey's dream Is to set up a group home there for veterans plagued by post- a. traumatic stress disorder. But she is running into stiff resistance from the neighbors. They not only object to the brand-nest ruct ure it self , y which looks like a apartment house wedged amid their cabins, they are also worried that deranged veterans will move in. At a community meeting in December, "one person was concerned that even firecrackers would set these people off", said Andrew Eckers, 54, who lives across the street. McCaffrey, whose son was killed in Iraq in 2004, said she four-stor- has tried to reassure the neighbors, but "they are afraid of it because they don't want to understand it." Projects similar to McCaffrey's have cropped up in other communities across the country, with some also raising concerns from neighbors, in part because of the many news accounts of traumatized veterans committing suicide or murder. "We're all, frankly, failing in properly educating society about what PTSD is and what its effects are," said Jon Soltz, an Iraq war veteran and chair-- " man of VoteVets.org, a veterans advocacy group. McCaffrey wants to set up at least three group homes around the country where vets with PTSD could live temporarily, and virtually for free, while they study at a college or work at a farm. Donations are paying for the projects, she said. In Guerneville, a community of about 2,500 where the Russian River draws tourists in the summer, the light green building nestled into a carvedout hillside stands empty. to know whether a person is also on the OFAC list. Failure to do so can bring a stiff penOne man went into a Glen alty. Often a person whose name is similar to a name on Burnie, Md., Toyota dealerthe watchlist will be flagged ship to buy a car, only to be told that a name check by credit bureaus, which produce the reports businesses revealed he was on a U.S. Treasury Department watch-lis- t use to decide who is eligible of suspected terrorists for a car or home loan or to and drug dealers, He had to rent an apartment. be "checked for tattoos," he The Lawyers Committee sued the Treasury Departsaid, to make sure he wasn't ment last year under the Freethe suspect. dom of Information Act for found he An could not open an account to records of complaints relating to OFAC's list. Last year, the accept credit card payments for his fledgling technology group documented the cases of at least a dozen people deconsulting business because his name was similar to that nied services, including being blocked from buying exercise of a Libyan official on the watchlist. equipmentTuesday's partial A former U.S. Navy officer release of records raised at least 30 new cases in which who served in the Persian Gulf and whose father was people sought OFAC help. "OFAC's list of designated killed in the Korean War individuals and entities is a when he was a child, found himself locked out of his Pay- powerful tool that disrupts Pal account because his name financial flows to terrorists, narcotics traffickers and was similar to one on the of weapons of mass watchlist. "What do I need to do to destruction," Treasury spokesremove my name from this man John Rankin said. "This list?" the off icer wrote to vigilance has an important deterrent effect and shines a Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OF AQ, which light on illicit conduct." But Thomas Burke, lead compiles the list. He signed counsel in the group's FOIA off, "An EXTREMELY insulted veteran of the U.S. Navy." case, said he suspected the watchlist is causing problems More American consumers have gotten caught up in for many more people than a special brand of watchlist revealed by the cases so far. Moreover, he asserted, "There purgatory because their isn't a program (of redress). names are similar to ones There isn't an ombudsman. on OFAC's list of "specially There isn't a procedure to help designated nationals," acand other consumers clear their names." cording to The Glen Burnie aut o cusdocuments released under court order Tuesday. By law, tomer whose name was businesses are barred from redacted by the government beConducting transactions with to protect his privacy anyone on the list. Tuesday's gan his quest for relief with d release of docu- the car dealer, according to ments to the Lawyers Comthe documents. The dealer g mittee for Civil Rights of the referred him to the San Francisco Bay Area, ofagencies, Experian fers a window into the kinds and Equifax, but he was left y in electronic of disruptions suffered by those ensnared in the process, limbo, he said. That was only as well as the difficulty of the beginning of "a revolving-doo- r clearing their names. nightmare," he said. He called the credit-checMore businesses are seeking, as part of a credit check, company, and a ASMiNOTDh POST ; . - ERIC RISBERG 'Associated Press Nadia McCaffrey, president of the Patrick McCaffrey Foundation, sits in front of a proposed housing site for veterans in Guerneville, Calif PTSD-scarre- d . ing. Also, a wall meant to divert landslides was deemed insufficient. Neighbors have raised complaints about the cutting down of several redwoods to make way for the home, the lack of parking and the size of the building, which would house a half-doze- of the veterans. "Generally PTSD guys are normal people," Eckers said. But he added: "Some are and they need to be in an institution," McCaffrey said screening would be done by veterans and a psychiatrist, and supervision would come from volunteers from a nearby veterans clinic. "We will not accept anyone who's not completely functional," she said. Rogelio Martinez, 26, who shell-shock- veterans. n "They are inappropriate buildings for the neighborhood. They're not resi- single-famil- y dences," said Mark Mondrag-on- , 41. "This could have been Grandmothers for Harmonious served in Iraq and Afghanistan Peace and it wouldn't have as an Army Airborne Ranger, made a difference." said he was diagnosed with PTSD and sought counseling at Jan De Wald, who lives a the. urging of his older brother; couple houses down Merry a military officer. But he said Lane, said too many questions remain unanswered about the he would have benefited from the type of group housing that project, including who sits on the board, who is the president McCaffrey is proposing. . "If it wasn't for my brothand what is the staffing. Most residents said worries er, I might be one of those k homeless vets on the street," The county issued a about unhinged veterans are Martinez said in a telephone order because the project not drivir.g the opposition. interview from San Antonio. exceeded the scope of the plans Eckers emphasized that his "A place like that would be that were filed, said Shems primary concern is that the Peterson( Sonoma County su- - i project would open the door to ideal for a person like me or a more apartment buildings. But person in my shoes who didn't pervising building inspector. have someone to lean on like he also raised questions about Among other things, the projan older brother to get help." the screening and supervision ect had unauthorized plumb- stop-wor- court-ordere- credit-reportin- voice-director- k tech-suppo- rt filF-ys- ? ...... uvu .'a w - 1" g' r"' r PWWWjt Ifl 'VTXx Y ft V '"3f """Jj credit-reportin- consumer's identity." Rankin said people with concerns could call the OFAC hot line at Many callers have their issues im- mediately resolved, he said. "The Treasury Department . takes this problem seriously and recognizes the frustration citizens whose of names and identities have been confused with names on law-abidi- the OFAC list," he said. hi rr .i vi V f ' I f i - vsk supervisor told him he would look into it. He checked witn the FBI because there was some suggestion he was on the "Ten Most Wanted" list. The FBI told him he was not on any FBI list and suggested he check with the Treasury. According to the documents, the man said he then left a message at OFAC, folHe said lowed by an he also contacted the Federal Trade Commission. When an OFAC representative called back, he was told that he should contact the three major credit bureaus and request they remove his name from the list. The documents do not reveal whether he succeeded in removing it. "I am not a criminal," he aimed at wrote in an the director of OFAC compliance, according to the documents obtained by the Lawyers Committee. "I spent my entire career as a police officer fighting crime." Stuart Pratt, president and g chief executive of a trade group, the Consumer Data Industry Association, said OFAC does not give adequate guidance on how to determine a watchlist match. "Do you match just on the last name, on the first name, on the first name and middle initial?" Pratt said. "OFAC doesn't really give much guidance." He also said he thinks the biggest problem is lenders who do not know how to respond to an alert. "Clearly OFAC would say, you don't stop the transaction," he said. 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