1998 Republican election issue comes back.

The legislation, mentioned in this article, was created and passed as an election gambit by the rabid side of the Republican congress for campaigning in the 1998 midterms. Originally, it was crafted to allow cover for the protestant born-again "missionaries" who were operating in the former Soviet Union and its parts. That was a big issue at the time to the proselytizers as the Russians were attempting to limit their presence claiming they were destabilizing Russia and her former republics.

Anyhow, an example of bad legislation passed for electioneering purposes.

(I'm not, in theory, against the concept of legislation encouraging human rights freedoms, but I am against them when their main concern is getting people elected, not protecting human rights. I mean, after all, that republican congress didn't pass legislation condemning torture, protecting press freedoms, or civil rights, just legislation intended to shield missionaries.)

The United States has put off a showdown with Saudi Arabia over its alleged violations of religious minority rights as skyrocketing oil prices threatened to crimp US economic growth.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice decided to postpone by six months imposing sanctions against the desert kingdom in the wake of a US finding that the Saudi government denied residents some of the most basic religious freedoms, according to a State Department official. ....

The designation, introduced into US diplomatic practice by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, usually entails severe penalties, including economic sanctions, if the designated country fails to quickly clean up its act.

But the law also gives the secretary of state the right to waive action, if higher US national interests are at stake.