Treasury rewrote the record on sanctioned people twice in two days, and explained neither

On 5 August 2026 the US Treasury lifted the Fly Baghdad sanctions and, in the same document, changed the Iraqi airline chief executive's entry so that it no longer rested on the airline. On 6 August it moved a Cuban general's date of birth by more than a year and gave another a middle name he did not previously have. Nothing in the published record says why, or what was wrong before.

On 5 August 2026 the Office of Foreign Assets Control published a list update titled “Counter Terrorism Designations Removals and Update.” It contains five deletions and one change. Read the deletions and there are fewer things there than the count suggests.

Five deletions, one airline, two aeroplanes

Confirmed Source: the OFAC list update itself, read in full on 6 August 2026. The descriptions in the right-hand column are drawn from the aliases and aircraft details printed in the entries.

Three of the five deletions are the same company. Anyone counting rows reports five removals. What was removed is one airline and two of its aircraft.

What the airline was accused of

The designation was made on 22 January 2024, in an action that also named three Kata'ib Hizballah figures and a company Treasury said laundered money for the group. Treasury press releases are US federal works and are in the public domain, so the allegations can be quoted directly rather than summarised.

Treasury stated that “for several years, Iraqi airline Fly Baghdad has supported the operations of the IRGC-QF and its proxies by delivering materiel and personnel throughout the region.” It stated that Fly Baghdad flights delivered weapons to Damascus International Airport for transfer to the Qods Force and allied militias, and it named the cargo: “Iranian-made Fateh, Zulfiqar, and al-Fajr series missiles, as well as AK-47s, RPG-7s, and other grenades and machine guns.”

It stated that Kata'ib Hizballah leaders “used Fly Baghdad flights on multiple occasions to transport bags of U.S. currency and U.S.-made weapons obtained through battlefield collection from Iraq to Lebanon.” And it stated that in October 2023, after the Hamas attack on Israel, “Fly Baghdad was involved in the transfer of hundreds of Iraqi fighters” in support of attacks on Israel.

The airline was designated under Executive Order 13224 for having materially assisted or provided support to the Qods Force. The two aircraft were identified as blocked property. Those are the same two aircraft delisted on Tuesday.

The entry that was rewritten, and why it is the whole story

The 2024 release named al-Shabbani as the chief executive of Fly Baghdad and gave his designation a single stated basis, in one sentence: he “is being designated for owning or controlling, directly or indirectly, Fly Baghdad.”

His designation rested on the airline. On 5 August the airline was removed from the list.

The reason exists. It is not in the record.

OFAC list updates do not carry reasons, and Al-Monitor noted in its report on this action that delisting notices typically do not. Treasury published five press releases on 5 August 2026. They concern G20 media credentialing, paid family and medical leave guidance, quarterly refunding, a borrowing advisory committee report, and that committee's minutes. None of them mentions Fly Baghdad. The most recent Treasury press release on a sanctions action was 30 July.

An explanation does exist, and it was given to reporters. The National, in a report by Kyle Fitzgerald from Washington on 5 August, quoted an unnamed Treasury official saying the airline had been removed after going through OFAC's administrative reconsideration process, and that the listing was no longer warranted after Fly Baghdad demonstrated major changes to its operation.

The same official addressed the obvious reading directly. The National quoted the statement: “This is not indicative of any shift in US policy toward the government of Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – Qods Force, any designated terrorist organisation, or any person who supports or acts on behalf of any of these.” The official added that the removal “was done as part of the normal administrative process upon review of the specifics related to FBA.”

What else was happening that week

Al-Monitor reported on 5 August that the delisting came as US and Iranian officials signalled they were nearing an agreement over the Strait of Hormuz, and that Iran has said any broader understanding with Washington would require relief from US sanctions. It reported that Reuters, the same day, described a proposed Iran-Oman arrangement, citing a senior Iranian source and two regional officials, and that those sources disputed the suggestion that a deal was imminent.

There is a second context, and it is on the record. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent began a review of the US sanctions programme in May 2026 to remove outdated designations and reduce compliance burdens. The 27 July action that removed 84 individuals and entities was the second round of it. The National reported that those 84 included 33 Iraq-related firms first listed in 1991 or 1992.

Fly Baghdad does not fit that description. It was listed in 2024, not 1991, and it is an operating company rather than a defunct one. Whether it belongs to the modernisation effort or sits outside it is not stated in any published document.

The next day, it happened twice more, to different fields

On 6 August 2026 OFAC published a Cuba action, adding six individuals and five entities to the list under Executive Order 14404. At the foot of that document, under the heading of changes, two people already designated had their entries rewritten.

Confirmed Source: the OFAC action of 6 August 2026, read in full the same day. Both entries are printed before and after in the document itself, which is how each field can be compared exactly. Both men also had the Cuba authority added alongside the Global Magnitsky authority they were already listed under. That part is ordinary and is not the point here.

Correcting a record is a good thing. Not saying so is the problem.

A precise date of birth is better than a bare year. A passport number is better than no passport number. Both changes make a screening match more accurate, not less, and a publication that treated this as scandalous would be wrong.

The difficulty is what is absent around them.

Set the two cases side by side and they are different failures with the same shape. In the Fly Baghdad case the stated basis for a designation was replaced. In the Cuban case the identifying data was replaced. One goes to whether a person should be listed. The other goes to whether the right person is caught. Neither came with a reason.

Four documents are the substance of this story, and every one of them is public, permanent and free to read. The first says an airline flew missiles and fighters for a designated terrorist organisation. The second takes that airline off the list without saying why, and gives the man who ran it a different stated ground for remaining on it. The third moves a general's date of birth by more than a year and deletes his job title. The fourth is the Treasury press page, where none of it appears.

Nothing here is concealed. Every change is printed, before and after, by the authority that made it. What is missing from all of them is the one sentence that would say what was wrong, and for how long. A list that decides whose payment clears is amended in the open and explained nowhere, and nobody counts how often it happens.