#!usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

# to process the file from: 
# http://www.treasury.gov/ofac/downloads/sdnlist.txt

# this is about a 93K line file
# that means that it easily fits into memory
# 
# to get the valid "records"
# (1) separate the records based upon them having
#     an extra \n between them
#     The records are "paragraphs".
# (2) "squeeze" the lines together so that hyphenated
#     names will get put "back together"
#     This is needed so that simple searches will work.
# (3) Apply hueristics to get rid of the extraneous
#     records, here a "valid input record":
#     (a) can't start with [ and must
#     (b) have a comma or 'a.k.a' in the first 50 characters
#     (c) get rid of leading ' if it is there
#         cannot get rid of ' globally because there are
#         records where this does have meaning.

my @records =  map {s/^'//;$_}      # another hueristic
               grep{ !/^\s*\[/ and  # huerististic (rule-of-thmub)
                     substr ($_,0,50) =~/,|\Qa.k.a.\E/}
               map{s/\n//g; $_}     # squeeze lines back together
               do { local $/= "\n\n"; (<DATA>)};  

# at this point, there are <12K records
# from the 93K lines that we started with

foreach (@records)
{
   # your regex to select a record could maybe go here..
   # also possible to make a translation table
   #   of any name back to one of these records
   print "$_\n";
}
   

__DATA__
Output from: http://www.treasury.gov/ofac/downloads/sdnlist.txt
goes here...

ALPHABETICAL LISTING OF SPECIALLY DESIGNATED NATIONALS AND BLOCKED
PERSONS ("SDN List"):

This publication of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control
("OFAC") is designed as a reference tool providing actual notice of
actions by OFAC with respect to Specially Designated Nationals and
...blah...


17 NOVEMBER (a.k.a. EPANASTATIKI ORGANOSI 17 NOEMVRI; a.k.a.
REVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZATION 17 NOVEMBER) [FTO] [SDGT]

32 COUNTY SOVEREIGNTY COMMITTEE (a.k.a. 32 COUNTY SOVEREIGNTY
MOVEMENT; a.k.a. IRISH REPUBLICAN PRISONERS WELFARE ASSOCIATION;
a.k.a. REAL IRA; a.k.a. REAL IRISH REPUBLICAN ARMY; a.k.a. REAL
OGLAIGH NA HEIREANN; a.k.a. RIRA) [FTO] [SDGT]

32 COUNTY SOVEREIGNTY MOVEMENT (a.k.a. 32 COUNTY SOVEREIGNTY
COMMITTEE; a.k.a. IRISH REPUBLICAN PRISONERS WELFARE ASSOCIATION;
a.k.a. REAL IRA; a.k.a. REAL IRISH REPUBLICAN ARMY; a.k.a. REAL
OGLAIGH NA HEIREANN; a.k.a. RIRA) [FTO] [SDGT]

101 DAYS CAMPAIGN (a.k.a. CHARITY COALITION; a.k.a. COALITION OF
GOOD; a.k.a. ETELAF AL-KHAIR; a.k.a. ETILAFU EL-KHAIR; a.k.a.
I'TILAF AL-KHAIR; a.k.a. I'TILAF AL-KHAYR; a.k.a. UNION OF GOOD),
P.O. Box 136301, Jeddah  21313, Saudi Arabia [SDGT]

..etc..