Rehmat
02-10-2008, 09:03 PM
Representative Josh Mandel (Ohio) planned to introduce a bill that would divest Ohio's public employee pension funds from companies that do business with Islamic Iran and Sudan. AIPAC representatives asked him to pare down his bill's divestment requirements to include only companies that invest more than $20 million in Iran's oil and gas sector. When he refused - AIPAC went over his head to Ohio House Speaker Jon Hustead, who amended the bill along AIPAC's suggested lines.
In August 2004, Christopher Holton, director of the Divest Terror Initiative at the Washington-based Center for Security Policy (CSP) discovered that 15 percent-23% of US state employee pension funds were invested in companies that do business with state declared as so-called “sponsors of terrorism” by US State Department. In 2004, the estimated total value of those investments was $188 billion. Some $70 billion was invested in companies that did business with Islamic Iran, Syria and North Korea.
In late 2006, Missouri’s terror divestment campaign received a major boost when Likud’s terrorist leader Binyamin Netanyahu embraced it as a means of slowing down Iran's race to nuclear capabilities.
Encouraged by Netanyahu, Republican presidential hopefuls John McCain, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich announced their support for the plan in late 2006.
Holton assists state legislators in their bid to introduce divestment bills. He explains that in Texas and California, AIPAC lobbyists led by AIPAC's policy director Brad Gordon, advocated that divest terror bill sponsors take North Korea and Syria off their bills. As they did in Ohio, they also strongly recommended that divestiture from companies invested in Iran be limited to companies that invest more than $20m. in Iran's oil and gas sector.
In Texas, AIPAC's interference so frustrated the bill's sponsor, State Senator Dan Patrick that he allowed the initiative to fizzle out. In California, the bill passed into law reflected AIPAC's view, except that at the insistence of the bill's sponsor Assemblyman Joel Anderson, it also divested California from companies involved in Iran's defense and nuclear sectors.
In Florida, AIPAC pre-empted supporters of broad-based terror divestment. It advocated its pared-down, Islamic Iran only, oil and gas sector only divestment plan before a broader-based initiative could get off the ground.
Currently, AIPAC is working to pare down bills in Massachusetts, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Georgia. In the meantime, without AIPAC's intervention, the Louisiana legislature moved toward a broad-based divestment policy by establishing a terror-free investment index last year. Mississippi and Utah are also considering broad-based bills.
Ron Dermer, who as Israel's economic minister at the Washington embassy works on the issue with AIPAC, explained AIPAC's actions singling out Islamic Iran – “Iran's oil and gas sector makes up at least 80% of Iran's exports and 40% of its governmental revenues - is the engine of Iran's economy.
India's oil refiner, Reliance, decided to end its supply of refined oil products to Iran after the French bank BNP Paribus announced that it would no longer issue letters of credit for Iran. BNP Paribus and its cohort Calyon bank stopped offering Iran letters of credit due to political pressure from the US Treasury, which sanctions financial institutions that deal with Iran.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1202246347849&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
In August 2004, Christopher Holton, director of the Divest Terror Initiative at the Washington-based Center for Security Policy (CSP) discovered that 15 percent-23% of US state employee pension funds were invested in companies that do business with state declared as so-called “sponsors of terrorism” by US State Department. In 2004, the estimated total value of those investments was $188 billion. Some $70 billion was invested in companies that did business with Islamic Iran, Syria and North Korea.
In late 2006, Missouri’s terror divestment campaign received a major boost when Likud’s terrorist leader Binyamin Netanyahu embraced it as a means of slowing down Iran's race to nuclear capabilities.
Encouraged by Netanyahu, Republican presidential hopefuls John McCain, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich announced their support for the plan in late 2006.
Holton assists state legislators in their bid to introduce divestment bills. He explains that in Texas and California, AIPAC lobbyists led by AIPAC's policy director Brad Gordon, advocated that divest terror bill sponsors take North Korea and Syria off their bills. As they did in Ohio, they also strongly recommended that divestiture from companies invested in Iran be limited to companies that invest more than $20m. in Iran's oil and gas sector.
In Texas, AIPAC's interference so frustrated the bill's sponsor, State Senator Dan Patrick that he allowed the initiative to fizzle out. In California, the bill passed into law reflected AIPAC's view, except that at the insistence of the bill's sponsor Assemblyman Joel Anderson, it also divested California from companies involved in Iran's defense and nuclear sectors.
In Florida, AIPAC pre-empted supporters of broad-based terror divestment. It advocated its pared-down, Islamic Iran only, oil and gas sector only divestment plan before a broader-based initiative could get off the ground.
Currently, AIPAC is working to pare down bills in Massachusetts, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Georgia. In the meantime, without AIPAC's intervention, the Louisiana legislature moved toward a broad-based divestment policy by establishing a terror-free investment index last year. Mississippi and Utah are also considering broad-based bills.
Ron Dermer, who as Israel's economic minister at the Washington embassy works on the issue with AIPAC, explained AIPAC's actions singling out Islamic Iran – “Iran's oil and gas sector makes up at least 80% of Iran's exports and 40% of its governmental revenues - is the engine of Iran's economy.
India's oil refiner, Reliance, decided to end its supply of refined oil products to Iran after the French bank BNP Paribus announced that it would no longer issue letters of credit for Iran. BNP Paribus and its cohort Calyon bank stopped offering Iran letters of credit due to political pressure from the US Treasury, which sanctions financial institutions that deal with Iran.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1202246347849&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull