Pentagon Contractors Exploring Business with Iran; Companies w/ over $100BIL in DoD contracts turn to Tehran
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Imagine if the War Department contractors teamed with the Third Reich before the Holocaust — it’s the same thing.No US government agency should do business with any company doing business with Iran. Why haven’t the other branches of government instituted controls to monitor Obama’s latest disaster? Is the Pentagon policing, or has Islamic infiltration embedded itself too deeply?
Where is the outrage? Where is the Right? Fierce pushback is coming from Democrat quarters. I am glad it is coming from somewhere, but the Right is on life support when this most certainly should be our issue, our moment. There have been these moments in American history when right and wrong, good and evil were very clearly defined. The Republican party was born at such a moment. We elected Lincoln at such a moment, and we took the country back from the slave party, the Democrats, at such a moment.
We need a moral and rational force to pushback …. “The New Right.”
The cowardice and the fear on the Right is worse than then the left’s putsch. It is the MO of the left to side with evil and preen about it under the mind-bending rationalization that their intentions are good. But the Right knows better, and yet it gets led around by the nose by Muslim lapdogs like Grover Norquist.
We need a fierce offensive under a banner of individual rights and morality. I believe such an intellectual movement would seize the collective conscience of this country.
We need moral outrage and righteous indignation. Now.
By Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon,
Multiple companies currently exploring new business ventures in Iran are also cashing in on highly lucrative contracts with the U.S. Defense Department, raising questions about whether their dealings with Iran could run afoul of U.S. law.
At least 13 major international companies have said in recent weeks that they aim to reenter the Iranian marketplace over the next several months. The companies have received Pentagon contracts totaling well over $107 billion, according to a Washington Free Beacon analysis that tracked DoD contracts awarded since fiscal year 2009.
Many of the companies, which include carmaker Renault and oil giants such as BP, have already sent high-level trade delegations to Tehran to meet with Iranian officials about striking new business deals.
Lawmakers, congressional insiders, and other experts expressed shock when presented with the figures detailing billions in taxpayer funds that have gone to companies eager to partner with Tehran.
These companies include Boeing and General Electric—which have DoD contracts worth $87 and $12 billion respectively—as well as the Italian oil company Eni, Merck, Safran, Vitol, Bosch Rexroth, Sanofi Pastuer, and AVL.
Lawmakers say that companies should be forced to choose between doing business with the Pentagon and doing it with Iran.
“The fact that major federal contractors are even considering business with Iran during this interim period demonstrates that we need to be incredibly vigilant in enforcing the existing sanctions,” said Rep Brad Sherman (D., Fla.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
“And even if their activity is technically not captured by our existing sanctions laws, these companies should know that Congress is watching,” Sherman said. “We will focus on defense and other federal contractors. And we will make sure that if there are deals that do violate the law, they will be debarred from federal contracting or worse.”
Sherman said that Congress’ next Iran sanctions bill should “include a near total ban” on business dealings with Iran.
“If you sell anything to Iran but food or medicine, you are ineligible for a federal contract, grant or other assistance,” he said. “At some point, you may have to say to these firms, you either do business with us or with them.”
While U.S. law has banned companies with federal contracts from doing business with Iran, a provision in the recently signed interim nuclear deal relaxed economic sanctions and provided a temporary window for companies to do limited business with Tehran.
The interim deal does not stipulate which companies can legally do business with Iran. However, it does outline permissible trade relationships.
Sanctions will be relaxed on Iran’s petrochemical industry, oil industry, auto industry, gold trading sector, and precious metals trade during the six months that the interim deal is in effect, according to guidance issued by the Treasury Department.
This means that these specific business activities will no longer be sanctioned for the next several months, providing Tehran a window in which to cash-in on potentially lucrative deals.
Critics of the sanctions relief argue that it is bad policy to permit federal contractors to do business with a nation that aims to build nuclear arms and potentially use them on U.S. allies.
“Companies doing business with Iran in any way should not be rewarded with Department of Defense contracts until Iran has verifiably dismantled its nuclear, chemical, biological, and ballistic missile launch technology programs and is no longer a state sponsor of terrorism,” said Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).
“These are the conditions set by Congress for the permanent lifting of the most important legislative sanctions,” Dubowitz said. “If companies want to reenter the Iranian market in the prescribed areas permitted under the Geneva agreement over the next six months, that’s their choice. But the U.S. taxpayer shouldn’t be rewarding those companies with lucrative defense contracts at the same time.”
Lawmakers separately warned automotive tire company Michelin on Monday that it could jeopardize its federal contracts by doing business with Tehran.
Aerospace firms Boeing and General Electric have also sought permission to resume business with Iran, prompting bipartisan concern on Capitol Hill.
“I am deeply concerned by reports that U.S. companies are exploring the possibility of resuming business with Iran,” said Rep. Peter Roskam (R., Ill.), the House chief deputy whip. “My office has requested prompt explanations from the companies. Rest assured that I will continue to vigorously oppose any plan that economically strengthens the world’s deadliest state sponsor of terrorism.”
Top U.S.-Iran negotiator Wendy Sherman cautioned companies against rushing into the Iranian market during a recent congressional hearing.
“We would hope they wouldn’t go to Tehran and show restraint while we negotiate the comprehensive agreement,” Sherman said at the time.
However, international trade delegations have flocked to Iran since the interim deal went into effect.
Renault, for instance, resumed shipping car parts to Iran in January of this year. The French automaker has received at least $111,170 from the Pentagon, according to publicly available data.
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