AIPAC Acquits Koch On Iran

[Purveyor]

In a memo it circulated in connection of hearings in the Senate and House on Iran and Syria, the heavyweight pro-Israel group AIPAC is defending Koch Industries after a report that a Koch subsidiary did business in Iran until 2007 in spite of U.S. efforts to isolate the Islamic Republic.

The memo is composed of "suggested questions" for legislators to ask top State and Treasury department officials testifying today before the House of Representatives, and one suggested question -- they're phrased as actual questions legislators could ask -- deals specifically with the Koch issue:

Subsidiaries of American Companies

Last week, the Bloomberg Markets Magazine ran a story titled, “Koch Brothers Flout Law Getting Richer With Secret Iran Sales.” The article alleges that a foreign subsidiary of the U.S.company, Koch Industries Inc., sold petrochemical equipment to Iran. My concern today is not with the Koch Brothers. That company did the right thing in 2007 and voluntarily ended all of its subsidiary’s business in Iran. However, I am concerned that other American companies continue to use foreign subsidiaries to profit from sales to Iran, and it is completely legal. It is my understanding that U.S. companies are free to use their foreign subsidiaries to conduct business in Iran and collect the profits so long as no U.S. persons are involved in the work, and the subsidiary was not established, or acquired, with the intent to bypass the sanctions.

· Do you know which American companies have foreign subsidiaries conducting business with Iran that would be illegal for their parent companies to do? Do you do anything to discourage this practice?...

MORE...

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1011/AIPAC_acquits_Koch_on_Iran.html?showall

[sakabatou]

1. WTF?!

[louis-t]

2. Cheney did the same thing.

When a right-wing aunt of mine replied that it "wasn't illegal", I asked "but isn't it immoral?". No reply.

[midnight]

3. Money sure can buy lots of friends... That's nice.

[classysassy]

I didn't realize AIPAC

could acquit anyone,always thought that was left up to our courts.I guess AIPAC is much stronger than our courts.

[classysassy]

4. I didn't realize AIPAC

could acquit anyone,always thought that was left up to our courts.I guess AIPAC is much stronger than our courts.

[In Other News]

5. "Are you now, or have you ever been...

.....a member of a group that refuses to obey the instructions of the Israeli government?"