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15 March 2010 By Keith Johnson Without regard for the severe economic devastation
and loss of life that a war with Iran would create,
Israel’s agents in the United States continue to
aggressively stoke the fires of anti-Iranian rhetoric
and mobilize their minions on the floor of the House.
The Brzezinski-Soros machine failed in their attempt
to effect regime change in Iran by way of a “color
revolution” in the summer of 2009. This has only
emboldened the Israeli lobby to pursue more drastic
measures. There is only one card left for them to play
before provoking conflicts that will most certainly
catapult the United States into direct military action
against the Islamic State. Tuesday, the American Israeli Political Action
Committee gave their marching orders to their
congressional War Hawks. The message was short,
concise and clear. Here is the text of the letter
AIPAC sent to members of Congress: Dear Congressman XXXX, We are writing to every member of Congress to
express outrage at the U.S. government’s continuing
relationship with dozens of companies doing business
with Iran. These ongoing financial dealings undermine
longstanding American efforts to prevent Iran from
acquiring a nuclear weapons capability. As the New York Times reported on Sunday, the
federal government during the past decade has awarded
$107 billion in contracts and grants to more than
70 companies that are doing business in Iran. More
than two-thirds of these contracts have gone to
companies involved in Iran’s energy industry despite
American law to discourage such involvement. The time has long since passed this policy to
change. Unfortunately, as the Times points out, three
successive American administrations have failed to
enforce the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996, which mandates
U.S. sanctions on firms investing more than $20
million in Iran’s energy sector. While Presidents
Clinton, Bush and Obama may have discouraged some
investment in Iran through their rhetoric, the United
States has sent the American and international
business community a contradictory message by failing
to enforce the law. Despite publicly acknowledged investments by
several companies of hundreds of millions of dollars
in Iran’s energy sector, the U.S. Government has
inexplicably failed to make even one determination of
an investment of $20 million during the course of the
past decade. Yet, throughout this entire time, Iran
has pursued a nuclear weapons capability, flouting its
international obligations under the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and presenting the
international community with a growing, and now
urgent, threat. As Iran continues to reject U.S.-European
engagement efforts and to defy U.N. Security Council
resolutions requiring that it halt its illicit uranium
enrichment efforts, the United States must take action
now. We call on Congress to: 1. Investigate why successive administrations
have failed to implement the law by failing to
determine what companies have invested in the Iranian
energy sector; 2. Enact—without delay—the Iran sanctions
legislation currently before Congress, which, inter
alia, contains provisions barring federal contracts to
companies which are investing in Iran’s energy sector
or providing sensitive technology, and their parents
or subsidiaries who are engaged in such activity; 3. Demand that the U.S. Government enforce
existing sanctions law and impose crippling new
sanctions on Iran. In addition to these actions, we hope you will
join with us in urging the administration to impose
tough new multilateral sanctions with
like-minded states without delay while continuing to
pursue the widest possible sanctions through the U.N.
Security Council. Sincerely, David Victor Howard Kohr These are pretty strong words coming from an
organization which has stood in defiance of U.S. law
that requires them to register as agents of a foreign
power. It proves once again that the “A” in AIPAC
really should be removed from their acronym. There is
nothing “American” about them. This is the Israeli
lobby, plain and simple. They represent Israel first
and last. The United States is nothing more than a
host to their endless parasitism. This letter should
be an insult to anyone familiar with the State of
Israel and it’s long history of refusing to comply
with International laws and treaties. It reeks of
hypocrisy. It’s an exercise in contempt. There is no
country on the face of this Earth with less
justification to level these charges or make such
demands. First of all, Iran has no nuclear weapons
capability. As recently as February 11, 2010, Press
Secretary Robert Gibbs responded to a claim by
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Iran had produced
the first stock of 20 percent enriched uranium. Gibbs
said, "The Iranian nuclear program has undergone a
series of problems throughout the year. We do not
believe they have the capability to enrich to the
degree to which they now say they are enriching.”
The enriched uranium that Ahmadinejad was referring to
was not for building a nuclear weapon but rather for
medical isotopes used to treat cancer patients. And
even if they did have the capability of enriching to
20 percent, it still falls far short of the nearly 98%
that is required for building a weapon of mass
destruction. As a signer of the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has a legal right to
enrich uranium in the manner that they are claiming.
On the other hand, Israel has refused to sign the NNPT
and has no right to make demands of anyone pertaining
to nuclear technology. While the author of this letter points out that “the
federal government has awarded $107 billion in
contracts and grants to more than 70 companies that
are doing business in Iran,” it fails to
recognize that 14 of those companies have already
pulled out and that 11 plan no future investment. Of
the 49 remaining, only 3 are suspected of being in
violation of the “Iran Sanctions Act”. Those three
companies are Daelim (South Korea), Dutch Royal Shell
(Netherlands) and Total (France). Of the $174 million
that Daelim received in contract money from the U.S.,
$111 million was used to build family housing towers
for the U.S. Army. Dutch Royal Shell received $11.2
billion in contracts and that investment was
instrumental in supplying a significant amount of
gasoline to the U.S. military. Not one American
company currently doing business and planning future
investment in Iran is suspected of being in violation
of the “Iran Sanctions Act”. The author demands that Congress enact current
legislation that bars companies from investing in
Iran’s energy sector. But this is in direct conflict
with Article IV of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty. Iran is a signer of that treaty, and that
obligates the United States to help them build power
plants and other facilities for non-military
purposes. If anyone should be barred from receiving federal
contracts or aid it is the State of Israel, who has
refused to sign the NNPT and have illegally pursued a
nuclear weapons program of their own. The 1976
Symington Amendment to the Foreign Appropriations Bill
of 1961 forbids the United States from giving foreign
aid to any nation that is developing nuclear
technology outside the NNPT. Despite this,
approximately 1/3 of the total foreign aid budget of
the United States is annually sent to Israel even
though they comprise less than .001 of the world’s
population and has one of the world’s highest per
capita incomes. Former congressman James Traficant
rightly pointed out recently that between the direct
foreign aid grants to Israel, along with all of the
other benefits including trade compacts, economic and
military assistance, “Israel gets approximately
$15 billion a year from the American taxpayers. That
$15 billion is $30,000 for every man, woman and child
in Israel.” In his list of demands, the author urges Congress
to “pursue the widest possible sanctions through
the U.N. Security Council.” This is the height
of hypocrisy. Neither the State of Israel nor its
agents have any standing with the United Nations in
this regard. Since its inception, the State of Israel
has been in violation of more UN resolutions than any
other Nation on Earth. Who else but a raving lunatic would even dare to
write such a letter in light of the insurmountable
evidence that contradicts each and every line of their
text? There is no other explanation; a lunatic wrote
this letter. And if Congress acts in lock step to
their demands, then it should be abundantly clear to
all of us that the lunatics, have indeed,
taken over the asylum. |