Pelosi Invests in Iran

[warpedskydiver 0]

Pelosi Invests in Iran
Dick Morris and Eileen McGann
Saturday, June 30, 2007

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has disclosed that she holds stock valued at up to $15,000 in Alcatel-Lucent (formerly Alcatel SA), a company with extensive investments in Iran and Sudan — nations that sponsor terrorism.


The disclosure of Pelosi's holdings comes at the same time that legislation is making its way through the California legislature barring state pension fund managers from investing in companies, like Alcatel-Lucent, that do business with "terror-friendly" nations.


According to Divestterror.org, a citizens group pushing a South Africa-style disinvestment program to discourage companies from doing business in terror countries, Alcatel-Lucent's investments in terror countries are so extensive that it is included on the organization's "dirty dozen" list of offending companies.


The organization estimates that the company has invested upwards of $300 million in terror sponsoring nations during the past five years.


According to Divestterror.org, Alcatel is aiding Iran's terrorist activities by providing state controlled companies with data transmission and switching network capabilities. "These contracts have reportedly included the provision of hardware, software, technologies, and training to Iranian companies." It is also installing an undersea telecommunications cable in Iran.



Prior to his overthrow, Alcatel carried out major fiber optic products for dictator Saddam Hussein in Iraq, despite U.S. government warnings to the French company that the project could advance Iraqi military capabilities.


Alcatel is currently "involved in similar telecommunications projects ranging from upgrading networks to the installation underwater fiber optic cables" in Sudan and Libya.

Criticizing Alcatel, former House Armed Services Committee Chairman and current GOP presidential contender Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., expressed his worry over Alcatel's activities in a letter to President Bush. In it, he wrote, "I am concerned about potential transfers of technology or sensitive information to other countries with which Alcatel has business dealings, which have included Burma, China, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria."


Florida has passed, and its governor, Charlie Crist, has signed legislation to state pension funds to sell their equities in companies that do business with Iran, Syria, Sudan, or North Korea. Similar legislation has passed in Louisiana and is making its way through state legislatures in New York, New Jersey, Ohio and California. Missouri's state treasurer Sarah Steelman has implemented a disinvestment strategy administratively.


For the Speaker of the House to own stock in such a company is a particular outrage. She should immediately sell her stock and call on all other members of Congress who hold stock in the company to do likewise.


Only if we send a signal to these companies that their associations with Iran and other terrorist states comes at a huge price can we dissuade them from continued involvement. But if there is a massive selloff of their stock, company executives will feel the pinch in their salaries and bonuses.


Iran is in serious economic trouble. Yesterday, it announced that it would have to ration gasoline — this in a nation with the second largest proven oil reserves. But it can't get at its oil resources without massive foreign investment. As a result, government revenues from the energy industry have dropped from $55 billion in 2006 to a projected $44 billion in 2007.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/6/30/104915.shtml?s=lh

[SkyChimp 0]

That's crap!!! She should cash in the stock and invest it some where else just out of principle. Oh wait..... this is Pelosi we are talking about.

Does anyone else find it funny that we made a SPORT out of an EMERGENCY PROCEDURE?!?!

[freethefly 6]

YAWN, YAWN, YAWN... Why not scream about the huge amount of dealings that Halliburton does in Iran? I guess Bush and Thugs have no problem with Dicky's Boys doing biz with the "Axis of Evil" as long as the profits are good.

"...And once you're gone, you can't come back
When you're out of the blue and into the black."
Neil Young

[SpeedRacer 1]

Speed Racer
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[rushmc 23]

While I think it is discusting, she most likely has the funds somewhere out of her contol since she holds public office. Just like Cheany. I will wait and see how this one plays out.

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[warpedskydiver 0]

I make no comment, merely post a news story, and yet some people get upset.

[freethefly 6]

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While I think it is discusting, she most likely has the funds somewhere out of her contol since she holds public office. Just like Cheany. I will wait and see how this one plays out.

I read an article awhile back on how U.S. corporations still do biz in countries that under sanctions and are able to do so by going through a third party and having no U.S. citizens on the third party payroll. All transactions are done off of U.S. shores and any U.S. territories to skirt the laws that require U.S. companies to cease doing biz with countries labeled as terrorist friendly.
I do fully agree that any politician holding stock in any corporation doing biz in these countries should sell. If for anything, for princible. But, it would be a hypocracy for any citizen who may have stock in these companies to scream of politicians having the same. I think it would do a fair amount of damage economicly for the multitudes to sell their holdings in companies that are doing biz in labeled countries.
No real answer to this problem.

"...And once you're gone, you can't come back
When you're out of the blue and into the black."
Neil Young

[rushmc 23]

Quote

I make no comment, merely post a news story, and yet some people get upset.

Interesting huh?

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[Gawain 0]

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YAWN, YAWN, YAWN... Why not scream about the huge amount of dealings that Halliburton does in Iran? I guess Bush and Thugs have no problem with Dicky's Boys doing biz with the "Axis of Evil" as long as the profits are good.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6982444/site/newsweek/

Yeah, that massive sub-contract worth about $30M over several years. Yep, just fleecing the Persians...

Now, to add perspective, I don't think Speaker Pelosi's investments with Alcatel-Lucent are that big of a deal. It's possible, maybe even likely, that she invested in Lucent or the old "Bell Labs" prior to the Alcatel merger, and like any "smallish" investment (she's worth $100M), she put it in and left it there.

It's a fine line, and distinctions need to be made. Just because the US severed ties (rightly so) with Iran nearly 30 years ago doesn't mean the rest of the world needed to. Alcatel, and the State owned French agencies before that have long ties with Iran.

Should Speaker Pelosi divest? I don't know. She has a right to invest in any publicly traded company she wants to. She owns roughly 1000 shares in a company that's been losing money for years. Politics aside, no, let her keep the losing stock.

Inserting politics, I'm still not convinced that she needs to divest. It's part of the freedom that we as Americans enjoy: personal/private ownership.

The connection of the article being drawn, "because terrorists use the networks ALU build for Iran"...I don't know. It's like blaming the maker of the pencil for one's spelling errors. The ideology needs to be defeated, not the conduit of information.

So I try and I scream and I beg and I sigh
Just to prove I'm alive, and it's alright
'Cause tonight there's a way I'll make light of my treacherous life
Make light!

[NCclimber 0]

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I do fully agree that any politician holding stock in any corporation doing biz in these countries should sell. If for anything, for princible.

A few posts back you wrote -"YAWN, YAWN, YAWN"

Now you're saying this is completely unacceptable!!!

I don't get it.

As another poster addressed - this is probably in a blind trust. Rep. Pelosi has zero input on specific investment decisions.

[freethefly 6]

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Quote

I do fully agree that any politician holding stock in any corporation doing biz in these countries should sell. If for anything, for princible.

A few posts back you wrote -"YAWN, YAWN, YAWN"

Now you're saying this is completely unacceptable!!!

I don't get it.

As another poster addressed - this is probably in a blind trust. Rep. Pelosi has zero input on specific investment decisions.

After a little more thought on it and read further into who owns what it is hypocritical of any politician or activist to be making money from companies that do business with the very governments they rail against. I'm critical of alcohol and would I not be a hypocrit to own stock in Anheuser Busch?
Yup, like someone said, being who she is, she most likely has know idea what she owns. So with that, she can't really be called a hypocrit. And, I would imagine most who own stocks and mutal funds really have know idea where their dollars are coming from in such a globalized market.

"...And once you're gone, you can't come back
When you're out of the blue and into the black."
Neil Young

[Remster 30]

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has disclosed that she holds stock valued at up to $15,000 in Alcatel-Lucent (formerly Alcatel SA),

You realize that Lucent is the old Bell Labs?

Remster

[warpedskydiver 0]

why are you laughing?

I really don't give a shit I just wanted to see people get in a hissy fit over a stupid news story.

[Casurf1978 0]

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That's crap!!! She should cash in the stock and invest it some where else just out of principle. Oh wait..... this is Pelosi we are talking about.

You're also talking about Morgan Stanhley $226M, Fidelity $1.117B, Goldman Sachs $78M. ALL major investment banks in the USA, not a mere 15K. So should they all cash out and invest in something else. FYI Alcatel is probably in a MSCI index, so should they take it out. Also Alcatel is traded on the NYSE. Should the NYSE take it off the board. Before you pounce on someone you guys should do little more research. The world of finance is not simple black and white, and a bit more complicated than someone owning a mere $15k shares in a multi-national company.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=ALU

[wmw999 2,537]

I have some Fidelity funds. That probably means I have some Alcatel stock in there somewhere. Now does that make me a hypocrite, a lying harpy, an enemy sympathizer, or just an investor who wants the best funds for her situation? I'm not about to go looking at all of the stocks my funds have.

I'm with Gawain. 1000 shares of a losing stock is the sign of poor stewardship of her portfolio (or balancing on a scale I'm not interested in). But it's hardly evidence of sympathizing with (and certainly not profiting from ) countries that we agin'.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[Casurf1978 0]

Quote

I have some Fidelity funds. That probably means I have some Alcatel stock in there somewhere. Now does that make me a hypocrite, a lying harpy, an enemy sympathizer, or just an investor who wants the best funds for her situation? I'm not about to go looking at all of the stocks my funds have

No not at all. I didn't mean it that way. I have a degree in finance, worked in the field for over six years and helped manage an index. It just pissed me off when people w/o any finance knowledge pounce on any investor and judge them. The individual investor is not accountable in my view. If Alcatel is really supporting Iran and terrorist activities then why havent the major players done something about it. IMO the original author has zero knowledge in finance. All he or she needed to do was Google the major holders of Alcatel stock and they would see the truth.