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Take a look at your stock portfolio. Are you supporting, at least indirectly, terrorist activities like the failed car-bomb attacks in London and Glasgow this summer?
The idea may not be so far-fetched.
The U.S. State Department says terrorist groups such as al-Qaida, Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as insurgent groups fighting U.S. troops in Iraq, get financial assistance and other kinds of support from governments and private groups in Iran, Syria and Sudan. This support is so crucial for these groups that the U.S. government discourages companies, especially in key wealth-generating industries like energy and strategic sectors like defense, from doing business in these countries.
Yet, surprisingly, dozens of U.S. companies -- and many foreign companies that are household names here -- do business in these countries every day. By contributing to economic growth and the development of the infrastructure and the financial sectors in Iran, Syria and Sudan, these companies indirectly play at least a minor supporting role in terrorist attacks, critics argue, as well as the attacks by insurgents on U.S. troops in Iraq.
A look through corporate filings shows the following U.S. companies regularly do business in Iran, Syria or Sudan, all countries the State Department calls "state sponsors of terrorism": ConocoPhillips (COP, news, msgs), MasterCard (MA, news, msgs), Western Union (WU, news, msgs), energy equipment and services companies Schlumberger (SLB, news, msgs) and Natco Group (NTG, news, msgs), and Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG, news, msgs).
Foreign companies listed on U.S. exchanges doing business in these countries include: BP PLC (BP, news, msgs), Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, news, msgs), Total (TOT, news, msgs), Eni (E, news, msgs), Petro-Canada (PCZ, news, msgs), Siemens (SI, news, msgs), Nokia (NOK, news, msgs) and Deutsche Bank (DB, news, msgs).
"To those companies I would say, 'Shame on you,'" says Debra Burlingame, whose brother, Charles Burlingame, was the pilot of hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 on Sept. 11, 2001, when it crashed into the Pentagon. "They don't want to give up their turf. It is flat-out corporate greed. I think it is pretty outrageous."
Burlingame is co-founder of 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America.
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Hard-wiring Iran
Burlingame and other critics find Siemens' work in Iran particularly galling. The German electronics and electrical engineering giant trades in the United States as an American Depositary Receipt (ADR). It gets about 19% of its revenue from business in the U.S., including work for the Defense, State and Homeland Security departments and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.But Siemens also provides know-how and equipment to support power plant construction, power generation and distribution, rail transport and telecommunications in Iran. Rather than back away from Iran because of that country's support for terrorist groups, Siemens boasts on its Web site that the goal of its subdivision there is "to intensify business relations with Iran and to further strengthen the company's position in the country."
Siemens' work in telecommunications is especially troubling for critics of companies that do business in countries with links to terrorist groups. "That's inherently dual use," says Christopher Holton, director of the Center for Security Policy's Divest Terror Initiative. Holton's group describes itself as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes "peace through strength."
By this he means that the telecom system being refined by Siemens may one day be used by Iran's military in a conflict with the United States or its allies. "Siemens is helping Iran with their military command and communications. I have a real problem with that," says Holton. "We may have to fight those people, and Siemens is on the wrong side in that war. That's just outrageous to me. It makes me sick to my stomach."
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Says Burlingame, "It is really shocking to me to think that you could have insurgents calling in communications on Siemens products to blow up our troops in Iraq with remote-control IEDs."
Siemens declined to comment, but its corporate filings say the company generated only 1% of its sales in the last fiscal year from Iran, Sudan, Syria, Cuba and North Korea, countries the State Department considers state sponsors of terrorism. "Any amount is too much," says Holton. "You don't trade with the enemy. The fact is, Iran is the foremost sponsor of terrorism. Our State Department has been saying that for years."
Siemens says in filings that it has decided not to accept new orders in Sudan "in light of current humanitarian conditions."
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