Russia Makes Olympic Athletes with Proven Doping Program

Wada Report is here.  

WADA Calls For Russian Ban From Rio Olympics After Report Confirms ‘Unprecedented’ Doping Scheme

***   

Russia ‘Directed’ Athlete Doping For Years

A report says that Russia’s government and secret service directed systematic cheating in sports since 2011.

SkyNews: Russia has systematically covered up doping in “all sporting disciplines” since 2011, an official report has found.

The sports ministry and secret service “directed and oversaw” the manipulation of urine samples, the World Anti-Doping Agency said.

It resulted in at least 312 falsified results up until at least last year’s world swimming championships, WADA said.

The state-sponsored cheating happened after an “abysmal” medal count at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010, according to the report.

The cheating involved clean urine being frozen and switched for doped urine, often passed through secret holes in laboratories.

As well as the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, Russia’s cheating also included the 2013 track world championships in Moscow.

The doping continued in the 2015 swimming world championships in Kazan, chief investigator Richard McLaren said.

Russia’s track and field athletes are already banned from the Olympic Games in Rio, beginning this summer.

The independent findings will increase pressure for all Russians – not just those in track and field events – to be banned from the games.

The report was commissioned following claims made by a Russian whistleblower, former director of anti-doping Dr Grigory Rodchenkov.

He claimed that dozens of athletes, including at least 15 medalists in Sochi, were part of an extensive state-run doping programme.

 

Reuters:

An independent commission report, led by Canadian law professor and sports lawyer Richard McLaren, published on Monday revealed evidence of widespread state-sponsored doping by Russian athletes at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

McLaren, who was a member of WADA’s independent commission which last year exposed widespread doping and corruption in Russian athletics, said the Russian Ministry of Sport oversaw the manipulation of athletes’ analytical results and sample swapping.

Here are some reactions from the world of sport:

TRAVIS TYGART (CEO of USADA)

“The McLaren Report has concluded, beyond a reasonable doubt, a mind-blowing level of corruption within both Russian sport and government that goes right to the field of play… and most importantly, our hearts go out to athletes from all over the world who were robbed of their Olympic dreams.

“Looking forward, we must come together as an international community — comprised of those who truly believe in the spirit of Olympism — to ensure this unprecedented level of criminality never again threatens the sports we cherish.”

IOC PRESIDENT THOMAS BACH

“The findings of the report show a shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sport and on the Olympic Games. Therefore, the IOC will not hesitate to take the toughest sanctions available against any individual or organization implicated.”

PHILIP CRAVEN, PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL PARALYMPIC COMMITTEE (IPC)

“We are truly shocked, appalled and deeply saddened at the extent of the state sponsored doping program implemented in Russia ahead of Sochi 2014. The findings of the McLaren report mark a very dark day for sport.

“Once we have the further details we have requested from both parties, the IPC Governing Board will convene for a telephone conference. The Board will discuss the findings of the report and decide what relevant action needs to be taken to protect clean athletes competing in Paralympic sport.

“This may include provisional measures and sanctions with regards to the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.”

SCOTT BLACKMAN, UNITED STATES OLYMPIC COMMITTEE CEO

“The McClaren Report confirms what we have stated previously: the current anti-doping system is broken and urgently requires the attention of everyone interested in protecting clean athletes.

“We look forward to working with the IOC, WADA and the entire Olympic family to address the flaws in the current system so that a uniform approach to anti-doping can be implemented and enforced around the world.

“In the meantime, we are focused on preparing Team USA to compete at the upcoming Rio Games and will rely on the IOC, WADA and the international federations to impose sanctions that are appropriate in relation to the magnitude of these offenses, and that give clean athletes some measure of comfort that they will be competing on a level playing field in Rio.”

NICOLE SAPSTEAD, CEO OF UK ANTI-DOPING

“Now is the time for the entire sporting community to come together to find a way forward and ensure that the right processes, legislation and safeguards are in place to protect the rights of all athletes to clean, fair and honest competition.”

Prediction for the Brazil Olympics, Terror?

Published by this website on June 22, 2016: Brazil/Olympics Under Islamic State Threat

Pro-ISIS “Ansar al-Khilafah Brazil”: If French police couldn’t stop France attacks, then their training Brazil’s police will serve no use.

Pro ISIS “Granddaughters of ‘Aisha” later published its infographic on France attacks in Dutch, French, Portuguese
Reacting to Baton Rouge shootings, a jihadi Telegram channel urged supporters invite “black community” to Islam and help it fight U.S. govt

A Telegram channel called “Ansar al-Khilafah ” posted a pledge of allegiance to leader Baghdadi

Pro “Granddaughters of ‘Aisha” later published its infographic on attacks in Dutch, French, Portuguese

Four terror suspects ‘tried to travel to Brazil for Olympics’

Telegraph: Four suspects with known links to terrorism attempted to travel to Brazil for the Rio 2016 Olympics, it has emerged.

The four, whose identities have not been revealed, applied for accreditation for the Games and were among the 11,000 to be denied on security grounds, according to Brazilian security services.

They featured on a list of 40 who are subject to international alerts and are being monitored by intelligence agencies.

Brazilian authorities have formed an Integrated Anti-Terrorism Centre (Ciant) for the Olympics and are working with security agencies from the US, UK, France, Spain, Belgium, Paraguay and Argentina.

“We did a scan on all national databases and also, in the spirit of international cooperation, a trace of information with these global partners,” Andrei Augusto Passos Rodrigues, national security coordinator for Rio 2016, told magazine show Fantastico on Sunday night.

“Approximately 460,000 inspections were done and of these, around 11,000 were not recommended for accreditation.”

There were also more than 60 Brazilians with active warrants who applied for accreditation for the Olympics, Mr Rodrigues added.

Accreditation for the Games is required for all media, VIPs, officials, athletes and other staff who require access to restricted areas and also acts as a visa for entry to Brazil. Authorities did not say in what capacity the four suspects had applied nor from which country.

Officers at the Ciant centre, which is headquartered in the capital, Brasília, are monitoring Rio 24 hours a day.

Among the areas covered are hotels where Olympic officials and VIPs will stay, Games venues and training sites.

On Friday, Brazilian authorities deported a French-Algerian particle physicist who had been convicted of terror-related crimes and was working as a visiting professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).

Security forces also carried out an anti-terror training exercise on Saturday at one of the stations near the Deodoro Olympic venue cluster.

Cristiano Sampaio, general coordinator for public security at the Games, said there was no identified threat of a terror attack against Brazil but said the level of alert had been raised since the Bastille Day attack in Nice.

“Today, in the absence of a concrete threat to Brazil, we are on yellow alert, which is characterised by increased attention and the level of response in relation to everyday life,” he said.

“This can develop into an orange or red alert according to any specific threat that is identified in relation to Brazil.”

Brazil to Boost Rio Olympics Security After Nice Attack

Brazil had already planned to deploy 85,000 police and soldiers to provide security for the Rio Olympics to be held from August 5 to 21.

Brasilia: Brazil said Friday it will bolster security for next month’s Olympics in Rio following the truck attack in the French city of Nice.

Brazil’s interim president Michel Temer held an emergency meeting with his intelligence chief and members of his cabinet late Friday to weigh the next steps after the Nice attack, which killed at least 84 people.

As he left the meeting, intelligence chief Sergio Etchegoyen said new security measures would include extra checkpoints, barricades and traffic restrictions.

Brazil had already planned to deploy 85,000 police and soldiers to provide security for the Olympics — running August 5-21 — double the number used in the 2012 London Games.

Heightened fears, heightened security

Etchegoyen said fears over security at the Rio Games had “gone up a notch” after the attack in Nice, where a Tunisian-born man drove a 19-tonne white truck into a huge crowd gathered to watch the annual Bastille Day fireworks display on Thursday, leaving a gruesome trail of bodies in his wake.

“We’re trading a little comfort for a lot more security,” he told a press conference at the presidential offices.

Brazilian intelligence officials met with French counterparts for a briefing on the Nice attack, he said.

Defense Minister Raul Jungmann expressed “worries” over the Nice attack.

“This worry will translate to more checkpoints, security, staff and procedures being put in place,” he told reporters at an air force base near the Rio international airport.

Jungmann said Brazil is corresponding with all 106 countries sending representatives to the event’s international intelligence center.

“As of now, none of these countries have informed us of a potential or concrete threat of a terrorist attack in Brazil,” Jungmann said.

Brazil is already on alert after the French military intelligence chief said France had been informed of a planned terror attack on its team at the Rio Olympics.

In June, Brazil’s intelligence service said it had detected Portuguese-language messages linked to the Islamic State group on an online forum.

An even more explicit warning came after bloody attacks in Paris in November, when a French jihadist tweeted that Brazil was the “next target.”

Jungmann said officials will supervise the Olympic delegations based on the security threat they face, with countries including the United States and France labeled as high-risk.

“The dozen or so countries in that group will have special accompaniment,” Jungmann said.

Simulation exercises

Security services staged simulation exercises in Rio to test counterterrorism response plans.

Another exercise on “confronting external threats” is planned for Saturday at the railway station in Deodoro, one of four Olympic zones in Rio along with Maracana, Copacabana and Barra da Tijuca.

Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes and Olympic organizing committee president Carlos Nuzman met with federal and regional government officials to assess plans, notably discussing a potential increase in street blockades.

Cosmo Ausar Setepenra, Baton Rouge Shooter

Video located by DailyCaller

Baton Rouge attack on police comes only a day after the Whitehouse dismissed our petition to name BLM a terror organization.

Baton Rouge Shooter Gavin Eugene Long Was Nation Of Islam Member, Railed Against ‘Crackers’ On YouTube Channel [VIDEO]

ChuckRoss/DC: A Youtube account operated by Gavin Eugene Long and discovered by The Daily Caller reveals key insight into what might have motivated the 29-year-old black man who killed three Baton Rouge police officers Sunday morning.

Videos on Long’s account show that he was a former Nation of Islam member. He also railed against “crackers” and made references to Alton Sterling, the black man killed by police in Baton Rouge on July 5.

Other information about Long shows that the Kansas City native, who CBS reported was honorably discharged from the Marines in 2010, went by the name Cosmo Ausar Setepenra.

In one video filmed from Houston and posted to Long’s Youtube account on July 12, the suspected guman discusses being in the Marines and reaching the rank of E-5.

Long, who was reportedly carrying a rifle and wearing all-black attire when he confronted police, posted several videos within recent weeks discussing various police-involved shootings.

“If I would have been there with Alton — clap,” Long says in a video posted on July 14.

In the video, Long met with several men he seemed to not have known prior to their encounter. He promotes a book he wrote and discusses black liberation ideology.

“I wrote it for my dark-skinned brothers,” Long said of his book.

“If you look at all the rebels like Black Panthers, Huey P. Newton, Malcolm X…Elijah Muhammad, they was light-skinned. But we know how hard y’all got it.”

Phone numbers on buildings in the video show that it was filmed in Baton Rouge.

“I just got here I’m not really into the protesting. I do education because that’s our real freedom,” he is heard telling two men in the video.

He called protesting “emotional” and “for the women.”

In the video Long is heard lamented “working for the white people.”He encouraged a man he had just met to shop at black-owned businesses. He brought up a hypothetical scenario in which a family member who wanted to buy carpet was forced to buy from non-black business owners.

“Who’s she going to fuck with? The cracker, the Arab, the Chinese,” Long says in the video.

“These Arabs, these Indians, they don’t give two fucks about us.”

Law enforcement officials said Sunday that the shooting does not appear to have been race-related. At least one of the officers killed in the attack was black.

Long also appears to have been in Dallas in the days after Micah X. Johnson killed five police officers during protests there earlier this month.

“If I’m peaceful protesting…I know they would try to arrest me, and I would die right there because you’re not going to kidnap me. I know my rights, but I stand on my rights. That’s what separates me, that’s why they’re afraid of me,” he says in the video.

In other videos Long analyzes the video of Sandra Bland being arrested by a Texas highway patrolman last year. Bland died in a Waller County jail cell after hanging herself.

Another video links to a man named Myron May discussing a conspiracy theory called gang-stalking.

Internet postings show that he believed he was a victim of gang-stalking.

People who believe they are victims of gang-stalking — they call themselves “targeted individuals” — believe that groups of government agents are tracking them at all times and attempting to manipulate their actions.

In Nov. 2014 May shot three people at the Florida State University library before being fatally shot by police. It was later revealed that May, who was black, believed that he was being stalked by government agents.

In one Internet posting discussing gang-stalking, Long offered what he said were solutions for people who believed they were victims of gangstalking.

He wrote:

Lets all start:
1. Wearing Body Camera’s

2. Before you move into neighborhood, put every house on notice to what gang stalking is with link’s to websites & videos & program names. And Let them know your situation, standing & your philosophy on life

3. Start telling the companies’s, worker’s, & managers & owners that we are going to expose your involvement and rate your poor performances & games on the internet on sites like Yelp, Google Map’s & the Yellow Pages etc. as horrible service & accessories to Gang Stalking. (Not only will this spread the word to others who view the businesses, but will inform fellow T.I.s as well)

Long, who operated a website called “Convos with Cosmo,” also appears to have tweeted hours before the attack unfolded.

In one video posted in recent weeks, Long left a cryptic message that may have foretold Sunday’s attack.

“I thought my own thoughts. I made my own decisions. I’m the one who’s got to listen the judgement. That’s it. And my heart is pure,” he said, adding that he wasn’t affiliated with any groups. More here from DailyCaller

In the video, Cosmo says he wrote a book.

About the Author   More information here.

Cosmo is a nutritionist, life coach, dietitian, personal trainer, author and spiritual advisor. At the age of sixteen, after self-educating himself about fitness, nutrition, and diet, Cosmo lost over eighty pounds in six months. He then joined the United States Marine Corps and earned the rank of Sergeant (E-5) in less than three years as one of the Corps most physically fit Marines. During his five years as a Marine, Cosmo spent two years in Japan and did one tour in Iraq. While stationed in San Diego, California, Cosmo became a highly esteemed and sought after nutritionist and personal trainer. After completing an Associate’s degree in General Studies at Central Texas College, Cosmo then attended Clark Atlanta University to further his education. After a year and a half at Clark Atlanta as a dean’s list student, he had a spiritual revelation that resulted in him dropping out of college, selling his two cars, giving away all of his material possessions, packing two suitcases and journeying to Africa—his ancestral homeland. While in Africa, Cosmo’s spiritual journey took him across Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Egypt, Ghana and Burkina Faso. During that time, he frequented the highly treasured and revered mountainous regions of Africa and was taught by Africa’s native spiritual practitioners and elder holistic healers. Cosmo has been an avid student of nutrition, health, fitness, personal transformation and spiritual mastery since the age of sixteen. He conducts sports nutrition workshops locally, nationally, and internationally. He has traveled nationally to over thirty States in the U.S., and internationally to The Bahamas, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Maldives (Island country near India), Iraq, and Africa to name a few. In addition to over twelve years of health, fitness, and nutrition experience, Cosmo also has extensive sports nutrition, life-coach, and spiritual counseling experience with fitness enthusiasts, professional athletes and spiritual seekers. In one-on-one sessions, he coaches his clients on ways to create a daily food plan that is successful and can be maintained over the long-term. He also helps them reach their optimal weight, diet, spiritual and personal growth goals.

 

 

 

Make Obama Zip the Body Bags of the Dead Officers

Update: CBS reports the dead shooter in Baton Rouge is from Kansas City, former Marine, black male and well…today is/was his birthday.

Sadly, we wake on Sunday morning to the news on Baton Rouge of an ambush, 3 dead police officers (video) and 4 in the hospital. Not to be missed, another officer was ambushed in his squad car in Minneapolis and further there was a hostage situation at Burger King in Baltimore.

This is Barack Obama’s war on law enforcement across the country. Here we are working diligently trying to ‘Defend our Defenders’ and not being able to claim victory to save law enforcement.

 

#BlackLivesMatter activist: We need a military coup if Trump wins POTUS

 

Image via LinkdinPhoto from LinkedIn

“If Donald Trump becomes President, you are fooling yourself if you think we’re far from having a coup our own selves,” King tweeted. “I’m dead serious.”

 

Screen Shot 2016-07-16 at 8.05.08 PMMore here from RedAlertPolitics

End of Watch, Officer Down Memorial Page

Ladies and gentlemen, the terror attack on law enforcement in Baton Rouge was pre-meditated. Why?

NBC News: Deceased suspect was wearing black fatigues, law enforcement still trying to determine if he was wearing body armor. Other calls into 911 from a gas station reported shooting and the man was dressed as a ninja.

 

So, when it comes to Black Lives Matter and the New Black Panthers, the threat does not end there, nor does it end in Baton Rouge.

 

So, when the FBI sends out bulletins to law enforcement across the country to beware….what do we have? ANARCHY in the streets.

And how is the White House responding?
How about a timeline?

Some had urged the governor to tighten gun rules at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland after three police officers were killed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Five police officers were killed a week earlier in Dallas, Texas.

The law in Ohio is that people can openly carry a gun if they have a permit.

Thousands of police officers will be providing security for the Republican National Convention this week.

 Governor's Office Statement

BBC Breaking News

@BBCBreaking

President Obama calls the shooting of police officers in Baton Rouge the “work of cowards”

on : “I want to be clear: there is no justification for violence against law enforcement. None”.

Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden

Mediaite: In addition to the three officers killed, several others were wounded. Reuters news agency reports that one is in a critical condition while another is in a fair condition at Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge. A third officer is being treated at Baton Rouge General Hospital. His injuries are not said to be life-threatening. Go here for more from the BBC.  

The head of a Cleveland police union reacted to the shooting of multiple officers in Baton Rouge by going off on President Obama and a media culture that helps boost anti-cop narratives.

Detective Steve Loomis said that the shootings of police officers, from Dallas to now, started with what he deemed as a completely false narrative concerning the death of Alton Sterling.

He said that Obama has “validated the false narrative and the nonsense that Black Lives Matter and the media are pressing out there,” and he said the president has “blood on his hands” that he won’t be able to wash off.

Deadliest attacks on police in the last 100 years

USAToday: Amid a month of racial conflict and gun violence, at least three police officers were killed in Baton Rouge Sunday, adding to the tally of law enforcement officials slain in the line of duty in 2016.

Before Sunday’s shooting, 60 line-of-duty deaths had occurred in the USA this year, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. 28 of the fatalities were firearm related, a 56% increase from firearm-related fatalities at this point in 2015.

Just ten days before Baton Rouge, five Dallas police officers were killed in what was the greatest loss of life for law enforcers since 9/11.

Although rare, these attacks are not the first time police officers have been targeted. Here is a look at some of the deadliest attacks on  law enforcement officers in the last 100 years:

July 17, 2016

At least three police officers were killed and two more injured in Baton Rouge on Sunday. The shootings came just weeks after the killing of Alton Sterling, 37, a black man from Baton Rouge whose death was shared with the nation after multiple videos captured two police officers holding Sterling down as they shot him.

July 7, 2016

A sniper opened fire on Dallas police during what had been a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest in the wake of the shootings of Sterling and Philando Castile by police. Five officers were killed, seven more injured and two civilians wounded.

November 29, 2009

Four police officers in Lakewood, Wash., were killed sitting in a coffee shop after a gunman ambushed them. The suspect, who was killed by police a few days after the shooting, had been found guilty of multiple felonies years before the massacre and was released from prison after his sentence was reduced.

March 21, 2009

In two separate incidents, a gunman killed four Oakland police officers in the same day. After killing two motorcycle officers, the gunman opened fire and killed two SWAT officers who were responding to an anonymous tip about the shooter’s location just blocks from the original incident. One other officer was injured, but killed the gunman.

September 11, 2001

Seventy-two officers were killed responding to the worst terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, marking the deadliest day for law enforcement in U.S. history. Officers from various law enforcement agencies died in New York City at the scene of the World Trade Center, while one officer died in the crash of United Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. Years after the attacks, countless first responders have died from illness related to toxins they were exposed to at the scene.

April 19, 1995

Eight federal law enforcement officers were among 168 people killed in a terrorist attack when a truck bomb was detonated outside a federal building in Oklahoma City.

February 28, 1993

Four officers from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were killed at the Branch Davidson compound in Waco, Texas, after trying to execute a search warrant. The compound was occupied by a cult that eventually committed a murder-mass suicide, leaving 80 dead.

December 31, 1972 to January 7, 1973

A sniper who was a member of the Black Panthers shot and killed five officers over the course of eight days. The shootings took place at different locations, the final one a hotel where the gunman died in a shootout on the roof of a hotel with police using a Marine helicopter.

April 6, 1970

After a gun battle with two heavily armed suspects, four California Highway Patrol officers were left dead near a service station. Two of the officers were killed in the initial gun fight while two others providing backup were killed shortly after.

October 30, 1950

In Puerto Rico, eight officers were killed in a political revolt led by the Nationalist Party, which sought independence from the U.S. The group called for attacks on all police stations and military bases on the island, widespread arrests the day before reduced the number of insurgents involved in the attack.

January 2, 1932

Attempting to arrest two people wanted for murder, six Missouri police officers were killed in a shootout at the suspects’ family farm. The officers were fired upon initially, and some attempted to enter the house but were killed in the shootout.

November 24, 1917

After a bomb went off in a Milwaukee police station, nine officers were killed in what is still the second deadliest day for law enforcement officials in the U.S. The bomb came in a suspicious package that had been discovered in a church nearby. A boy brought the package to the police, and as officers inspected it, the explosion occurred.

 

Clintons, Panama Papers and this Iranian/Iran Contra

Farhad Azima, Wins Ellis Island Medal of Honor

Farhad Azima, chairman of Aviation Leasing Group, was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor on May 9, 1998. Born in Iran, Azima is of Azerbaijani descent and currently lives in the United States.

Each year, the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations (NECO) gives Ellis Island awards to ethnic Americans from all backgrounds who have made valuable professional and patriotic contributions.

Since 1981, Mr. Azima has served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Aviation Leasing Group of Companies (ALG). ALG is directly involved in airline operations and technical support of the aviation industry. The Group currently owns, operates, and/or manages over 50 aircraft, many of which are operated by ALG’s associated company Buffalo Airways.

fazimaFarhad Azima is Chairman of Buffalo Airways which, in addition to its airline operations, conducts a sophisticated training program which includes training for the FAA, a number of other airlines, and training for the U.S. Navy E6 program, a program which is also under consideration by the U.S. Air Force.

The Company specializes in creating turnkey airlines and provides services to clients in South America, Africa, St. Lucia, a number of USSR Republics, the U.S. and Canada. Services include aircraft leasing, procurement, financing, management, training, operations and technical support, and automation. More here.

*****

Related reading: The Clinton Global Initiative 2007 List of Members

Meet The Iranian-Born, Major Clinton Donor Caught Up In The Panama Papers Scandal

DailyCaller: The Panama Papers investigation led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) shows a prominent Clinton donor worked with the law firm Mossack Fonseca.

Farhad Azima, who ended up in the spotlight during the Iran-Contra affair during former President Ronald Reagan’s years in office, reinvented himself after the scandal as a politically pragmatic bipartisan donor. Azima went to the White House during Bill Clinton’s presidency 10 times, “between October 1995 and December 1996, including private afternoon coffees with the president,” according to ICIJ.

Then, when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was mounting her Senate campaign, Azima “in December 1999, hosted her and 40 guests for a private dinner that raised $2,500 a head.”

Azima’s generosity towards the former president and former secretary of state continued beyond the White House years, and The New York Times reported that Azima “pledged $1 million to the [William J. Clinton Presidential] library.”

The Iranian-born Azima made his living as an aviation executive. It is his work that gave him access to a Boeing 707 cargo jet, which he allegedly lent to the CIA to send weapons to Nicaraguan Contras — though Azima denies this.

The Clinton donor told ICIJ, “I’ve had nothing to do with Iran-Contra.”

“[I was] investigated by every known agency in the U.S. and they decided there was absolutely nothing there,” Azima told ICIJ. In a final remark, he said the whole investigation into his Iran-Contra involvement, “was a wild goose chase. The law enforcement and regulators fell for it.”

The Iran-Contra affair did not stop Azima from making quite the fortune, which in part has gone to the Clinton Foundation. According to a list of donors released by former President Clinton himself in December 2008, Azima gave a donation “from $50,001 and $100,000.”

Apparently the controversial donor’s money is so irresistible that even in 1997, while still dealing with the damage to his reputation from Iran-Contra, Azima gave $143,000 to the Democratic National Committee (DNC), which the DNC at first turned down but then ultimately accepted, according to The New York Times.

Related reading: The World Affairs Council of America, Oman and Iran and Beyond

FEC records show that Azima gave Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign $2,300 in November 2007. Once President Barack Obama became the Democratic nominee, Azima gave Obama’s Victory Fund a total of $30,800 in October 2008.

Azima also has ties to known Iran sanction evader Iranian national Houshang Hosseinpour, ICIJ reports. Back in 2011, the Clinton donor was involved in a joint venture with Hosseinpour to buy a hotel in Georgia, according to ICIJ.

At the time of Azima and Hosseinpour’s collaboration, former Secretary Clinton was still at the Department of State attempting to enforce sanctions against Iran. The actions of Hosseinpour were publicly admonished by the Department of Treasury in 2014 when they referred to him by name as trying to get around sanctions.

*****

Yes of course there is more.

Following the release of the Panama Papers, we learned that a company named FlyGeorgia was being used as a conduit to circumvent economic sanctions against Iran. An Iranian national named Hosshang (or Houshang) Hosseinpour has been targeted by the U.S. Treasury Department as part of a broader effort to enforce the sanctions. Hosseinpour and two others set up a number of front companies, some based in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, to facilitate their plan. To quote from the Irish Times article cited above:

The files show that [Farhad] Azima and Hosseinpour appeared on corporate documents of a company that planned to buy a hotel in the nation of Georgia in 2011. That was the same year treasury officials asserted that Hosseinpour, who co-founded the private airline FlyGeorgia, and two others first began to send millions of dollars into Iran, which led to sanctions being taken against him three years later.

Farhad Azima is one of the infamous middlemen involved in the Iran-Contra scandal, the Savings and Loan scandal, and other weapons trafficking incidents. Unnamed in any of the Panama Papers reporting on FlyGeorgia is George Cannady. But he is right there lurking in the shadows of Azima and Hosseinpour.

An entry in the Business Registry of Georgia shows that Cannady was a partner in Georgia Transport Management with Levan Tskhadadze. Tskhadadze had formerly been a manager at manager at Hosseinpour’s front company FlyGeorgia. Other people who list FlyGeorgia as an employer are Ursula Freseman, Lalit Dang, and Iranian former intelligence officer General Ali Asgari Reza. Freseman and Dang also list Heavylift International Airlines as a former employer. Heavylift is one of Farhad Azima’s many companies with which notorious weapons trafficker Viktor Bout was at one time affiliated. More here from Fareport