Lifting Sanctions on Iran and Bypassing Iran Front Operations

Not only is the White House well aware of the front operations and hidden nefarious methods of the regime in Tehran, but aggressive sanctions and financial measures were taken by the U.S. Treasury to expose them with cooperation and approval by several intelligence agencies and Congress.

Now lifted…

So for the sake of the JPOA talks and signed agreements, several previous actions by the Obama administration have now been both overlooked and waived. This is key to understand the psychology of Barack Obama’s policy towards the Middle East and his presidential legacy, such that future aggressions and terror around the globe are assured.

 

Note the date as posted on the U.S. Treasury Department website.

Treasury Targets Assets of Iranian Leadership
6/4/2013

Action Identifies Massive Network of Front Companies Hiding Assets on Behalf of the Government of Iran’s Leadership
WASHINGTON –The U.S. Department of the Treasury is taking action today to expose a major network of front companies controlled by Iran’s leadership.  The Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order (EIKO), through two main subsidiaries, oversees a labyrinth of 37 ostensibly private businesses, many of which are front companies.  The purpose of this network is to generate and control massive, off-the-books investments, shielded from the view of the Iranian people and international regulators.  EIKO and its subsidiaries – one that manages and controls EIKO’s international front companies, and another that manages billions of dollars in investments – work on behalf of the Iranian Government and operate in various sectors of the Iranian economy and around the world, generating billions of dollars in profits for the Iranian regime each year.  EIKO and the 37 companies identified today are subject to sanctions pursuant to Executive Order 13599, which blocks the property of the Government of Iran.
“Even as economic conditions in Iran deteriorate, senior Iranian leaders profit from a shadowy network of off-the-books front companies,” said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen.  “While the Iranian government’s leadership works to hide billions of dollars in corporate profits earned at the expense of the Iranian people, Treasury will continue exposing and acting against the regime’s attempts to evade our sanctions and escape international isolation.”
EIKO has made tens of billions of dollars in profit for the Iranian regime each year through the exploitation of favorable loan rates from Iranian banks and the sale and management of real estate holdings, including selling property donated to EIKO.  EIKO has also confiscated properties in Iran that were owned by Iranians not living in Iran full-time.  In addition to generating revenue for the Iranian leadership, EIKO has been tasked with assisting the Iranian Government’s circumvention of U.S. and international sanctions.  Because of this unique mission, EIKO has received all of the funding it needs to facilitate transactions through its access to the Iranian leadership. The following companies are all part of this elaborate scheme:
Tosee Eqtesad Ayandehsazan Company (TEACO)
In June 2010, Tosee Eqtesad Ayandehsazan Company (TEACO) was created as part of the Iranian strategy to circumvent U.S. and international sanctions.  EIKO uses TEACO as the primary mechanism to transact, manage, and control all of the international companies under EIKO’s control.  To maintain the appearance of being a private company, TEACO is ostensibly owned by private Iranian businessmen and investors; however TEACO’s board members were all chosen by EIKO.  TEACO acts on behalf of EIKO.  As of September 2011, EIKO negotiated business deals using TEACO subsidiaries.  For example, EIKO used an Iranian subsidiary of TEACO to negotiate a deal with a European company to build a factory in Iran.  In these business deals, the TEACO subsidiary directly negotiated with the foreign company.  If the foreign company did not move forward with the deal due to sanctions issues, the TEACO subsidiary would have TEACO take over the negotiations, rather than EIKO, because TEACO was less visibly connected to the Government of Iran.
As of December 2010, EIKO transferred Iranian-owned companies located in Central Europe from the EIKO-controlled Iranian company Rey Investment Company to TEACO.  TEACO planned to use these central European companies to facilitate international transactions in Europe otherwise prohibited by U.S. and international sanctions.  The companies were officially owned by Iranian expatriates with dual Iranian-European citizenship to conceal ties to the Iranian Government, EIKO, TEACO, and Rey Investment Company.
Tadbir Economic Development Company (Tadbir Group)
Tadbir Group, an investment company subordinate to EIKO, manages billions of dollars in investments, including on behalf of Iranian leadership figures.  Tadbir Group is one of the main holding companies belonging to EIKO.  Its subsidiaries include Tadbir Investment Company, Modaber (Tadbir Industrial Holding Company), Tadbir Construction Development Company and Tadbir Energy Development Group.  The Tadbir Group has used its subsidiaries to make significant investments in the Iranian economy, including an investment of over $100 million in Amin Investment Bank, and controls the Pardis Investment Company and Mellat Insurance Company in Iran.
Rey Investment Company
As of late December 2010, Rey Investment Company was worth approximately $40 billion. Rey Investment Company was formerly run by Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammadi Reyshahri, who previously served as the Iranian Minister of Intelligence and Security.  Rey Investment Company collected and invested donations obtained from Iranian Shi’a shrines.  However, amidst allegations of mismanagement and embezzlement of shrine donations from the company, the Iranian Government cut off its funding to the point of nearly bankrupting the company.  In mid-to-late 2010, Reyshahri was removed and control of Rey Investment Company was transferred to EIKO and its director.  EIKO subsequently appointed a new Managing Director of Rey Investment Company.
Reyco GmbH
Reyco was a German subsidiary of Rey Investment Company, although there were no public ties between Reyco and Rey Investment Company, TEACO, or the Iranian Government.  Reyco owned MCS Engineering and MCS International.  Reyco had the appearance of being a purely German company to circumvent sanctions restricting an Iranian Government-controlled entity’s ability to do business in Europe.  Reyco was eventually transferred to the control of TEACO from Rey Investment Company, and TEACO planned to use Reyco to purchase a bank for Iran in Germany.
MCS International GmbH (Mannesman Cylinder Systems)
Reyco subsidiary MCS International is a German company ostensibly owned by German nationals or Iranian expatriates with dual Iranian-European citizenship to conceal its ties to the Iranian Government, EIKO, TEACO, and Rey Investment Company.  MCS International was audited by TEACO in October 2010 and determined to be in poor financial standing.  However, EIKO management rescued MCS International from bankruptcy and insisted on keeping the company open because it viewed MCS International as key to facilitating business in Europe.  EIKO management viewed MCS International as being too important to EIKO’s international plans to allow it to go bankrupt and believed that it would be easier to rescue MCS International from bankruptcy than to create or acquire new foreign companies on behalf of EIKO due to U.S. and international sanctions.  EIKO subsequently ordered that responsibility for MCS International be transferred from EIKO-controlled TEACO to Iranian businessmen, who were sent to oversee the company.  Following this transfer, the two individuals owned the shares for MCS International, but answered directly to EIKO.
MCS Engineering (Efficient Provider Services GmbH)
Reyco and MCS International subsidiary MCS Engineering is a German company ostensibly owned by German nationals or Iranian expatriates with dual Iranian-European citizenship to conceal ties to the Iranian Government, EIKO, TEACO, and Rey Investment Company.  EIKO required that Iranians be used for management positions, preferably dual Iranian-European citizens, who could conceal the relationship between the company and the Iranian Government.
Golden Resources Trading Company L.L.C. (GRTC)
GRTC, a Dubai-based Iranian company, has been controlled by EIKO and used in early 2011 to inject 7.5 million Euros from EIKO into MCS International.  EIKO sent money through GRTC in Dubai for deposit into an account with a bank in Germany.  The Iranian Government has used GRTC to transfer money internationally to circumvent U.S. and international sanctions.  GRTC was responsible for the transfer of funds to Europe and Africa by EIKO, and its subsidiary, the Tadbir Group.  EIKO relied on GRTC to transfer money and secure letters of credit on behalf of Iranian-controlled companies in Europe and South Africa.  As of December 2010, control over GRTC was transferred from Rey Investment Company to TEACO by EIKO.  GRTC has represented a number of Iranian companies with affiliations to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. (IRGC) and has been used by the IRGC to procure needed equipment and supplies.
Cylinder System Ltd. (Cilinder Sistem DDO) 
Cylinder System Ltd. is a Croatia-based company that has been controlled by EIKO.  In October 2010, TEACO determined that Cylinder System Ltd. was poorly run, and EIKO ordered new management.  Cylinder System Ltd. was subsequently transferred under the control of TEACO from Rey Investment Company.  EIKO was also interested in procuring a bank in Central Europe and considered using Cylinder System Ltd. to facilitate this transaction.
One Vision Investments 5 (Pty) Ltd.
One Vision Investments 5 (Pty) Ltd. is a South Africa-based company that was owned by Rey Investment Company, but was subsequently transferred to TEACO’s control in order to avoid being linked to the Iranian Government.  EIKO managed One Vision Investments 5 (Pty) Ltd. and used the company to transfer funds from Iran internationally and to facilitate financial transactions through South Africa to circumvent U.S. and international sanctions.
One Class Properties (Pty) Ltd.
EIKO planned to use South Africa-based One Class Properties (Pty) Ltd. to purchase a bank and an insurance company.  EIKO managed One Class Properties (Pty) Ltd. through TEACO in order to avoid being linked to the Iranian Government.  The Iranian Government used One Class Properties (Pty) Ltd. to transfer money internationally and to facilitate financial transactions in circumvention of U.S. and international sanctions.  One Vision Investments 5 (Pty) Ltd. owned 49 percent of One Class Properties (Pty) Ltd., while the Government of Iran owned 51 percent.
Treasury is also imposing sanctions on additional companies in Iran that are owned or controlled by the Tadbir Group, Rey Investment Company, or their subsidiaries.  These companies are: Iran & Shargh Company, Iran & Shargh Leasing Company, Tadbir Brokerage Company, Rafsanjan Cement Company, Rishmak Productive & Exports Company, Omid Rey Civil & Construction Company, Behsaz Kashane Tehran Construction Co., Royal Arya Company, Hormuz Oil Refining Company, Ghaeed Bassir Petrochemical Products Company, Persia Oil & Gas Industry Development Co., Pars Oil Co., Commercial Pars Oil Co., Marjan Petrochemical Company, Ghadir Investment Company, Sadaf Petrochemical Assaluyeh Company, Polynar Company, Pars MCS, Arman Pajouh Sabzevaran Mining Company, Oil Industry Investment Company, and Rey Niru Engineering Company.
U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with the entities listed today, and any assets those entities may have subject to U.S. jurisdiction are frozen.
Identifying Information
Entity: Amin Investment Bank
AKA: AMINIB
Location: No. 51 Ghobadiyan Street, Valiasr Street, Tehran  1968917173, Iran
Website: http://www.aminib.com
Entity: Behsaz Kashane Tehran Construction Co.
AKA: Behsaz Kashaneh Co.
Location: No. 40, East Street Journal, North Shiraz Street, Sadra Avenue, Tehran, Iran
Website: http://www.behsazco.ir
Entity: Commercial Pars Oil Co.
Location: 9th Floor, No. 346, Mirdamad Avenue, Tehran, Iran
Entity: Cylinder System L.T.D.
AKA: Cilinder Sistem D.O.O.
AKA: Cilinder Sistem D.O.O. Za Proizvodnju I Usluge
Location: Dr. Mile Budaka 1, Slavonski Brod  35000, Croatia
Alt. Location: 1 Mile Budaka, Slavonski Brod  35000, Croatia
Website: http://www.csc-sb.hr
Registration ID: 050038884 (Croatia)
Tax ID No.: 27694384517 (Croatia)
Entity: Execution Of Imam Khomeini’s Order
AKA: EIKO
AKA: SETAD
AKA: Setad Ejraei Emam
AKA: Setad-E Ejraei-E Farman-E Hazrat-E Emam
AKA: Setad-E Farman-Ejraei-Ye Emam
Location: Khaled Stamboli St., Tehran, Iran
Entity: Ghadir Investment Company
Location: 341 West Mirdamad Boulevard, Tehran, Iran
Alt. Location: P.O. Box 19696, Tehran, Iran
Website: http://www.ghadir-invest.com
Entity: Ghaed Bassir Petrochemical Products Company
AKA: Ghaed Bassir
Location: No. 15, Palizvani (7th) Street, Gandhi (South) Avenue, Tehran  1517655711, Iran
Alt. Location: Km 10 of Khomayen Road, Golpayegan, Iran
Website: http://www.gbpc.net
Entity: Golden Resources Trading Company L.L.C.
AKA: GRTC
Location: 9th Floor, Office No. 905, Khalid Al Attar Tower 1, Sheikh Zayed Road, After Crown Plaza Hotel, Al Wasl Area, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Alt. Location: Postal Box 34489, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Alt. Location: Postal Box 14358, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Entity: Hormoz Oil Refining Company
Location: Next To The Current Bandar Abbas Refinery, Bandar Abbas City, Iran
Entity: Iran & Shargh Company
AKA: Iran And East Company
AKA: Iran And Shargh Company
AKA: Iranoshargh Company
AKA: Sherkat-E Iran Va Shargh
Location: 827, North Of Seyedkhandan Bridge, Shariati Street, P.O. Box 13185-1445, Tehran  16616, Iran
Alt. Location: No. 41, Next To 23rd Alley, South Gandi St., Vanak Square, Tehran  15179, Iran
Website: http://www.iranoshargh.com
Entity: Iran & Shargh Leasing Company
AKA: Iran And East Leasing Company
AKA: Iran And Shargh Leasing Company
AKA: Sherkat-E Lizing-E Iran Va Shargh
Location: 1st Floor, No. 33, Shahid Atefi Alley, Opposite Mellat Park, Vali-E-Asr Street, Tehran  1967933759, Iran
Website: http://www.isleasingco.com
Entity: Marjan Petrochemical Company
AKA: Marjan Methanol Company
Location: Ground Floor, No. 39, Meftah/Garmsar West Alley, Shiraz (South) Street, Molla Sadra Avenue, Tehran, Iran
Alt. Location: Post Office Box 19935-561, Tehran, Iran
Entity: MCS Engineering
AKA: Efficient Provider Services Gmbh
Location: Karlstrasse 21, Dinslaken, Nordrhein-Westfalen  46535, Germany
Entity: MCS International Gmbh
AKA: Mannesman Cylinder Systems
AKA: MCS Technologies Gmbh
Location: Karlstrasse 23-25, Dinslaken, Nordrhein-Westfalen  46535, Germany
Website: http://www.mcs-tch.vom
Entity: Mellat Insurance Company
Location: No. 48, Haghani Street, Vanak Square, Before Jahan-Kodak Cross, Tehran  1517973913, Iran
Alt. Location: No. 40, Shahid Haghani Express Way, Vanak Square, Tehran, Iran
Alt. Location: No. 9, Niloofar Street, Sharabyani Avenue, Taavon Boulevard, Shahr-E-Ziba, Tehran, Iran
Alt. Location: 72 Hillview Court, Woking, Surrey  Gu22 7qw, United Kingdom
Alt. Location: No. 697 Saeeidi Alley, Crossroads College, Enghelab St., Tehran, Iran
Website: http://www.mellatinsurance.com
Entity: Modaber
AKA: Modaber (A.K.A. Modaber Investment Company
AKA: Tadbir Industrial Holding Company
Entity: Oil Industry Investment Company
AKA: O.I.I.C.
Location: No. 83, Sepahbod Gharani Street, Tehran, Iran
Website: http://www.oiic-ir.com
Entity: Omid Rey Civil & Construction Company
AKA: Omid Development And Construction
AKA: Omid Rey Civil And Construction Company
AKA: Omid Rey Renovation And Development Co.
Website: http://www.omidrey.com
Entity: One Class Properties (Pty) Ltd.
AKA: One Class Incorporated
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Entity: One Vision Investments 5 (Pty) Ltd.
AKA: One Vision 5
Location: 3rd Floor, Tygervalley Chambers, Bellville, Cape Town  7530, South Africa
Alt. Location: Canal Walk, P.O. Box 17, Century City, Milnerton  7446, South Africa
Registration ID: 2002/022757/07 (South Africa)
Entity: Pardis Investment Company
AKA: Sherkat-E Sarmayegozari-E Pardis
Location: Unit D4 and C4, 4th Floor, Building 29 Africa, Corner of 25th Street, Africa Boulevard, Tehran, Iran
Entity: Pars MCS
AKA: Pars MCS Co
AKA: Pars MCS Company
Location: 2nd Floor, No. 4, Sasan Dead End, Afriqa Avenue, After Esfandiar, Crossroads, Tehran, Iran
Alt. Location: No. 5 Sasan Alley, Atefi Sharghi St., Afrigha Boulevard, Tehran, Iran
Alt. Location: Oshtorjan Industrial Zone, Zob-E Ahan Highway, Isafahan, Iran
Website: http://www.parsmcs.com
Entity: Pars Oil Co.
AKA: Pars Oil
AKA: Sherkat Naft Pars Sahami Aam
Location: No. 346, Pars Oil Company Building, Modarres Highway, East Mirdamad Boulevard, Tehran  1549944511, Iran
Alt. Location: Postal Box 14155-1473, Tehran  159944511, Iran
Website: http://www.parsoilco.com
Entity: Persia Oil & Gas Industry Development Co.
AKA: Persia Oil And Gas Industry Development Co.
AKA: Tose Sanat-E Naft Va Gas Persia
Location: 7th Floor, No. 346, Mirdamad Avenue, Tehran, Iran
Alt. Location: Ground Floor, No. 14, Saba Street, Africa Boulevard, Tehran, Iran
Website: http://www.pogidc.com
Entity: Polynar Company
Location: Polynar Company, No. 58, St. 14, Qanbarzadeh Avenue, Resalat Highway, Tehran, Iran
Website: http://www.polynar.com
Entity: Rey Investment Company
Location: 2nd And 3rd Floors, No. 14, Saba Boulevard, After Esfandiar Crossroad, Africa Boulevard, Tehran  1918973657, Iran
Website: http://www.rey-co.com
Entity: Rey Niru Engineering Company
AKA: Rey Niroo Engineering Company
Website: http://www.reyniroo.com
Entity: Reyco Gmbh
AKA: Reyco Gmbh Germany
Location: Karlstrasse 19, Dinslaken, Nordrhein-Westfalen  46535, Germany
Entity: Rishmak Productive & Exports Company
AKA: Rishmak Company
AKA: Rishmak Export And Manufacturing P.J.S.
AKA: Rishmak Production And Export Company
AKA: Rishmak Productive And Exports Company
AKA: Sherkat-E Tolid Va Saderat-E Rishmak
Location: Rishmak Cross Rd., 3rd Km. Of Amir Kabir Road, Shiraz  71365, Iran
Entity: Royal Arya Co.
AKA: Aria Royal Construction Company
Location: Iran
Entity: Sadaf Petrochemical Assaluyeh Company
AKA: Sadaf Asaluyeh Co.
AKA: Sadaf Chemical Asaluyeh Company
AKA: Sadaf Petrochemical Assaluyeh Investment Service
Location: Assaluyeh, South Pars Special Economy/Energy Zone, Iran
Entity: Tadbir Brokerage Company
AKA: Sherkat-E Kargozari-E Tadbirgaran-E Farda
AKA: Tadbirgaran Farda Brokerage Company
AKA: Tadbirgaran-E Farda Brokerage Company
AKA: Tadbirgarane Farda Mercantile Exchange Co.
Location: Unit C2, 2nd Floor, Building No. 29, Corner Of 25th Street, After Jahan Koudak, Cross Road Africa Street, Tehran  15179, Iran
Website: http://www.tadbirbroker.com
Entity: Tadbir Construction Development Company
AKA: Goruh-E Tose-E Sakhteman-E Tadbir
AKA: Tadbir Building Expansion Group
AKA: Tadbir Housing Development Group
Location: Block 1, Mehr Passage, 4th Street, Iran Zamin Boulevard,  Shahrak Qods, Tehran, Iran
Entity: Tadbir Economic Development Group
AKA: Tadbir Group
Location: 16 Avenue Bucharest, Tehran, Iran
Entity: Tadbir Energy Development Group Co.
Location: 6th Floor, Mirdamad Avenue, No. 346, Tehran, Iran
Website: http://www.tadbirenergy.com
Entity: Tadbir Investment Company
Location: Tehran, Iran
Entity: Tosee Eqtesad Ayandehsazan Company
AKA: Teaco
AKA: Tosee Eghtesad Ayandehsazan Company
Location: 39 Gandhi Avenue, Tehran  1517883115, Iran
Entity: Zarin Rafsanjan Cement Company
AKA: Rafsanjan Cement Company
AKA: Zarrin Rafsanjan Cement Company
Location: 2nd Floor, No. 67, North Sindokht Street, West Dr. Fatemi Avenue, Tehran  1411953943, Iran
Website: http://www.zarrincement.com
To see a chart of Imam Khomeini’s international financial network, click this link

Low Information Millionaires Donate to Both Sides

Wealthy people make stupid political decisions, decisions good for their business and it stops there such that their friendly and personal relationships makes it difficult to counter.

If you seek some names with big money not often known, then read on.

Hillary Clinton’s Mega-Donors Are Also Funding Jeb Bush

Racetrack owners, bankers, and chicken kings: Meet the ultra-rich bankrolling the Bush and Clinton dynasties. A special report by Vocativ and The Daily Beast.

For some wealthy donors, it doesn’t matter who takes the White House in 2016—as long as the president’s name is Clinton or Bush.

More than 60 ultra-rich Americans have contributed to both Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton’s federal campaigns, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission data by Vocativ and The Daily Beast. Seventeen of those contributors have gone one step further and opened their wallets to fund both Bush and Clinton’s 2016 ambitions.

After all, why support just Hillary Clinton or just Jeb Bush when you can hedge your bets and donate to both? This seems to be the thinking of a group of powerful men and women—racetrack owners, bankers, media barons, chicken magnates, hedge funders (and their spouses). Some of them have net worths that can eclipse the GDPs of small countries.

Larry Noble, senior counsel for the Campaign Legal Center, told The Daily Beast that it’s a common practice among a small number of people.

“Some of them will say they believe in the process, but the truth is you usually see them giving to people who will be most helpful to them if [the politician] gets into office,” he said. “They are not necessarily Republicans or Democrats, they are business people first.”

Some of them said personal connections are driving the double donations. Many work in industries that depend on the federal government for their continued operation. A few have had brushes with the law. One donor said he’s soured on Hillary, and is now on Team Jeb. Another claimed that he gave to Clinton by mistake.

John Tyson, chairman of Tyson Foods, is a long-time—and promiscuous—political player. This year alone, his company spent half a million dollars lobbying Congress on everything from immigration reform and fuel taxes to food safety regulations. He himself has given $25,000 each to the political action committees supporting Clinton and Bush’s 2016 candidacies, according to the data parsed by Vocativ.

In the late 1990s Tyson was embroiled in political scandal when then-Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy was accused of illegally accepting gifts from major food corporations—several of which were given by Tyson, then a senior employee. Espy was acquitted, and John Tyson was granted immunity in exchange for his cooperation.

The company eventually paid a $6 million settlement to the government, and two Tyson Foods employees were sentenced to prison. (Both were later pardoned by President Clinton.)

Until not too long ago, David Stevens, the CEO of the real estate lobbying group the Mortgage Bankers Association, was in the government himself. Stevens served in the Obama administration as the assistant secretary for housing and as Federal Housing Administration (FHA) commissioner at the Department of Housing and Urban Development from July 2009 to April 2011.

But that doesn’t mean he’s completely onboard with his fellow administration alum.

“I want to focus on candidates who best represent issues of housing and issues important to me and are not extreme, especially on the social issues that are important to me,” he said.

Stevens has given $2,700 to Hillary For America and $1,000 to Jeb 2016. He said he has watched with great concern about the increased polarization of both parties.

But at the end of the day, Stevens conceded it’s also about access.

“While [Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush] don’t make commitments, obviously, I want to make sure my views are presented to them, because they are considered more center-left or center-right,” he said.

Richard Parsons, the former head of Time Warner and now a senior adviser at Providence Equity Partners Inc., has donated the maximum $2,700 to both the Clinton and Bush presidential campaigns.

His résumé reflects dual political loyalties.

He’s served every Republican president since Richard Nixon and in 1997 was appointed to a task force by President George W. Bush to help study the best way to overhaul social security.

However, he also advised then-President-Elect Obama as part of the Economic Transition Team in 2008. Parsons did not return attempts for comment.

James R. Borynack, the owner of Wally Findlay Galleries—noted for its long history and expertise in European art—was shy about saying why he wasn’t choosing sides.

“[Borynack] has no detailed comments at this time, other than to support both Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush equally as presidential candidates,” a spokeswoman said.

Two Barclays employees have each donated $2,700—the legal maximum—to both the Clinton and Bush campaigns. One is Brett Tejpaul, a managing director at Barclays Capital who has also given $25,000 to the Jeb-affiliated super-PAC Right to Rise. The other is Robert Foresman, head of Barclays’s business in Russia.

Foresman’s Russia ties include the state-owned energy company that is one of Putin’s biggest levers against the West. Russia’s state-owned Gazprom provides critical gas to nearly two dozen European countries—and has shut off energy to countries in dispute with Russia. In the early 2000s, Foresman was nominated as a candidate to the board of directors of Gazprom, but was never actually appointed to the board, according to the company’s website.

Double donors Shawn Seipler, CEO of the nonprofit Clean the World Global, and textile magnate James Richman both make issues of economic justice central to their public presence. Richman is part of the Patriotic Millionaires, a left-leaning group of more than 200—you guessed it—millionaires who vow to support legislation to reduce income inequality.

Michael Granoff, a principal at Maniv Energy Capital, was once a strong supporter of both Bill and Hillary Clinton. Granoff worked on Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign in the early ’90s and donated to Hillary Clinton’s Senate and 2008 presidential campaign.

But Granoff but has since soured on the Democratic Party’s foreign policy decisions—particularly on Iran. And that’s led to a change of heart about supporting the former Secretary of State.

“I have nothing but continuing admiration for Hillary Clinton and her lifetime commitment to serving the public,” he wrote in a February The Times of Israel blog post. “But she deeply disappointed me recently when she aligned herself with the Administration’s threat to veto a Congressional bill to strengthen Iranian sanctions.”

Granoff said his post only rings more true now. He’s made his devotion to Jeb clear by donating $2,700 to his campaign and $25,000 to Right to Rise, according to Vocativ’s analysis of donors’ data.

The mix of donations also exposed a seemingly common practice of wealthy individuals donating at the request of clients and friends.

One Wall Street donor, who asked to remain anonymous because he considered the donation to Hillary “embarrassing,” said he gave money to her Senate race after a bundler friend asked him for a contribution. He noted he asked the bundler friend to donate to a Republican in return.

Robert Burlington, a prominent Florida attorney whose firm counts Exxon Mobil, Union Labor Life Insurance Company, and Merck as clients, told The Daily Beast that his donations to the candidates also had more to do with personal relationships than politics.

“My donations arose from a request from client (Clinton) and from a friend (Bush), rather than my affiliation with either party. But for the relationships with my client and my friend, respectively, I would not have donated to any candidate,” he said, adding that he and his wife prefer to donate to children’s charities.

Burlington said that while he doesn’t plan to give any more money to any candidate, he will quietly root for Bush.

“He was a strong leader of Florida while he was our state’s governor, and he has integrity,” he said. “I will not be too disappointed, however, if Hillary Clinton is elected because she has relevant experience and we will benefit from having a woman as president.”

At least one donor initially claimed to not remember the Clinton donation.

“I never donated to Hillary,” said Bradford Freeman, a major fundraiser for both George W. Bush presidential campaigns.

Reminded of his $2,300 donation in 2007, he said, “Well, that would have been Hillary against Obama [in the primary]…I don’t recall, but I may have.”

In fairness, his one time donation to Hillary might be forgettable after the $1 million he gave Right to Rise.

Freeman, whose investment firm Freeman Spogli won a $50 million commitment from the Florida pension system during Bush’s tenure (and paid the former governor $45,000 for a speech after he left office, according to The New York Times), told The Daily Beast he was all in for the former Florida governor.   There is much more, click here to read the rest of the story.

AQAP New Threat Against America

An al-Qaeda operative freed in a prison assault in Yemen has exploited chaos caused by fighting in the country to take a touristic tour of government buildings and posted photos of the visit online.

Khalid Batarfi, a high-ranking member of the jihadi group’s powerful Yemeni branch al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), is seen posing with a smile inside the local provincial governor palace in the southern port of al-Mukalla, in pictures circulated on social media.

Al Qaeda branch calls for new attacks against United States

(CNN)Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen, which officials have called the terror group’s most dangerous affiliate, has issued two threatening new communiques praising recent lone-wolf style attacks against the West and calling for more of them.

“We urge you to strike America in its own home and beyond,” says a letter attributed to Ibrahim al-Asiri, the master bomb-maker with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

The letter, according to a translation by SITE Intelligence Group, states, “America is first.”

CNN is unable to independently verify that Asiri himself wrote it, but the letter has drawn the attention of terror trackers such as MEMRI, Flashpoint and SITE.

A U.S. counterterrorism official described the letter as “consistent with rhetoric the new leader stated upon taking over al Qaeda’s most active affiliate that is known to threaten Western interests.”

A big bounty

Asiri has a $5 million bounty on his head, and analysts say if he did write the letter, he may have been putting himself at risk.

“The concern for Asiri would be that somehow the message would be traceable back to him — whether by courier, or some digital stamp inside of the message,” said Katherine Zimmerman of the American Enterprise Institute. “We have seen U.S. drone strikes kill a series of top al Qaeda leaders in Yemen over the past few months.”

But if the letter is genuine, it would indicate that Asiri, who rarely makes public statements, is still alive.

Intelligence officials say Asiri was a key player in the 2009 Christmas Day bomb attempt in which a passenger from Africa almost managed to detonate a bomb aboard a Detroit-bound plane that he’d hidden in his underwear. Asiri was also behind the placing of bombs in printer cartridges aboard planes headed for the United States that were intercepted before they reached their targets.

He even designed a bomb to be carried on the body of his own brother, Abdullah al-Asiri, in attempt to kill Saudi Arabia’s counterterrorism chief in 2009. The bomb killed his brother, but the Saudi minister survived.

A dangerous foe

“He’s without question the most dangerous terrorist operative that the United States faces today,” said CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank. “Intelligence suggests that he is developing a new generation of explosive devices including a new generation of underwear and shoe bomb devices.”

Zimmerman says Asiri is believed to have taught his skills to a cadre of bomb-makers.

“He has trained a series of individuals who are able to do what he does, which is bring imagination and innovation to an explosive device that could make it through U.S. or Western security,” she said.

The video embedding code has been disabled but can be played here.

Another senior AQAP leader, Khalid Batarfi, is featured in a second threatening video.

He praises the July attack in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in which a gunman killed five American servicemen at a military installation, as “a blessed Jihadi operation.” And he also praises two gunmen who tried to mount an attack in Garland, Texas, in May for their “sacrifice and heroism.”

“Blood for blood,” Batarfi says in a speech posted online.

He then encourages further lone-wolf attacks against America and the West. “To the warriors of Lone Jihad: may Allah bless and guide your efforts,” he says.

A U.S. intelligence official said this video is believed to be genuine.

“Batarfi has become a main AQAP media figure since his escape from a Yemeni prison this spring,” the official said.

While a number of AQAP leaders have been targeted by strikes this year, the fighting in Yemen between warring factions has deprived the United States of a partner on the ground to work with on tracking and targeting militants.

James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, recently told a conference in Aspen, Colorado, that “in terms of proximate threat, I would view … AQAP — even though they’re kind of consumed right now with what’s going on in Yemen with the Houthis — as probably our most concerning al Qaeda element in terms of threat to the homeland.”

FBI Finally Investigating Hillary’s Server

The company that supports Hillary’s server operation is: http://platteriver.com/

FBI looking into the security of Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail setup

WaPo: The FBI has begun looking into the security of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s private e-mail setup, contacting in the past week a Denver-based technology firm that helped manage the unusual system, according to two government officials.

Also last week, the FBI contacted Clinton’s lawyer, David Ken­dall, with questions about the security of a thumb drive in his possession that contains copies of work e-mails Clinton sent during her time as secretary of state.

The FBI’s interest in Clinton’s e-mail system comes after the intelligence community’s inspector general referred the issue to the Justice Department in July. Intelligence officials expressed concern that some sensitive information was not in the government’s possession and could be “compromised.” The referral did not accuse Clinton of any wrongdoing, and the two officials said Tuesday that the FBI was not targeting her.

Kendall confirmed the contact, saying: “The government is seeking assurance about the storage of those materials. We are actively cooperating.”

A lawyer for the Denver company, Platte River Networks, declined to comment, as did multiple Justice Department officials.

 

The inquiries are bringing to light new information about Clinton’s use of the system and the lengths she went to install a private channel of communication outside government control — a setup that has emerged as a major issue in her presidential campaign.

For instance, the server installed in her Chappaqua, N.Y., home as she was preparing to take office as secretary of state was originally used by her first campaign for the presidency, in 2008, according to two people briefed on the setup. A staffer who was on the payroll of her political action committee set it up in her home, replacing a server that Clinton’s husband, former president Bill Clinton, had been using in the house.

The inquiries by the FBI follow concerns from government officials that potentially hundreds of e-mails that passed through Clinton’s private server contained classified or sensitive information. At this point, the probe is preliminary and is focused on ensuring the proper handling of classified material.

Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Clinton’s campaign, declined to comment on the FBI’s actions. He noted that Clinton has called repeatedly for the State Department to release her e-mails to the public, a process that is ongoing.

In a statement, Merrill said that Clinton “did not send nor receive any emails that were marked classified at the time. We want to ensure that appropriate procedures are followed as these emails are reviewed while not unduly delaying the release of her emails. We want that to happen as quickly and as transparently as possible.”

The controversy over Clinton’s e-mail dates to the summer of 2014, when, according to government officials, State Department lawyers realized they didn’t have access to some of her records as they prepared responses to congressional requests related to the 2012 attacks on a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya.

In October 2014, the State Department asked four former secretaries to turn over e-mails in their private possession. In December, Clinton handed over 55,000 pages of e-mails, which she said represented all of her work-related correspondence. She has said she deleted all other e-mails she had sent or received as secretary of state, indicating that they dealt only with personal matters.

In March, the New York Times reported that Clinton exclusively used a private e-mail system. Clinton has said she handled her
e-mail this way for the convenience of carrying just one phone.

Critics say Clinton’s private server arrangement put her discussions with some aides outside the reach of government investigators, congressional committees and courts seeking public records from the State Department.

The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), wrote a letter to FBI Director James B. Comey on July 24 asking him what steps his office had taken to ensure that classified information held on Kendall’s thumb drive, and once kept on Clinton’s server, was being properly secured. A State Department official said that once the agency identified classified material in the e-mails in May, it instructed Clinton’s lawyers on “appropriate measures for physically securing” the e-mails.

Responsibility for setting up and maintaining the server that handled personal e-mail communications for Bill and Hillary Clinton passed through a number of different hands, starting with Clinton staffers with limited training in computer security and eventually expanding to Platte River.

In 2008, responsibility for the system was held by Justin Cooper, a longtime aide to the former president who served as a personal assistant and helped research at least two of his books. Cooper had no security clearance and no particular expertise in safeguarding computers, according to three people briefed on the server setup. Cooper declined to comment.

“The system we used was set up for President Clinton’s office. And it had numerous safeguards. It was on property guarded by the Secret Service. And there were no security breaches,” Hillary Clinton said in March.

Those briefed on the server setup say the device installed for Bill Clinton was deemed too small for the addition of a sitting Cabinet official. Instead, a server that had been purchased for use by Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign was installed at the Chappaqua home.

With the new server came an additional specialist: Bryan Pagliano, who had served as her campaign’s IT director. According to federal campaign finance records, Pagliano was paid by Clinton’s Senate leadership PAC through April 2009. The next month, he went to work for the State Department as an IT specialist, a department official said. The people briefed on the server indicated that he continued to act as the lead specialist responsible for it.

The e-mail system was not always reliable, these people said, with Pagliano summoned at various times to fix problems. Notably, the system crashed for days after New York was hit by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state.

That led to new conversations about the need for better security, durability and a more professional setup, according to these people. In 2013, the Clintons hired Platte River to maintain the data.

Merrill, the Clinton spokesman, declined to respond to detailed questions about the setup of the server.

 

Benghazi Attacker Pleads to Go Home, Will Obama Approve?

The Benghazi suspect and leader of Ansar al Sharia, the group that attacked the two U.S. posts in Benghazi pleaded not guilty in October of 2014. Abu Khatallah’s lawyer, Michelle Peterson is a public defender located in Washington DC whose client list appears to be full of illegals and foreigners.

Khatallah filed his 24 page motion to the U.S. District Court on August 3, 2015 to return to Libya.

Benghazi defendant asks U.S. judge to send him back to Libya

HamptonRoads: The accused ringleader of the 2012 attack that killed four Americans at a U.S. diplomatic compound and CIA base in Benghazi, Libya, has asked a federal judge to dismiss terrorism charges against him and send him home.

In court papers filed Monday, lawyers for militia leader Ahmed Abu Khatallah claim U.S. military and Justice Department officials came up with an illegal ruse to secretly interrogate him for days on a Navy warship after he was captured by U.S. special forces in Libya in June 2014.

The lawyers contend Khatallah should have been flown to Washington, normally a 13-hour plane ride, to face terrorism charges in federal court.

Instead, they say, he was held aboard the New York, an amphibious transport dock, for 13 days where he was interrogated by CIA and counterterrorism officials before he was advised of his legal rights and turned over to a separate team of FBI agents investigating the Benghazi attack.

The court papers say President Barack Obama and other administration officials approved the lengthy sea transfer from Libya, even though it “deliberately and outrageously” violated federal law.

Libyan and U.S. officials have described Khatallah as the Benghazi leader of Ansar al-Sharia, which the State Department considers a terrorist organization. In an 18-count indictment, authorities say he devised and helped carry out armed attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi during the night of Sept. 11, 2012. He has pleaded not guilty.

The U.S. ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, and a foreign service officer, Sean Smith, died during the raid on the U.S. diplomatic compound. Two contractors, Tyrone S. Woods and Glen Doherty, were killed in a subsequent armed attack on a CIA facility about a mile away.

In the court filings, defense lawyers urged U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper to return Khatallah to Libya, which they said opposed his transfer to the United States. They said he was charged in a sealed criminal complaint on July 15, 2013, but not seized by U.S. authorities until a year later.

“In the interim,” they said, “the government conceived and executed a deliberate plan to capture Mr. Abu Khatallah and transport him to the United States in a manner intended to facilitate the government’s prosecution while violating not only Mr. Abu Khatallah’s fundamental rights, but also domestic and international law.”

Defense lawyers said U.S. government agencies, including Justice, Defense and the CIA, had developed the arrest and transfer plan. “Thus, the violations of law at issue here were not committed by a few rogue agents of the government, but by the executive branch as a whole,” they wrote.

They said Khatallah was transferred by ship “in order to allow investigators the maximum amount of time to question him.”

They said the New York sailed “at the slowest possible speed in order to extend the time within which the investigators could interrogate him without a lawyer.”

And they said he was not turned over to the FBI and read his Miranda rights against self-incrimination until five days after he was put aboard.

Government prosecutors have not yet responded to the defense allegations.