Posted by Jed Lewison on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 10:15 AM Pacific

Obama Counterattack On McCain's Latest Smear Ad

Here's a press release from the Obama campaign press shop exploring John McCain's own ties to Iran:

What McCain Won't Tell You About Iran: The McCain campaign's latest false attack ad raises the issue of Iran.  What Senator McCain doesn't want you to know is that many of his top advisors lobbied for companies doing business with Iran or otherwise have a vested interest in Iran.  At the same time, and despite all his bluster to the contrary, John McCain opposed closing a loophole that allowed foreign subsidiaries of American corporations to do business with Iran and refuses to support a bipartisan bill written by Barack Obama that would direct divestment from Iran.

And the rest of the response:

TOP MCCAIN ADVISORS HAVE VESTED INTERESTS IN IRAN

McCain Campaign Manager Rick Davis Represented Ukrainian Companies Doing Business in Iran. "Before Rick Davis began serving as John McCain's campaign manager, his lobbying firm had a pretty cosmopolitan set of clients. For example, Ukranian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, who has several business links to Iran... Davis Manafort was helping Akhmetov's conglomerate, System Capital Management Holdings, to develop a "corporate communications strategy" between the beginning of 2005 through the end of summer 2005, the company said. The company's subsidiary, Metinvest, a steel company, has one of its 11 offices in Tehran. And another subsidiary, Khartsyzsk Pipe Plant, sells large pipes to Iran. Those business ties go back to at least 2005, when Davis Manafort was working for the company, according to a handful of stories in business publications like the Russia & CIS Metals and Mining Weekly and the Mining and the Metals report, which we found on Nexis." [TPM, 5/30/08]

Chief McCain Strategist Charlie Black Lobbied For Chinese Oil Company With Ties To Iran; Company Signed $16 Billion Contract With Iran. Sam Stein reported in the Huffington Post, "In the summer of 2005, John McCain's chief strategist Charlie Black, working for his firm Black, Kelly, Scruggs & Healey, was paid $60,000 to lobby the U.S. government on behalf of the Chinese oil conglomerate CNOOC.  At the time, CNOOC was mounting an aggressive bid to buy Unocal, a California-based oil giant, and  Black was tasked with churning up congressional support.  But the bid ultimately fell through, in part because of objections over the China oil industry's ties to Iran, a country in which it  had already invested tens of millions of dollars. ... Flash-forward nearly three years and Black's old client - which later scored a $16 billion deal with the Iranian government - could now create headaches for his current boss." [Huffington Post, 6/2/08]

• Black's Work For CNOOC Directly Contradicts McCain's Message On "Worldwide Divestment Campaign" Against Iran. Speaking to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on June 2, McCain said, "We should privatize the sanctions against Iran by launching a worldwide divestment campaign. As more people, businesses, pension funds, and financial institutions across the world divest from companies doing business with Iran, the radical elite who run that country will become even more unpopular than they already are." [JohnMcCain.com, 6/2/08]

• Black Defended Work For CNOOC, Said He Was "Happy" To Work For Chinese Oil Giant. Roll Call reported, "The simmering fight between the China National Off-Shore Oil Corp. and Chevron Corp. over who gets to buy the California-based oil company Unocal looks increasingly like an arms race to find the most well-connected lobbying talent. The latest round goes to CNOOC, which broadened its reach by hiring the lobbying firm BKSH, headed by longtime Bush family confidante Charlie Black. The hire comes as Congressional opposition to CNOOC's bid mounts, with several leading Republican lawmakers citing concerns over national security and strategic energy policy in seeking to block the deal." Black commented about his work: "It's been the policy of the U.S. government, of Congress and the executive branch, really going back to the Reagan years, that we encourage trade and economic relations and investment with China," Black said. "We have disconnected economic and trade issues from human rights and national security issues. In that context, I'm happy to work for this client." [Roll Call, 7/18/05, emphasis added]

Lead McCain Surrogate, Carly Fiorina Kept Offices In Dubai As A Front To Do Business In Iran As CEO of Hewlett-Packard.  According to a 2004 article in Forbes, Hewlett-Packard was "among many other U.S. companies" that kept offices in Dubai and were linked to Iranian traders there.  As the report noted, "If you want to get around export controls, just sell the product to a front company in Dubai. The middlemen will take it from there."  The CEO of Hewlett-Packard at the time was Carly Fiorina.  In fact, Fiorina bragged about Hewlett-Packard's success in the Middle East during a 2003 corporate earnings call. [Forbes, 4/19/04; Hewlett Packard Q1 2003 Earnings Conference Call, Fair Disclosure Wire, 2/25/03]

McCain Economic Policy Advisor, Carlos Bonilla Of Washington Group, Lobbied For Motorola On The Iran Counter-Proliferation Act; Motorola Products Are Sold In Iran. Carlos Bonilla is an economic policy advisor on the McCain campaign. Lobby disclosure reports indicate that in the first quarter of 2008, Bonilla lobbied the House and Senate on "S. 970 Iran Counter-Proliferation Act of 2007." Washington Group collected $50,000 from Motorola during this period. During the second half of 2007, Bonilla lobbied regarding this legislation and Washington Group collected $100,000. "Driving through the traffic-choked streets of Khartoum and Tehran, you could forget that Sudan and Iran have endured years of U.S. sanctions. Leaving the airport at Khartoum, one of the first things you see is the ultimate symbol of American capitalism: the classic form of a Coca-Cola bottle printed on multicolored banners, next to a huge billboard for its rival, Pepsi. Pop into the Paytakht shopping center in Iran's capital and you can snap up a new Dell laptop, choose from a range of Motorola handsets and compare them with the latest iPhone from Apple. These products are among prominent U.S. brands that have stayed on shop shelves in Sudan and Iran in the face of some of the toughest trade restrictions ever imposed." [Senate Office of Public Record, Lobby Disclosure Reports, 2008 first quarter report; 2007 year-end report; The McCain-Lobbyist connection, Media Matters; USA Today, 3/24/08; "Coveted U.S. Products Find Way Past Sanctions," International Herald Tribune, 5/27/08]

McCain's Top Foreign Policy Advisor Randy Scheunemann Lobbied for BP Amoco that the SEC found to be "Indirectly Subsidizing a Terrorist Haven."  Randy Scheunemann, a former national security aide to Bob Dole and Trent Lott serves as McCain's defense and foreign policy coordinator.   According to the Senate Lobbying Disclosure Database, in 1999 and 2000 Randy Scheunemann lobbied on behalf of BP Amoco on matters concerning international oil production.   The Securities and Exchange Commission listed British Petroleum as having links to "countries designated as state sponsors of terror."  Defending his decision to publish the names of companies doing business with Iran, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said, "No investor should ever have to wonder whether his or her investments or retirement savings are indirectly subsidizing a terrorist haven or genocide state."  [Washington Post, 10/2/07, Senate Lobbying Disclosure database, accessed 5/21/08, BBC, 7/6/07, SEC via The Jewish Policy Center, accessed 5/21/08]

MCCAIN OPPOSED CLOSING LOOPHOLE THAT ALLOWED U.S. COMPANIES TO DO BUSINESS WITH IRAN

McCain Voted Against Closing Legal Loophole That Allows Foreign Subsidiaries Of U.S. Companies To Do Business With Iran, Syria, Other Nations Subjection To U.S. Sanctions.  In 2005, Obama voted for and McCain voted against a Lautenberg Amendment that would have stopped corporations from financing terrorism by closing, according to Congressional Quarterly, "a legal loophole that has allowed foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies to do business with countries such as Iran and Syria that are subject to U.S. sanctions."  According to Lautenberg, the amendment's sponsor, the measure "shuts down a source of revenue that flows to terrorists and rogue regimes that threaten our security...Amazingly, some of our corporations are providing revenue to terrorists by doing business with these rogue regimes. My amendment is simple. It closes a loophole in the law that allows this to happen, that allows American companies to do business with enemies of ours. This will cut off a major source of revenue for terrorists. What we need to do is to starve these terrorists at the source. By using this loophole, some of our companies are feeding terrorism by doing business with Iran, which funds Hamas, Hezbollah, as well as the Islamic Jihad...So how do U.S. companies get around terrorist sanctions laws? Because we have those laws that are supposed to prevent contact and opportunity for those nations that support terrorism. The process is simple. These companies run the Iranian operations out of a foreign subsidiary...Our sanctions laws prohibit United States companies from doing business with Iran, but the law contains a loophole. It enables an American company, a U.S. company's foreign subsidiaries, to do business prohibited by the parent. As long as this loophole is in place, our sanctions laws have no teeth. My amendment would close this loophole once and for all. It would say foreign subsidiaries controlled by a U.S. parent, American parent, would have to follow U.S. sanctions laws--pretty simple." [Vote 203, Amendment Rejected 47-51: D: 43-0; R: 3-51; I: 1-0; 7/26/05; CQ Weekly, 7/29/05; Congressional Record, 7/21/05]

MCCAIN REFUSES TO SUPPORT OBAMA PLAN TO DIVEST FROM IRAN

Obama Sponsored The Iran Sanctions Enabling Act; Iran Divestment Legislation Passed The House of Representatives 408-6. In 2007, Obama sponsored the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act, which would: make it the policy of the United States to support the decision of state and local governments and educational institutions to divest from, and to prohibit the investment of assets they control in, persons included on the most recent list; shield any registered investment company from civil, criminal, or administrative action based upon its divesting from, or avoiding investing in, securities issued by companies included on such most recent list; and would authorize state and local governments to direct divestiture from, and prevent investment in, companies with investments of $20,000,000 or more in Iran's energy sector, and for other purposes. The bill would also require the Treasury Dept. to publish biannually in the Federal Register a list of each person, whether within or outside of the United States, that has an investment of more than $20 million in the energy sector in Iran; and maintain on the website of the Department of the Treasury the names of the persons on such list. A House version of Obama's bill passed that chamber on 7/31/07. [S.1430, Introduced 5/17/07, Referred to the Committee on Banking, House and Urban Affairs; H.R. 2347, Passed/agreed to in the House, 7/31/07; On the Motion to suspend the rules, by the Yeas and Nays (2/3 required): Role No. 765, 408-6]

• McCain Claims to be Unfamiliar With Obama Iranian Divestment Bill, Despite Two Top Advisors Being Co-Sponsors, and Divestment Being A Central Component of His Strategy On Iran. In a June 4th press conference attacking Senator Obama's record and commitment to Israel, Senator McCain responded to questions about why he hadn't signed on to a bill proposed by Senator Obama to advance divestment from Iran. As the Associated Press noted, McCain admitted that he was not familiar with the bill, saying "I don't know if it passed the Senate or had any hearing or anything else." However, Senator Lieberman and Representative Cantor - two of his top advisors - are cosponsors of the bill, and divestment in Iran is a central part of McCain strategy toward Iran. [McCain Press Conference 6/4/08; Associated Press, 6/3/08; S.1430, 5/17/07; H.R. 2347, 5/16/07]