Operation Divest Terror

Looking to shut down the "business" of terrorism, Swiss America Trading Corp. today launched "Operation Divest Terror."

The goal of the effort is to help investors identify U.S. companies whose business activities provide revenues, equipment and technology and political cover to governments sponsoring terrorism – and send them a message this is a bad business decision.

Nearly 500 such companies are currently doing business in terror-sponsoring states, according to Conflict Securities Advisory Group, a research firm based in Washington, D.C.

A statement from Swiss America says, "Much like the South Africa divestment campaign of the 1980s, this anti-terror offensive is based on two facts: 1) companies rely heavily on the investment dollars of U.S. citizens; and 2) if we withhold those investments, companies will be forced to stop funding our enemies."

"Stopping such practices could send a powerful message to companies that we do not support their decision to partner with Iran, Syria and other governments that sponsor terrorism," Swiss America CEO Craig Smith said. "If we convince them to pull up stakes in these terror-supporting nations, it can make a significant contribution toward winning the war on terror."

Swiss America, together with intel support from Conflict Securities, will provide investors with a free investment "Exposure Report," listing the percentage of companies held by that individual investor which are known to be doing business in terrorist-sponsoring states.

"As of today, not one retail brokerage service in this country makes available to clients data on corporate ties to terrorist-sponsoring states. That must change," said Frank Gaffney, founder of DivestTerror.org. "People have a right to decide if they want to fund companies that fund our enemies – it's their money after all."

As part of the effort, interested investors can get a free DVD with more information about alternative "terror-free" investments.

Regarding additional actions individual citizens can take, Loretta Napoleoni, author of "Terror Incorporated" says, "Concentrate our efforts to hunt terror money in our countries, even if that implies putting under investigation the strongholds of Western capitalism: Wall Street, the City of London and the thousand offshore centers linked to them."

The time has come to stop feeling helpless in the fight against terrorism. Let's send a message to Wall Street that the era of greed is over and 'We the People' will not participate in 'commerce without morality' – especially when it comes to funding terrorists.

Register HERE for more information and a Free Investment "Exposure Report" from Swiss America.

7/21/05 -- Blasts Shake London Subway Stations, Bus -AP -- LONDON -- Explosions struck three London Underground stations and a bus at midday today in a chilling but less deadly replay of the suicide bombings that killed 56 people two weeks ago.

7-12-05 -- ALL FOUR BOMBERS DIED -SkyNews ... All four suspected bombers died during the London terror attacks, according to police sources. Police are due to speak shortly but Sky News crime correspondent Martin Brunt said three bombers died in separate Tube attacks and one was killed in the No 30 bus blast. Detectives believe all four were British citizens, Brunt said. It was still not clear if the attackers were all suicide bombers.

7-8-05 -- London bombings called work of Al Qaida's new generation -WORLD TRIBUNE.COM - LONDON — A series of blasts that rocked the British capital was believed to have been carried out by a new Al Qaida network based in Western Europe and trained in such places as Afghanistan, Bosnia and Iraq.

7-7-05 -- A New Way We Can All Fight Terrorism -SATC -- Four explosions ripped through London in a series of terrorist strikes targeting The City financial district leaving dozens dead and hundreds wounded. So, are we supposed to just sit back and let terrorists continue to pummel Western Civilization? Swiss America CEO Smith says, “No” and offers "Operation Divest Terror" to help mobilize the masses to fight back by attacking the money trail.

7-7-05 -- London bombs kill at least 33 --'Barbaric' terror attack says PM Tony Blair -CNN ... LONDON, England (CNN) -- At least 33 are dead and scores wounded after "callous" and coordinated bombings in London's transport system, Scotland Yard said. In Washington, U.S. Homeland Defense Secretary Michael Chertoff told a news conference the U.S. national threat level would be raised to orange for "regional and inner city passenger rail, subways and metropolitan bus systems."

7-6-05 -- Terror attacks: five times more incidents in 2004 -CNN ...WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. government Tuesday increased its 2004 estimate of terrorist attacks worldwide to 3,192 from 651 after changing to a broader definition of terrorism. A new U.S. government Web site set up to track terrorism incidents says the 2004 incidents left 28,433 people killed, wounded or kidnapped.

6-3-05 -- Louisiana takes important first step toward divestment of terror -CSP ... Decision Brief No. 05-P 14 --(Baton Rouge, Louisiana): Building on the momentum of the Center for Security Policy's Divest Terror campaign, the State of Louisiana this week enacted a new law entitled Act 9 designed to increase transparency with respect to investments by the State's public pension systems in companies that do business in and with terrorist sponsoring nations.

5-23-05 --'Terror-free' investing has arrived -WND Monday, May 23, 2005 by Craig R. Smith -- "Money is the lifeblood of terrorist operations." – President Bush, Jan. 25, 2004, quoted on "60 Minutes" Nearly every American with a pension plan or mutual fund has money invested in companies that are doing business with the enemy ...

Further Study:
8-29-04 -- Doing Business With The Enemy (CBS 60 Minutes)... Did it ever occur to you that when President Bush says, "Money is the lifeblood of terrorist operations," he's talking about your money -- and every other American's money? Just about everyone with a 401(k) pension plan or mutual fund has money invested in companies that are doing business in so-called rogue states.

"The Dirty Dozen" -Divestterror.org... Regrettably, hundreds of multinational and American companies have, to date, refused voluntarily to send this vital security message to the terrorist-sponsoring governments. A dozen of these companies exemplify the various ways in which this behavior is helping prop up such governments and, thereby, enabling their ability to aid and abet terrorism. (N.B. All of the information concerning the activities of this illustrative "Dirty Dozen" was derived from publicly available sources.).

"Terrorism Investments of the 50 States" -Divestterror.org... The first national security-based statistical analysis of the investment patterns of America's public pension funds. This report proves empirically that this nation's largest and most prominent public pension systems tend to be heavily invested in global publicly traded companies that have business activities in terrorist-sponsoring states. (1)

Together, these funds invest over $1 trillion in stock alone (2) on behalf of this country's fire fighters, police officers, teachers, state and local officials and other public employees, making this collection of funds one of the most powerful investment blocks in the world. Given this extraordinary financial influence and the important role played by public companies in the economies of terrorist-sponsoring states(3) the Center for Security Policy has reached a key finding: America's 100 largest and most prominent pension systems have the power to help defeat terrorism.

From the pension system of this country's smallest state, Rhode Island, which has close to $400 million invested in 41 companies that are active in terrorist-sponsoring states, to America's largest public pension system -- the California Public Employees Retirement System -- which has over $17 billion invested in 201 such companies, the results were remarkably uniform:

On average, America's Top 100 pension systems invest between 15 and 23 percent of their portfolio in companies that do business in terrorist-sponsoring states. (4)

Among the report's other important findings:

* 39 of the Top 100 pension systems were found to be invested in more than 100 companies with corporate ties to terrorist-sponsoring states. Of the rest for which there is data, only five hold less than 30 companies with such ties in portfolio.

* On average, the Top 100 pension systems invest in 101 companies that have business activities in terrorist sponsoring states. These companies, in turn, are involved in projects in terrorist-sponsoring states valued at more than $73 billion. (5)

* On average, the Top 100 public funds were invested in: 73 companies doing business in Iran; 24 companies doing business in Libya; 26 companies doing business in Sudan; 31 companies doing business in Syria; and 9 companies doing business in North Korea.

* On average, the Top 100 pension systems were invested in 17 companies that did business with Saddam Hussein's Iraq prior to the war.

From the fact that virtually each and every public employee in this country holds stock in companies that partner with governments that sponsor terrorism flows an extraordinary opportunity: America's 100 largest and most influential pension systems have the power to help defeat terrorism. To understand why requires only one further statistic: The total estimated value of the stock of some 400 companies doing business in terrorist sponsoring states held by America's leading public pension systems is approximately $188 billion.(6)

FULL REPORT - PDF Format

footnotes:

1. This report sought to analyze America's "Top 100" largest and most prominent public pension systems, excluding public university endowments. At the time of publication, only 87 of these public pension funds had provided the data required to undertake this analysis.

2. America's Top 100 funds invest via a number of other investment vehicles, making their total investments on behalf of the American people closer to $2 trillion.

3. For the purposes of this report, terrorist-sponsoring states are defined as Iran, Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria. Although Cuba is also correctly listed as a state-sponsor of terrorism by the U.S. Department of State, relevant data for Cuba was not available for this study.

4. To perform the analyses of the 100 pension systems' investment portfolios, the Center forwarded this data to the Conflict Securities Advisory Group (CSAG). Using their Global Security Risk Monitor, CSAG ran each portfolio to determine its exposure to companies doing business in terrorist-sponsoring states or to proliferation-related concerns. The Center's use of this data and the views and policy recommendations expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect those of CSAG or its partner firm, Investor Responsibility Research Center.

5.Of the roughly 400 companies considered in this report, project values and similar financial data was available for only some 150 companies. A reasonable estimate of the value of all 400 companies' projects in terrorist-sponsoring countries would be well over $100 billion.

6.Based on the results for the 87 funds analyzed, we estimate that the actual holdings of the Top 100 pension systems in the stock of companies that do business in terrorist-sponsoring states likely exceeds $210 billion.