OBAMA'S FOREIGN DONATIONS: THE GLOBAL CANDIDATE FROM IRAN TO BRAZIL TO SOROS

More questions are are raised than answered in the further investigation of Obama's foreign donations.(hat tip Cathy) Iranian operative Farah Alaghband lives in London and is chairman of The Balli Group. Download alaghbandfarah.pdf

UPDATED: Farah Alaghband is the wife of Hassan Alaghband, who is brother of the chairman of Balli group which has continually violated the sanctions against Iran in the futile effort to halt its nuclear enrichment program.

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry & Security is training its sights on the British steel trading giant Balli Group. Property of the Alaghband family of Iranian origin, Balli has been accused of leasing airliners to Tehran. But it is probably also being penalized for its key part in maintaining tight commercial and diplomatic ties between Iran and the West.
How Three Boeing Airliners Ended Up in Iran.
Even though one of the Balli Group's leading offices is in Houston, the company which boasts annual sales of over USD 1 billion, has been banned from exporting or helping to export American goods subject to restrictions until September 18 of this year. The Temporary Denial Order slapped on it by the BIS came on the heels of several operations in recent years by one of its affiliates, Balli Aviation. When United Airlines was placed under Chapter 11 in 2002, Balli Aviation bought three aging Boeing 747 airliners from the company (all three entered service in 1993). The aircraft were subsequently leased to another affiliate of the Balli Group, Blue Sky Airways, which began operating last year in Tehran to carry Iranian passengers to South East Asia and Mecca. (M0re here)

The Temporary Denial Order imposed by the US Department of Commerce on a number of companies including Balli Group plc does not relate to arms but to passenger airplanes.

Obama foreign donor:

Name:  Farah Alaghband

Employer:  Not employed

Occupation:  Not employed

Contribution:  $2,300

Date:  4/5/08 From the Bahrameradblg blogspot.com

. The chairman of Balli, Vahid Alaghband,[see correction below]  whose personal fortune has been estimated at GBP 125 million, is one of the co-founders of the Iran Heritage Foundation that devotes itself to “promoting Iran’s cultural heritage.” Each year the Foundation throws a “Nouroz Gala” for the Persian community living in exile in London. Elsewhere, the Alaghband family figures among contributors to the PARSA Community Foundation which specializes in bankrolling projects carried out by Iranians or members of the Persian diaspora. Indeed, the PARSA Community Foundation donated a grant to the National Iranian American Council, an organization set up in 2002 to push in Washington for the restoration of diplomatic relations between the United States and Washington.The NIAC, which has won the backing of George Soros’ Open Society Institute, endeavors to tone down the saber-rattling rhetoric of numerous neo-conservative think tanks in the U.S., among them the Committee on Present Danger and the Foundation for Democracy in Iran.

UPDATE CORRECTION: Ken Timmerman advised me that Farah Alaghband is NOT the chairman of Balli Group. She (for Farah is a she, not a he) is the wife of Hassan Alaghband, who is brother of the chairman of Balli.

Balli Group is run by the three Alaghband brothers – Vahid, Hassan, and Nasser.

Vahid is the oldest and the chairman.

Farah is a U.S. Citizen, both she and her husband (who is a U.S. Citizen) were educated in the U.S., as is their daughter.

For more on their motives read Timmerman's piece (April /08): Pro-Iran Group Wants Iran Diplomacy

OT but related: FUNDRAISING FOR OBAMA- A group of politically engaged Afro-Brazilians want to find an Obama of their own.

Watch this Reuters promo piece about fund raising for Oabam in Brazil. NUTS!

With two thousand stickers, uncountable pamphlets, posters and an email address, the group of Brazilian Obama supporters have managed to raise $1,800 for Obama's campaign.

Deborah Lutterbeck reports.

SOUNDBITE: Ivan Rodrigues, saying (Portuguese): "What is this Brazil I live in? A Brazil that recognizes the rich in a way and the poor in another, the blacks in a way, the Indians in another, a Brazil that judges bankers in a way, and that judges the citizens who work every day in another way. So I believe the Brazilian Obama will understand people's needs and listen to this cry which lies inside each one of us."

Is any of this legal? Or is this more change we can't believe in?

Here's the file for Obama's foreign donations: start digging: Download ForeignNA.xls [file corrected]  

Comments

[oneuniverse]

re: Iran Heritage Foundation

Not all Iranian organisations are connected with the Iranian theocratic regime.
The Iran Heritage Foundation was set up in the years following the 1979 revolution by expatriots who wished to preserve the knowledge of Iran's ancient cultural heritage against the regime's destructive approach to Iran's past, present and future.

Iran Heritage Foundation really does promote Iran's cultural heritage - not sure why Bahram put that in quotation marks. The organisation is purposefully apolitical, but is there as an independent counterweight against the thuggishness and nihilism of the Islamic regime.

I have attended several of the IHF's Norouz Galas in London. The pre-revolutionary national anthem was sung each time during the event. It is essentially a patriotic, anti-theocratic event.

Norouz means literally 'new day' and is the traditional name for New Year, celebrating the resurgence of life at the spring solstice. The Norouz ceremony is ancient, and predates Islam by millenia.