Trump Had No Problem with Iran's Revolutionary Guard When He Was Doing Business with Its Associates

[Galraedia]

Source: Vanity Fair

On Monday, Donald Trump announced that his administration was designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization, the first time in history the U.S. had classified another country’s government as such, an action that flips the switch on a range of sanctions on the military unit and companies, individuals, and organizations with ties to it. According to The New York Times, top C.I.A. and Pentagon officials argued against the designation, saying it will “allow hard-line Iranian officials to justify deadly operations against Americans overseas, especially Special operations units and paramilitary units working under the C.I.A.” But Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton reportedly pushed for it, and ultimately persuaded the president. “This action will significantly expand the scope and scale of our maximum pressure on the Iranian regime,” Trump said in a statement on Monday. “It makes crystal clear the risks of conducting business with, or providing support to, the I.R.G.C.”

Not mentioned in the statement? Allegations, detailed in an extensive investigative report, that the Trump Organization participated in a scheme that likely helped the I.R.G.C. launder money and acquire weapons of mass destruction. (Must have been an oversight!) In 2017, The New Yorker published a story about Trump Tower Baku, a hotel in Azerbaijan that never opened and appeared “to be a corrupt operation engineered by oligarchs tied to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.” According to reporter Adam Davidson, in 2012, the Trump Organization signed multiple contracts to build the tower with the Mammadov family, whose patriarch, Ziya Mammadov, was the Transportation Minister at the time. (Ziya Mammadov was described by a U.S. diplomat as “notoriously corrupt even for Azerbaijan,” which is among the most corrupt nations in the world.) The Mammadovs were financially entangled with the Darvishi family, at least three members of which were reportedly associates of the Revolutionary Guard. (When the tower was originally announced, Ziya Mammadov “awarded a series of multimillion-dollar contracts to Azarpassillo, an Iranian construction company” run by the Darvishis.) Ivanka Trump, the most senior Trump Organization official involved in the project, toured the site in October 2014, reportedly offering “very strong feelings, not just about the design but about the back of the hotel—landscaping, everything.” (Ivanka, who declined The New Yorker’s request for comment at the time, was said to “personally approve everything” on the project.)

Read more: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/04/trump-iran-revolutionary-guard-terrorist-organization

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"If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism." ~ Donald Trump

Source:https://www.npr.org/2019/04/08/710987393/u-s-labels-irans-revolutionary-guard-as-a-foreign-terrorist-organization

[Mc Mike]

1. Yeah, sounds about right.

[riversedge]

2. Trump and his family are so corrupt!

[Mc Mike]

5. He should have been imprisoned 4 decades ago.

Such an habitual, casual felon. So treasonous.

A complete garbage person.

[NNYCDN51]

3. This Story Fits The Orange Menace

perfectly!!!!!!




Keep On Thinking Free

[louis-t]

4. People in Iran HATE Mr. Tiny Fingers.

I have a client who was on a call to his home country and had it on speaker phone. He was talking to a young relative, the kid was maybe 10, and the kid made a very negative comment about drumpy. I was a little shocked, but I guess when you have a guy that would love to bomb your country into rubble, it's understandable.