The Los Angeles Times reported last week on a push by two California officials to divest from Iran.

[They] are pushing insurers and the state’s two major pension funds to sell more than $6 billion worth of holdings in companies doing business in Iran. Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner is expected Wednesday to ask hundreds of state-licensed insurance companies to pull money out of 50 foreign-owned corporations he said are involved in Iran’s nuclear, military and energy sectors.

The push follows moves by the Treasury Department to impose sanctions as a way of forcing the regime to curb its nuclear program. The sanctions have largely targeted the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Doha last week that the U.S. feared the IRGC was gradually seizing control of the state, with the potential to transform it into a military dictatorship.

According to RAND the IRGC

[controls] an array of subsidiary companies that have penetrated virtually every sector of the Iranian market—from construction and real estate to laser eye surgery and automobile manufacturing. Reportedly, the IRGC also operates illicit smuggling networks that constitute a vast shadow economy.

Tactics like sanctions and divestment are not failsafe mechanisms, as the regime has found ways to disguise some of its business dealings. Nevertheless, they are important resources to help curb the nuclear threat, when applied to Iranian business interests, as well as when applied to any company doing business with the regime.

You can read the Los Angeles Times article here.

The New York Times reported yesterday, that a New York businessman has been accused of attempting to funnel money to a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. He pled guilty and could face up to 25 years in prison.

Is this an appropriate amount of time to go to prison? If his contribution eventually would have caused the death of hundreds should he not be sentenced to life? Are the people who fund terrorism not just as guilty as those who perform the acts themselves?

New York businessman Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari should be used as an example. If you help fund terrorism you are just as guilty as the terrorist him/herself.