Who's got a stake in the War That Never Ends?

[pynchonoid]

(CBS) 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.   
 
In other words, there are U.S. companies that are
helping drive the economies of countries like Iran,
Syria and Libya that have sponsored terrorists.
Correspondent Lesley Stahl reports. 

The revenue that is generated from the work that these
companies are doing, we believe, helps to underwrite
and support terrorism,” says William Thompson, the New
York City comptroller who oversees the $80 billion in
pension funds for all city workers.   
 
He says he wants everyone with a retirement or
investment portfolio to know what these companies are
up to: “We're going to increase the public visibility
on this issue until these companies change their
practices.” 
 
He’s actually identified specific companies that have
invested in these rogue countries, including
Halliburton, Conoco-Phillips and General Electric. 
And he points out that New York's pension funds own
nearly a billion dollars worth of stock in these three
Fortune 500 companies, which have operations in Iran
and Syria. 
 
What was Thompson’s reaction when he found out about
this?  “Anger that there were companies that could be
contributing to attacks on our nation,” he says. 
“You’d think to yourself, well, why would they do
that? …  I didn't think they could.  And more than
anything it was, you thought, that the law prevented
them from doing this.” [...]

...continues:
<http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/22/60minutes/main595214.shtml>

...Thompson's reaction reminds me of the anger that
fuels GR, as Pynchon lets Slothrop discover how
multinational corporations (and their shareholders)
profit from the War that's killing and maiming and
otherwise victimizing so many people. 

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it!
http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/