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Friday, September 27, 2013

 Foreign Policy Magazine reports:
Foreign Policy Magazine, one of the most credible names in international politics and global affairs,  delivers highly influential corporate, policymaker, and professional audiences in print and online. Foreign Policy and ForeignPolicy.com provide the best available analysis of pressing global challenges by the world’s leading experts, reported today:

"ANHAM, The Pentagon contractor shipping goods through Iran may have known about the illegalactivity as early as 2012. Anham, the firm with a fat Pentagon contract to provide food service and water to American forces in Afghanistan, may have known about its potentially illegal shipments through Iran as early as 2012, Situation Report has learned. The Wall Street Journal yesterday reported that Anham FZCO, which is contracted with the Pentagon to support troops in Afghanistan, had shipped some materials through a third party for a warehouse it built at Bagram Air Base there. Those shipments last year came by using Iran's Bandar Abbas seaport before being transported across Iran, the paper's Jay Solomon and Nathan Hodge reported. That allowed Anham to snag a Pentagon contract estimated at $8.1 billion, according to the paper. But shipping goods across Iran could be in violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran, and now an investigation is underway. Anham told The Journal that it only became aware of the shipping issue within the last week. Yesterday's WSJ story here.

But e-mails provided to Situation Report seem to indicate clearly that company officials were aware of the shipments through Iran as early as February of last year. In a note from a subcontractor, "Dana Tracks LLC" to corporate officials on Feb. 16, an e-mail describes the status of eight shipping containers leaving Bandar Abbas. "So far, his team in Iran hasn't got back to him on this as they are busy getting done with the procedures at the customs there," the e-mail says. "According to him, moving the containers through the new route requires lots of procedures with the shipping lines and customs."

Anham would not address specifically the apparent discrepancy between what it said to the WSJ and what the e-mail traffic among company officials seems to indicate about the timing of their awareness of the shipments through Iran. 

The Defense Logistics Agency's Michelle McCaskill's statement to Situation Report this morning: "Anham leadership notified DLA leadership Sept. 23 that it made a disclosure to the U.S. Treasury and the Commerce departments, stating that certain items may have been transshipped through Iran by a subcontractor.  We have requested additional information from Anham, as well as appropriate government agencies, to confirm that Anham's actions, including its performance under its contract with DLA, remain in accordance with applicable law and regulations."


Source: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/09/27/e_mails_by_pentagon_contractor_show_2012_exchanges_about_iran_shipments_hagel_is

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