At a press conference today in Beverly Hills, Assemblyman Joel Anderson stood alongside legislative and other state leaders in advocating for AB 221, the Iran divestment legislation now awaiting Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s signature.

Hosting the event was Beverly Hills Mayor Jimmy Delshad, the nation’s first Iranian-American mayor.  Iranians now account for over 20 percent of the city’s population, a good reason for Beverly Hills to have such a stake in this issue, a large segment of the citizens wanting to see their homeland stripped of the financial aid fueling terrorism around the world.  If CalPERS needs a clue as to what constitutes true patriotism, they only need look to Mayor Delshad and the good people of Beverly Hills.

Also in attendance:

-Assemblymembers Mike Feuer and Lloyd Levine
 
-Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean, Simon Wiesenthal Center 

-Saeed Jabbari, Senior Analyst Center for Promotion of Democracy and Human Rights
 
-Ron Leibow, Chairman, Jewish Community Relations Council Jewish Federation of Los Angeles

Rabbi Cooper told the media in attendance, including NBC, ABC, Fox, Voice of America and KFI, that Iran is an ATM for terror.

"Money is the mother’s milk of terrorism," said Anderson, "AB 221 will stop California’s investments from being used to fund Iran’s terror machine.  AB221 is waiting for the Governor’s signature due to help and the leadership of the people standing with me today."

Almost simultaneously, the Governor’s office also released the following statement:

Governor Schwarzenegger Issues Statement on California ’s Divestment from

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued the following statement today regarding legislation to divest from , AB 221.

"California has a long history of leadership and doing what’s right with our investment portfolio. Last year, I was proud to sign legislation to divest from the Sudan to take a powerful stand against genocide. I look forward to signing legislation to divest from Iran to take an equally powerful stand against terrorism.”

AB 221 by Assemblymember Joel Anderson (R- La Mesa ) creates the California Public Divest from Act which prohibits CalPERS and CalSTRS from investing public employee retirement funds in a company with business operations in Iran. CalPERS, the state’s employee retirement fund, is the largest pension fund in the nation and CalSTRS, the state’s public education retirement fund, is the second largest pension fund in the nation.

In September 2006 Gov. Schwarzenegger signed two bills, AB 2179 and AB 2941, prohibiting the state’s pension funds from investing in companies with active business in Sudan and indemnified the University of California from liability that might result from its divestments from Sudan.

In the 1980s, the state approved similar measures to allow state entities to divest in South Africa in order to protest its apartheid policies.

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 24th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.