WOLFOWITZ AND HIS IRANIAN PROSTITUTE SALARY OF $190k/yr Re: Test Tube Zealots: The American Chemical Society Terminates the Membership of Chemists from Iran

[Fred Kasner]

lemnitzer at india.com wrote:
> "I now direct you to agree to a proposal which includes the following
> terms and conditions," Wolfowitz instructed. "You should accept
> immediately her offer to be detailed to an outside institution of her
> choosing, while retaining bank salary and benefits."
> 
> The Wolfowitz memo went on say that Riza should receive a promotion,
> draw a salary of 180,000 dollars (£90,000) and get annual pay
> increases of 8%.
> 
> Before the job change, Riza was believed to be getting paid close to
> 133,000 dollars (£67,000). After the transfer, she received 193,590
> dollars (£97,000), according to the Government Accountability Project,
> a watchdog group.
> 
> Riza remains on the World Bank's payroll though she left the State
> Department job last year and now works for Foundation for the Future,
> an international organisation that gets some money from the
> department.
> 
> On Apr 7, 9:33 am, stj... at rock.com wrote:
>> http://counterpunch.org/rahni04072007.html
>>
>> Test Tube Zealots: The American Chemical Society Terminates the
>> Membership of Chemists from Iran
>>
>> By DAVID N. RAHNI
>>
>> The American Chemical Society (ACS) has once again led the way, with
>> its "zealot" interpretation of "embargo" by the Department of
>> Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control, by terminating the
>> membership of its long-standing members in Iran, many of whom are post
>> Ph.D. Alumni of American Universities. Several years ago, the ACS
>> undertook a similar unprecedented action, under the same law. Then, it
>> unilaterally stopped accepting scholarly and research manuscripts from
>> Iranian scientists for its three dozen periodicals in the publication
>> division. However, later, under embarrassing pressure from the
>> American scientific community and its membership, the ACS retracted
>> its decision and agreed to take it up instead with the federal
>> government. Paradoxically and notwithstanding rhetoric, such ill-
>> conceived measures are against the current U.S. Administration policy
>> of promoting people-to-people contact as enunciated by the Assistant
>> Secretary of State Nicholas Burns at the March 29 hearing of the
>> Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
>>
>> Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, in Science Magazine, reported that the ACS
>> Assistant General Counsel, David Smorodin when "re-reading the embargo
>> rules, made the recommendation to terminate Iranian membership(Science
>> Magazine, Vol. 315, 30 March 2007). One can not help but speculate
>> whether or not such decision is truly serving the interests of member-
>> based ACS or enforcing the laws to the limit as he has served as a
>> U.S. Assistant District Attorney before joining the ACS. Nonetheless,
>> despite the abrupt termination of individual membership of Iranian
>> chemical scientists with no due process, the ACS has stated that while
>> they [Iranians] can continue to purchase journals and other "non-
>> sensitive products at full-rate, the ACS might apply for a special
>> license from the Treasury Department to reinstate their memberships.
>> This has in the meantime deprived American chemists to learn about the
>> scholarly contributions of their Iranian peers.
>>
>> It should be noted that as in the past, the American Physical Society
>> (APS), in contrast, stated, "We have NO plan to do anything similar,
>> and continue to serve our members in Iran." Judy Franz, a director at
>> the APS further stated that, "We would resist having to obtain a
>> license to the extent we can."
>>
>> When interviewed by Science Magazine, the official publication of the
>> American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), David
>> Rahni an Iranian-American chemistry professor in New York stated, "I,
>> like most ACS members and peers in the scientific community, strongly
>> question the ACS motive on this issue, and expect ACS,s leadership to
>> refrain from allowing politics to taint the high stature the
>> Organization has achieved." Rahni further stated that this has
>> personally concerned him gravely since he has served the ACS with
>> distinctions in the past thirty years, as typified by his positions as
>> the chair of the ACS New York, the chair of the Middle Atlantic
>> Regional Meeting, and the chair of Nichols Medal. 90% of the ACS
>> projects, publications and activities are run by a huge cadre of
>> volunteer professionals who, with no expectations, give their time,
>> energy, money and intellects and talents to the advancement of the
>> chemical sciences worldwide. It is painfully ironic to many,
>> especially the ACS American members to witness the politicization of
>> their disciplines through the ACS as they continue to register their
>> grave concerns with the ACS lucratively remunerated executive
>> directors. As a chemistry professor with having given fifty years of
>> his life to the ACS and the profession so eloquently put it, "Never
>> mind the Iranians as one may not give a darn about them and their
>> plights, what, I am bewildered to speculate the ulterior motives of
>> the ACS paid "professional leadership is to embarrass us as
>> freethinking science. ACS is US and not its DC staff as they are
>> required by our mandate to serve our interests and not create problems
>> for us.
>>
>> The consensus among the nearly one million Americans of Iranian
>> ancestry is to reaffirm their yearning commitment to the attainment of
>> justice, security, stability, equity, transparency and human rights
>> through "home-grown", indigenous and democratic reforms in Iran, but
>> not at the expense of isolating the scientific community in their
>> motherland from their peers worldwide. They further deplore any
>> possible unilateral military action against Iran, as they firmly
>> believe this is counter-productive to the organic, slow, but steady
>> evolution of Iran through educational benchmark, cultural reforms and
>> communication with the rest of the world. They further consider
>> military action and/or isolation counter-productive to the credibility
>> of their American homeland which would inevitably lead, once again, to
>> the priceless loss of human life and loss of credibility for our
>> nation in the international scene.
>>
>> Iran's chemist/chemical engineering professionals/scholars numbers
>> tens of thousands. They are, by and large, members of the Iranian
>> Chemical Society. However, many of them hold at least one overseas
>> membership, mostly in the Royal Societies in the UK. There are
>> currently 36 Iranian members in the American Chemical Society. The
>> strong position of chemistry/chemical engineering in Iran is due to
>> the oil and gas explorations by the petrochemical industry during the
>> past 100 years, and due to some of Iran,s renowned past and
>> contemporary chemists, scientists, and philosophers. The contributions
>> of Americans of Iranian background to the chemistry and sciences,
>> engineering and medicine, is unparalleled by other recent immigrant
>> communities. There indeed exists an <http://www.ica-acs.org/
>> news.htm>Iranian Chemists' Association of the ACS that since its
>> inception in the 80, has reached out to over a thousand chemists of
>> Iranian ancestry in the U.S. alone. It is well substantiated that as
>> long as the diplomatic relations between the two nations remain at a
>> hostile stalemate, a political cloud hovers over the personal and
>> professional aspirations of Iranian-Americans. Specifically, senior
>> and executive level professional opportunities for Iranian-Americans,
>> particularly in government, higher education and the corporate world,
>> remain chronically undermined.
>>
>> Iran, a multiethnic country of 70 million, traces its heritage to a
>> long and illustrious history, 10,000 years in the making, with 2500
>> years of a continuous form of government. There are two million
>> students in her higher education system, 60% of whom, especially in
>> the sciences, engineering and medicine, are women. Its literacy rate
>> is 90%, unprecedented in that part of the world. Iran or Persia as it
>> was formerly known by the outside world until 1935, has indeed
>> contributed immensely toward the advancement of science, technology
>> and society for millennia. Rhazes, Avicenna, Algorithm, Omer Khayam,
>> Farabi, Biruni, Hayyan, and many others are some of the epics that
>> come to a western scholar,s mind.
>>
>> Despite the tremendous burden imposed on the Iranian students and
>> scholars as they struggle to obtain a US visa (mostly denied) for
>> doctoral studies, some of the brightest graduate students in Ivy
>> League Universities (e.g., Stanford, Harvard, Berkeley, and MIT) are
>> Iranians. Increasingly, however, they opt to pursue their doctoral
>> studies in Australia, Canada and Europe. Iranian high school students
>> have continuously ranked among the top few of the nations in the
>> International Chemistry and other Science Olympiads, and Robotics and
>> Computing Competitions.
>>
>> Isn't it ironic that when the ACS claims to be an international
>> professional society, 130 years old, with a membership of 160,000, 10%
>> of whom are from overseas, and an additional 20%, are naturalized
>> Americans or permanent residents, that it forces the nationals of Iran
>> out, deprives them from maintaining scientific communications with
>> peers worldwide, and does not let them contribute toward the
>> advancement of science worldwide?
>>
>> Notwithstanding the rhetoric and provocations leading to a possible
>> disastrous confrontation by governments, a true scientist, or a
>> credible organization of scientists such as the ACS, which does not
>> recognize the boundaries of the world, should be capable to transcend
>> all political barriers for the advancement of science.
>>
>> David N. Rahni, Ph.D. is a Professor of Chemistry at Pace University,
>> in Pleasantville, New York and Adjunct Professor of Dermatology, New
>> York Medical College. He is also an Adj. Prof. Envirnonmental Law at
>> Pace U. He can be reached at: dnabira... at pace.edu
> 
> 

If you would read C&EN News you would be aware that the response of the 
membership is hardly majority in favor of such actions. Had they polled 
the membership I doubt that the action would have been approved. The 
action of a state is not necessarily the will of even a majority of its 
citizens. Consider if you will the present popularity polls in regard to 
the President of the United States of America.
FK