In a commentary yesterday in the Washington Times, Frank Gaffney wrote:
Clearly, it is time to bring to bear another instrument capable of dramatically curbing the cash flow to Iran and, for that matter, other terror-sponsoring regimes.
For decades, it has been possible for investors to ensure that their portfolios — public or personal — are not used for purposes inconsistent with their values or priorities. Starting with the campaign to end apartheid in South Africa two decades ago, a cottage industry known as “socially responsible investing” has sprung up. Today, public pension funds, other institutions and individuals can avoid investments that involve, among other things, tobacco, alcohol, drugs, guns, gambling, Myanmar and environmental predation.
It has been difficult, however, to engage in the most socially responsible investment approach of all — ensuring the survival of our society by keeping portfolio dollars from flowing to publicly traded companies that do business with states that sponsor terrorism. Until now.
Yesterday the FTSE Group, a leading global index, announced it was partnering with the Conflict Securities Advisory Group (CSAG) to provide the world’s first series of terror-free screened indexes. CSAG’s filter that underpins these stock indexes will be the gold-standard in the burgeoning field of what the Securities and Exchange Commission calls “global security risk.”
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It is time the Bush administration ended its stated opposition to terror-free investing. After all, as Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson observed last month in sanctioning the IRGC: “In dealing with Iran, it is nearly impossible to know one’s customer and be sure that one is not unwillingly facilitating the regime’s reckless conduct.”