Fox is breaking a story on how Ahmadinejad himself used his last UN visit to help recruit a sanction-busting Iranian later charged as a felon for violating sanctions in exporting advanced technology to Iran. He was simply named as Iranian Official #1 in previous court documents.
Now we can add one more item to that list of attainments: A hands-on role, starting with a meeting in New York City in 2006, in helping one of his New York party guests commit the felony of violating U.S. sanctions on Iran.
That story of sanctions violation, pieced together here for the first time, shows Ahmadinejad's brazen abuse of diplomatic courtesies offered to him by the U.S. in allowing him to attend the UN General Assembly — where he is again scheduled to speak Wednesday afternoon.
The details come from evidence introduced in a federal trial in Philadelphia earlier this year of a 65-year-old Iranian-American businessman named Ali Amirnazmi. Press accounts at the time somehow missed Ahmadinejad's role in the case, perhaps because he was mentioned in the indictment only as "Iranian Official #1." But court documents show a web of sanctions-busting intrigue, involving not only Ahmadinejad, but also including communications running through the Iranian mission to the U.N. in New York City, as well as Iran's de facto consular service in the U.S. — the Iranian Interests Section housed at the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington, D.C.
Out of these interactions grew a sanctions-violating plan to transfer to Iran, from the U.S., advanced technology and expertise in the chemical manufacturing industry.
Ahmadinejad himself has not been charged with any crime. As a visiting head of state, he enjoys diplomatic immunity — which he abused with impunity.
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