AP: Fund-Raisers Trade With Iran, Iraq

WASHINGTON - More than two dozen top fund-raisers for President Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry are current or former senior managers of companies punished for trading with Iran or Saddam Hussein's Iraq - including the chairman of Bush's Homeland Security Advisory Committee and Kerry's fund-raising chairman.

Both candidates say they want the United States to hunt down and kill or capture terrorists. They say those who harbor and finance terrorists are just as guilty. Bush famously described Iran, Saddam's Iraq and North Korea as an "axis of evil" threatening to give terrorists weapons of mass destruction.

But the tough talk doesn't address the role of American companies that do business, intentionally or not, with countries such as Iran on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Nineteen people who have raised more than $100,000 for Bush are current or former executives or directors of a dozen firms fined for transactions with Iran and Iraq during the past decade, government records show. Nine top Kerry fund-raisers work or worked for five of those companies. All held their respective positions when some or all of the disputed transactions took place.

Does that cast a cloud over the contributions?

"The companies themselves aren't contributing," Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stenzel said.

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http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=95446

I'm suprised to see this!

55% to Kerry and 45% to Bush.