Fast Cars, Women, and Cash for Iran

If you drive a DaimlerChrysler vehicle and fuel it at Shell gas stations, you are supporting pornography, terrorism, and Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.

That may sound like a harsh accusation, and you likely were not aware that your purchases were benefiting pornographers and terrorists, but the sad truth is that DaimlerChrysler and Shell Oil Company are engaged in profitable business contracts with purveyors of lurid magazines and the world’s biggest sponsor of terrorism, Iran.

Let’s start with the double offender, Shell Oil. Shell’s cozy business relationship with Iran is well documented, and has grown in scope despite U.S.-led international efforts to isolate the radical Iranian government through anti-terror sanctions. Shell thumbed its nose once more at President Bush in January when it completed a multi-billion dollar deal with Iran to develop a massive natural gas field in that country, which the American government views as the world’s primary sponsor of global terrorism. While financial analysts applauded Shell’s pluck in forging ahead with the deal despite political pressure not to financially aid the mullahs, it should be noted that Shell’s fiercest competitor, BP, made the morally correct decision to not bid for the Iranian contract. If you have a choice between Shell or BP stations in your area, remember that the IEDs and suicide bombs killing Iraqi and American troops in Iraq are funded and manufactured by Iran, from oil money flowing into its coffers from Shell.

Ignoring international sanctions and doing business with terrorists would be reason enough to withhold your patronage of Shell. However, Shell appears to suffer significant moral bankruptcy fueled (no pun intended) by profit greed, and contracting with unsavory elements to increase already record revenues is a price Shell is willing to pay. Shell’s decisions may have given it the decidedly dubious honor of being the world’s only corporate joint sponsor of Islamic terrorism and pornography.

Major oil companies in the U.S. have long supported the policy of not selling pornography, including Playboy and Penthouse magazines, at branded gas stations. These oil companies have strict contractual arrangements with third party operators such as Circle K that prohibit the convenience stores at branded stations from selling pornography or face costly fines or breach of contract proceedings. As reported by World Net Daily, when the Florida Family Association contacted Shell to complain about the sale of Playboy and Penthouse magazines at Shell branded Circle K stores in the Southeast, Shell responded to the family organization by declaring that Playboy and similar magazines are not pornography. WND interviewed David Caton, Executive Director of the Florida Family Association:

The request, Caton told WND, has been made to more than a dozen major oil companies supplying fuel to nearly 150,000 outlets in the United States. And until now, Caton said, there has been virtually a 100 percent positive response.

"However, Shell Oil Company has decided instead to change their definition of pornography, unlike all other major oil companies, to exclude Penthouse and Playboy magazines which are sold by Circle K Stores," he said.

The confirmation came in an e-mail from Otto O. Meyers III, a Shell executive, who told the Florida Family Association those stores selling "Penthouse" are not selling pornography.

"In regard to your inquiry about specific Circle K locations, our investigation has concluded that these stores are not selling pornography as one would think the general public defines it, but rather 'adult sophisticate' magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse," Meyers wrote.

Caton said that puts Shell in a crowd of one among companies who "no longer consider the hardcore content of Penthouse and explicit nudity in Playboy to be pornographic. No other major oil company has taken this position". . . .

Caton said the new policy by Shell probably had been influenced by Circle K Store's recent purchase of 240 Shell branded retail locations.

After receiving this surprising rejection from Shell, Caton initiated an email campaign to encourage Shell to abandon its new liberal magazine policy:

"The e-mail calls on Shell Oil Company to follow the standards and definitions established and enforced by all other major oil companies regarding the sale of pornographic materials by strictly prohibiting the sale of Playboy, Penthouse and other magazines that feature full nudity and explicit sexual conduct at all Shell branded stations including Circle K Stores," Caton said.

The Florida Family Association previously has had positive responses from Amoco, Chevron, BP, Citgo, ConocoPhillips, Mobil, Murphy, Sunoco, and Texaco in its requests to ban pornography. An estimated 35,000 7-Eleven stores also have cooperated, as have another 20,000 locations run by Albertsons, Cumberland Farms, Eckerd Drugs, Farm Stores, Kash n Karry, Swifty mart, Tom Thumb and other companies.

Take note of these names of oil companies who are helping maintain community standards, make sure they are complying with their own policies, and give them your business. Most importantly, communicate to them why they are receiving your patronage rather than Shell. Pornography, in all its forms, has eroded the moral values of America for decades, and in today’s era of Internet subscriptions there is no reason for such products to be available or on display in convenience stores or any establishment often frequented by children and families. Circle K would be well advised to get on the values bandwagon and act unilaterally to remove these magazines regardless of whether Shell allows them or not.

Ironically, Islamic terrorists, according to Dinesh D’Souza’s book, allegedly want to kill us because of our decadent culture, yet they are gladly pocketing money from the only American oil company that offers pornographic magazines (which it does not consider pornography at all) to customers. I suspect that Ahmadinejad would accept money from Hugh Hefner himself and spend a weekend at the Playboy Mansion if it would help get more centrifuges online.

Now that you have decided to fuel your vehicle somewhere other than Shell, you may want to drive that DaimlerChrysler to your favorite dealer and trade it in for a truly American car, i.e. one whose maker does not provide Iran with vehicles and heavy machinery used to intimidate pro-western demonstrators.

Last month, FrontPage Magazine’s Ken Timmerman linked to some excellent photos of DaimlerChrysler’s investments in Iran that clearly demonstrate the uses to which the mullahs are putting this prized equipment. Timmerman wrote:

DaimlerChrysler has been expanding its operations in Iran in recent years, and recently opened an assembly line to build E-class vehicles in Iran. It also owns a factory that builds Mercedes-Benz diesel engines for trucks and buses under license.

In 2004, DaimlerChyrsler sold through a Saudi affiliate 270 Mercedes Benz commercial vehicles to Iran in a $22 million contract. Those vehicles have since been used by law enforcement authorities in Iran for riot control. A German prosecutor in Stuttgart opened an investigation into the sale.

DaimlerChrysler AG is the parent corporation of what used to be Chrysler Corporation here in the United States. The U.S. company has no legal or corporate responsibility for the sales of its parent to Iran.

Those sales are perfectly legal. But they are wrong.

Indeed, companies willing to ignore currently imposed sanctions against Iran are wrong to do so and are actively increasing the capabilities and resolve of a terror sponsoring nation, all in the name of profit margin. In December I wrote about “Terror-Free Investing,” and Timmerman recently encouraged readers to look into “Divest Terror,” a similar effort to demand that mutual fund managers, private industry 401k plans, and government retirement funds stop investing in companies doing business with terror sponsors. If you have not checked with your fund manager about whether your funds are invested in Iran or other state sponsors of terror, let this be your call to action.

You can start small by not buying gas from Shell or buying DaimlerChrysler products. Lest these companies not associate their declining sales with their ill-advised partnerships with Iran or pornography, make it clear to them through email, letters, or telephone calls why you are no longer a customer and how they can win back your patronage.