***CEO Watch***
For Immediate Release
September 7, 2010
Contact: Kam Kuwata, 800-709-7532
While Carly Fiorina Travels in Israel…
Los Angeles Rabbis and Jewish Leaders Call on Carly Fiorina to Apologize for Her Deplorable Trading with Iran
Los Angeles Rabbis and other Jewish community leaders have today released a letter to Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina, asking her to apologize in Israel for overseeing Hewlett-Packard as it used a subsidiary to sell equipment to Iran and sidestep US trade sanctions.
To see more on this issue, view this KGO-SF story reported by Mark Matthews here http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/video?id=6992643 and CEO Watch’s video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZBuBx0kRh0
The letter is provided below.
Carly Fiorina for Senate
915 L Street, Suite C-378
Sacramento, CA 95814
September 7, 2010
Ms. Fiorina:
On behalf of CEO Watch, we are excited that you have agreed to make an educational visit to Israel. Israel is one of America’s strongest allies in the world and we hope that you go with an open mind so you can avail yourself of the many lessons you will have before you.
However, we have learned about your behavior when you were CEO of Hewlett-Packard, which we find very troubling.
Over the course of the few years you ran HP before you were fired, a HP subsidiary sold equipment to Iran. According to the State Department, Iran is a state sponsor of Hamas, Hizballah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad; those terrorist groups are targeting the State of Israel.
According to news accounts, this subsidiary was started with the sole purpose of selling HP products to Iran, and you awarded this subsidiary “Wholesaler of the Year” in 2003.
Earlier this year, when your behavior was reported in newspapers, your former company HP acknowledged that some of its equipment may be in use by the Iranian military. HP has now severed its relationship with this subsidiary company.
During the time you were selling equipment to this state sponsor of terrorism, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called “for the destruction of Israel, describing it as a ‘cancerous tumor’ in the Middle East,” according to Reuters.
Your decision to do business with Iran has undermined Israel’s security and important US trade sanctions. We hope you can apologize in Israel for your deplorable behavior.
With the beginning of the Jewish High Holy Days and peace talk resuming in Washington, we hope you will join us on the journey of real peace and security in all of the Middle East.
Safe travels,
Rabbi Steven Jacobs
Recipient of Walter Cronkite Faith and Freedom Award, Executive Board Member of Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Founder of Progressive Faith Foundation
Rabbi Jonathan Klein
Los Angeles
Rabbi Linda Bertenthal
Managing Congregational Representative, West District
Union for Reform Judaism
Howard Welinsky
Former Chair of the Jewish Community Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation, Los Angeles
Andrew Lachman
Los Angeles Jewish Federation, Young Leaders Division and Jewish Community Relations Committee
Ron Galperin
Cantor, Los Angeles
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CEO Watch is a project of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party that explores the records of Republican candidates who brag about their business credentials as qualifications for seeking public office. Not authorized by any federal candidate or committee.
