Why Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might not want transparency in Iran's financial dealings

Over the weekend, the press has been awash with a story that Iran is refusing to adhere with International money laundering standards.

It appears Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his motley crew of religious extremists don't want anyone looking at their money flow "too closely." My guess is that it might reveal that some of the money is coming from questionable sources.

From the AFP:

The United States Friday welcomed action by an international anti-money laundering watchdog urging Iran to close loopholes in its financial system and take steps to limit terrorist financing.

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said he was pleased with the statement earlier Friday by The Financial Action Task Force, which groups 34 countries, calling on the Islamic Republic to take action.

The Financial Action Task Force has taken a dramatic step in highlighting the significant threat Iran poses to the international financial system," Paulson said in a statement.

"As the premier standard-setting body for countering terrorist financing and money laundering, the FATF's expression of concern toward Iran speaks volumes."

Of course, it's probably not a coincidence that Iran is next door to Afghanistan, where opium production has reached an all-time high. Please note that most of the opium production is backed by the Taliban, who aren't exactly friendly towards the West, either.

In case, you are interested in a non-Western source -- which might support this contention read the Daily Times of Pakistan -- where they recently reported a large heroin/hashish bust on the border of Iran and Afghanistan, here.

What's interesting is that penalties in Iran for drugs are pretty harsh, despite the fact that they seem to have a drug problem within their country. If you continue to the bottom of this post, a video is referenced showing the drug problem in Iran.

The use of drugs is forbidden in the Islamic religion.

Nonetheless, it seems that if the money from drugs is for what they (Mahmoud and motley crew) and the Taliban perceive as a good cause, they seem to look the other way. Otherwise, it is logical that they would embrace financial transparency within their borders.

To sum this up, it's no secret that Iran supports and funds a lot of terrorist activity. The fall-out from this terrorist activity causes a lot of pain and suffering to a lot of people, worldwide.

Since drugs are forbidden by the Islamic religion, this clearly shows how Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his motley crew of religious extremists are no more than a bunch of hypocrites.

A wise person once told me if you want to get to the bottom of a problem -- follow the money. It always tells the truth.

AFP story, here.

At the bottom of this post is a YouTube video, which shows a woman smoking heroin. It also shows that she has to prostitute herself to survive.

Women have been treated pretty harshly in Iran since religious extremists took over. This is part of an interesting series, which was aired on the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation).

Casual sex is highly frowned upon in Iran, also. If you take a look at the video, the woman stops at a pharmacy to purchase condoms. This would lead me to believe there is more casual sex in Iran than we are led to believe.

Mahmoud also claims there are no, or at least very few gay people in Iran. I'll bet the CBC, or another reputable news organization (given the proper resources) might prove him wrong about this, just like they did in this telling series.

I would guess that gay people have a vested interest in staying in the closet under his regime.

New phishing rod being marketed on Internet crime forums

A new and more dangerous "phishing rod" is being marketed and sold in Internet crime forums. This assures that this "phishing rod" will be readily available to all sorts of "i-jackers" (identity theives).

DigitalTransactionNews is reporting:

RSA Security Inc. on Wednesday announced its analysts had discovered a powerful new phishing tool fraudsters are selling via online forums and using to hoodwink consumers. The tool, which RSA calls a “universal man-in-the-middle phishing kit,” allows phishers to set up a URL that can interact in real time with the actual content of the Web site of a targeted brand, such as a bank or e-commerce site. In this way, the fraudsters can intercept any data consumers may enter at the log-in or checkout pages of these sites. They then send out phishing e-mails embedded with links that send recipients to the fake URL, where the user can see an organization’s legitimate Web site but where any information he enters will be hijacked by the fraudsters as he types it.

The new tool is especially insidious, says RSA, because of its all-purpose nature. Fraudsters can use it to target any Web site without having to customize or create a tool for each brand. Also, the tool collects all data users enter, including all information the user types in after logging in. Typically, phishing attacks gather only data they request, usually passwords, PINs, or credit and debit card account numbers.

DigitalTransactionNews article, here.

I first read about the man in the middle phishing attack when it was discovered at CastleCops by PIRT (Phishing Incident Reporting and Termination Squad) and reported by Internet crime writer Brian Krebs of the Washington Post, here.

PIRT is a great place to report suspected phish. They have a lot of dedicated personnel that fight phishing!

It's a shame that these Internet crime forums are allowed to continue operating. It's even been reported that one of them is being "hosted" in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

And Internet crime isn't the only problem that Iran is hosting. I'm sure some of our brave troops in Iraq and Afghanistan could attest to that.

Until we go after the sources of this problem, I have a "bad feeling" that Internet crime will continue to grow.

The FTC was recently given greater powers to follow Internet criminal activity across borders. Maybe laws like these will enable the "good guys" to start having a more "lasting" effect on the people behind the problem.

Rogue Governments, Terrorists and Organized Criminals Raise the Stakes for Control of the Cyberworld

Hackers pose a very real threat to systems worldwide - here is evidence that this is no game being played by children.

I read this story from Government Computer News by Paitence Wait:

The Pentagon's primary Internet backbone, the Global Information Grid, comes under siege some 3 million times a day by outsiders looking for a way to penetrate military networks. And the outsiders come from all over the world, whether American script kiddies trying to prove their skills or Eastern European hackers looking for information they can sell.

Then there are the military cyberthreats from potential enemies.

Maj. Gen. William Lord, director of information, services and integration in the Secretary of the Air Force Office of Warfighting Integration and Chief Information Officer, today told an audience of civilian Air Force personnel attending the Air Force IT Conference that "China has downloaded 10 to 20 terabytes of data from the NIPRNet. They're looking for your identity, so they can get into the network as you."

Lord said that this is in accordance with the Chinese doctrine about the use of cyberspace in conflict.

Full story, here.

I recently wrote a post, Great Britain Creates National Fraud Squad to Fight Organized Crime and Terrorists. Add some rogue countries to the problem - and it's easy to see why a lot of the experts are becoming concerned.

Technology has also made communicating one's thoughts and beliefs rather easy.

The Internet (Cyberworld) -- with it's worldwide reach -- is also used by a lot of "entities" to spread propaganda. To illustrate this, we have a new blogger (Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) who has created a "blog" to get his version of the word out. To see it, link here.

Of course, a lot of subversive organizations have been doing this for years. Al Qaeda (in particular) has used the Internet to further their despicable deeds. Timothy Thomas did an interesting essay on this, here.

With President Ahmadinejad and his proxy Hezbollah in the news recently, we need to reflect on history for a moment before reading his "jihad of the pen."

These are the people responsible for taking American hostages in Iran and later Lebanon. They were also responsible for the Marine barracks being bombed at the Beruit airport in 1983 - and more recently have been a conduit for terrorist activity in Iraq.

And he (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) says he wants nuclear technology for peaceful purposes? If anyone believes that I can refer them to someone who needs help getting millions of dollars out of Africa.