Newsmax: anham, Food Supplier to US Afghan Troops Under Pentagon Probe

Tuesday, December 24, 2013 06:08 AM

By: Elliot Jager

The Pentagon is investigating whether the main food and water supplier to U.S. forces in Afghanistan illegally moved provisions bound for U.S. service members through an Iranian port, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Anham FZCO was awarded a contract by the United States Defense Logistics Agency in the summer of 2012 — worth an estimated $8.1 billion — to provide food, water, and produce to American forces throughout Afghanistan.

According to the Journal, Anham shipped equipment it needed to establish the infrastructure for its food supply system in Afghanistan — steel, tractors, and refrigeration panels — through the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.

After Journal inquiries, the company notified U.S. government authorities that some supplies had been moved by its foreign subcontractors through Iran and that it was trying to determine what had happened.

While Iran is the least expensive and most straightforward route for moving supplies into Afghanistan, U.S. law prohibits conducting business with Iran as a way to pressure that country into curbing enrichment of uranium which the United States and its allies believe is part of Teheran’s push for nuclear weapons.

Two Republican senators, Mark Kirk of Illinois and New Hampshire’s Kelly Ayotte had called on the Pentagon’s Inspector General to probe whether Anham had done business with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard which has economic control over the Bandar Abbas port, according to the Journal.

Supplying U.S. troops in Afghanistan is immensely complicated logistically.

While the U.S. troop presence is winding down, in 2012 the Pentagon needed to supply 250 locations and some 100,000 troops around Afghanistan. This required each week moving 22 million pounds of food, water, and produce.

Supplies need to be moved into the landlocked country, surrounded by Iran and Pakistan and in the north by Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Shipping through the former Soviet republics is said to be too expensive.

Pakistan has occasionally blocked U.S. shipments to protest drone strikes within its country.

Anham, headquartered in Dubai, was founded in 2004. Its principals have ties to predecessor companies in Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The company holds other lucrative contracts with the Pentagon elsewhere in the Middle East.

Anham’s Afghanistan bid was more than $1 billion lower than its main competitor, the Journal reported.

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ANHAM EXECS KNEW OF IRAN-SHIPMENTS: VIOLATING US SANCATIONS AGAINST IRAN

Documents show allegedly that Anham (www.anham.com), the company working under a $8 billion contract for the U.S. Department of Defense, shipped goods used to support US troops in Afghanistan through Iran over the past year in a clear and egregious violation of U.S. law prohibiting any trade or financial transactions with Iran and other countries designated as supporting terrorism. The documents include the shipment records, indicating that the materials passed through Bandar Abas, Iran on their way from Dubai to the Anham warehouse outside the U.S. military base in Bagram, Afghanistan.

 Anham is a contracting company created by the principals of the Arab Supply and Trading Company (“ASTRA”) of Saudi Arabia; GMS Holdings (a principal founder of Munir Sukhtian International) of Amman, Jordan; and HII-Finance Corporation of Vienna, Virginia. Anham’s CEO and Chairman US citizen Abul Huda Farouki is the owner of HII-Finance

 Anham, at the time of its illegal transiting of materials through Iran, held multiple contracts with the U.S. government, including the SPV for Iraq and several USG contracts in Afghanistan. (http://www.anham.com/contracts.aspx). As the attached documents indicate, Anham used Iran as the transit country for all building materials (steel, panels, etc.) and mechanical warehouse handling equipment that could not be sourced in Afghanistan. Anham also used Iran as the transit country for trucks intended for its National Afghan Trucking contract with the U.S. Military.

Anham’s Senior VP Operations US citizen Fadi Nahas (email fadi.nahas@anham.com, Dubai cell +971505548406, Kuwait cell +96597689427) oversaw the illegal transshipments through Iran. Media sources also confirmed that Anham’s CEO and Chairman US citizen Abul Huda Farouki was involved in the decision to go through Iran.

Farouki is a co-founder of the Arab American Cultural Association. This organization came under scrutiny in 1989 when it offered to buy the rights and claimed sponsorship of the highly biased film, Young Palestinians: Days of Rage, a documentary of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Ms. Farouki’s husband, Huda, is a Chairman for the US Palestinian Partnership. The Partnership recently received a multi-million dollar contribution from George Soros, a known opponent of Israel. Samia Farouki is also on the Board of Directors of the Arab American Institute, an organization that is fiercely anti-Israeli.

Source: http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/05/21/the-9-11-graveyard-mosque-jihad-by-other-means/

Mr. Farouki is the founder, chairman and/or chief executive officer of several major successful corporations specializing in international finance, trade, contracting, logistics and procurement in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Southeast Asia and the Far East. Some of these corporations include Hii Finance Corp., Financial Instrumental & Investment Corporation (FIIC), ANHAM FZCO, VTEL Holdings Ltd. and Nour USA, Ltd. He has been involved in business in the United States for more than 35 years.  

Mrs. Farouki is the founder and President of HII-Finance Corporation (“HFC”), an investment company located in the Washington DC metropolitan area. Since its establishment, she has been responsible for originating and overseeing HFC’s diverse investment portfolio and leading numerous U.S. corporations in their growth across national and international markets, with a particular interest in women-owned businesses.