Carly Fiorina Responds to Criticism of Hewlett-Packard Sales in Iran

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HP built up a 40 percent market share in Iran despite the fact that U.S. companies were banned from selling there.

 Ali Elkin AliElkin

September 20, 2015 — 3:18 PM EDTUpdated on September 21, 2015 — 1:38 PM EDT

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Carly Fiorina, former chairman and chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard Co. and 2016 Republican presidential candidate, listens before speaking during a campaign stop at the Stellar Industries production facilities in Garner, Iowa, U.S., on Friday, Aug. 14, 2015.

 

Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

Carly Fiorina said Sunday that neither she nor Hewlett-Packard should be faulted for the sales of millions of HP printers in Iran when such business was prohibited by U.S. law. 

Appearing on Fox's Fox News Sunday, Fiorina said that despite being the CEO of HP when the Iranian sales took place via a third party, she was unaware of them. 

"First, HP, you need to remember, was larger than each of the 50 states," Fiorina said. "It's a larger budget than any one of our 50 states, and a global enterprise. And so it's impossible to ensure that nothing wrong ever happens. The question is what do you do when you find out." 

“In fact, the SEC investigation proved that neither I nor anyone else in management knew about it.”

Carly Fiorina

“Are you saying you didn’t know about it?” host Chris Wallace asked.

“In fact, the SEC investigation proved that neither I nor anyone else in management knew about it…” she insisted, adding,  “...when the company discovered this three years after I left, they cut off all ties. The SEC investigated very thoroughly and concluded that no one in management was aware.”

A 2008 Boston Globe investigation found that, while U.S. companies were banned from selling goods to Iran, an Indian company in Dubai called Redington Gulf had sold HP printers there. They sold them so well, in fact, that HP had 41 percent market share in Iran by 2007. Redington Gulf obtained the printers through a European subsidiary. 

Wallace asked Fiorina why HP had named Redington Gulf its "Wholesaler of the Year" award in 2003 if the company wasn't aware of its sales to Iran, Fiorina again deflected blame. 

"The wholesaler of the year that you're describing was doing business with another company that was doing business with Iran. Clearly that wholesaler of the year, which should not have been wholesaler of the year, was not honest in their dealings with us, and they were not honest in their dealings with this third company."

Fiorina was also asked about the HP's struggles during her tenure, which included layoffs of 30,000 employees and a drop in share price. Fiorina said, as she has said before, that her time at HP (from 1999 until early 2005) was a period marked by widespread faltering in the technology industry. 

"It's important to remember that I led HP during the worst technology recession in 25 years," Fiorina said, saying the Nasdaq technology stock index dropped by 80 percent and took 15 years to recover from that recession.

Host Chris Wallace pointed out that, by the time Fiorina was fired, the Nasdaq had only dropped 23 percent, compared with HP's share price, which was down twice as much at the same time. 

"Yes and that technology-heavy stock index dropped again," Fiorina said. "There are people who look at a stock one day at a time. I never led that way."

Fiorina stressed that those who were laid off at HP got generous severance packages and career counseling, and said that if she were the president, government jobs would wind up cut, too. 

"When you have a big, bloated bureaucracy costs too much, that is becoming inept—and by the way that’s what we have in Washington, D.C.—then there are some jobs that have to go away," she said. "And I will say as president of the United States, 256,000 baby boomers are going to retire out of the federal government in the next four or five years. I will not replace a single one." 

CORRECTION: The original version of this story misstated the number of baby boomers who will retire out of the federal government. 

EXCLUSIVE – Source: Iran Resumes Funding of Palestinian Islamic Jihad Terror Group

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AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty

by AARON KLEIN AND ALI WAKED12 Apr 201612

Iran has resumed financial support for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, months after it withdrew support in retaliation for the group’s reluctance to openly back the Islamic Republic, an Islamic Jihad official toldBreitbart Jerusalem.

The official said that the support is much lower than before. At its zenith, Iran gave Islamic Jihad tens of millions of dollars a year, but now will only allow the cash-strapped movement to balance its books for the foreseeable future.

The official would not disclose whether the resumed support is dependent on turning up the heat on Israel, only saying that the aid was renewed unconditionally. He also said that Iran remains a staunch supporter of another radical faction in Gaza, Al Sabireen.

“Iran made it clear that the smaller sums are a function of the fact that armed resistance against Israel is taking place on a smaller scale, and that much of the country’s outreach resources are invested in Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon,” he said. “There’s no doubt that the lifting of the sanctions is behind all this, but it’s nowhere near the sums we were used to.”

He also said that if Egypt and Saudi Arabia move even closer to each other, and Egypt openly backs Saudi regional strategies, Iran will increase its support for Palestinian militias in Gaza as leverage against Egypt.

“We will not be part of this game,” he said, “but Iran is setting up infrastructure in Gaza that would defend their interests by creating an escalation vis-à-vis Israel and the newly minted Saudi-Egyptian axis.”

The official said the Iranian money has yet to be transferred and the reason for the delay is unknown. Islamic Jihad’s headquarters in Beirut, which was supposed to channel the funds to the Gaza branch, said that its numerous queries remained unanswered.

For years, Iran channeled up to hundreds of millions of dollars per year to the organization, but recently, due to disagreements over the Syrian crisis and the insurgency in Yemen, support was suspended.

In January, Breitbart Jerusalemreported that Islamic Jihad has been seeking alternative funding. The organisation has made headway in fundraising in Algeria and Turkey, sources in the group told Breitbart Jerusalem.

Top Islamic Jihad official Mohammed al-Hindi met with pro-Palestinian members of Algerian civil society and the private sector, and was allegedly able to raise significant funds, although still short of the original target, the sources said at the time.

“The sums at hand are rather limited and not big,” an Islamic Jihad source admitted, explaining that similar funds were raised in Turkey.

Islamic Jihad leaders have had to deal with growing disquiet among members, who bear the brunt of the movement’s financial distress.

Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him onTwitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.

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