Pro-Democrat Jewish group ties Romney investments to Iran

By Julian Pecquet - 10/30/12 05:13 PM ET

The pro-Democrat National Jewish Democratic Council unveiled a new website Tuesday tying Mitt Romney to investments in Iran in an effort to raise doubts about the Republican candidate's tough rhetoric during the presidential campaign.

The site highlights Romney's personal investments in companies such as the China National Offshore Oil Corp., BNP Paribas and Russia's Gazprom that have business dealings with Iran. It also links to a report from 2004 — when Romney was governor of Massachusetts — that faulted the state's pension fund for investing in 130 companies with ties to Iran.

“If Romney has seemingly gotten away with this sort of duplicity in the name of gaining even more personal wealth, imagine what he would do as president when he actually has the responsibility to make tough decisions to stop Iran,” former Rep. Mel Levine (Calif.) asks on the site.

Romney defended his investments during last week's presidential debate when President Obama used them to hammer him on the issue of Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program. Romney has attacked Obama's decision to focus on building international support for tough sanctions on Iran, but hasn't offered a detailed alternative.

“When it comes to tightening sanctions, look, as I said before, we’ve put in the toughest, most crippling sanctions ever,” Obama said during the debate. “And the fact is, while we were coordinating an international coalition to make sure these sanctions were effective, you were still invested in a Chinese state oil company that was doing business with the Iranian oil sector. So I’ll let the American people decide, judge who’s going to be more effective and more credible when it comes to imposing crippling sanctions.”

Romney countered that his personal investments are made by a blind trust.

“Any investments I have over the last eight years have been managed by a blind trust,” he said during the second debate, when Obama's criticism centered on investments in Chinese companies. “And I understand they do include investments outside the United States, including in — in Chinese companies. Mr. President, have you looked at your pension?”

Levine, in a recent piece for The Times of Israel, however, pointed that Romney himself criticized the use of blind trusts when he ran against the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) in 1994.

“The blind trust is an age-old ruse, if you will,” Romney said at the time. “Which is to say, you can always tell a blind trust what it can and cannot do.”