Missouri not to buy Shares from rogue regimes

OpinionJournal - Cross Country

Terror-Free Investing
Missouri won't buy stock in companies that do business with rogue regimes.

BY SARAH STEELMAN

"According to the independent research provider Conflict Securities Advisory Group (CSAG), there are some 485 publicly traded companies doing business with four regimes designated by the State Department as sponsors of terror. The activities of these mostly foreign-owned companies--such as Total, Sinopec and BNP Paribas--in terrorist-sponsoring states generate billions in revenues for the governments of Iran, Sudan, North Korea and Syria.

By so doing, these companies create part of the cash flow that enables these nations to underwrite the activities that our armed forces are fighting around the world. Were they to stop doing business with our enemies, it would be vastly more difficult for those regimes to sponsor terrorism, finance weapons of mass destruction programs and threaten--or, in the case of Sudan, engage in--genocide. "

Ms. Steelman is state treasurer of Missouri.