Just days after United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) President Mark Wallace wrote a July 6 opinion article in the Los Angeles Times naming the Japanese crane company Tadano as one of several selling cranes to Iran, the company announced it would cease further Iranian sales.
It appeared to be effort to avoid what business calls “reputational damage.”
In recent years, the Islamic Republic has carried out most public hangings by lofting the man sentenced to die from the end of a construction crane. The convicted man is usually left dangling from the crane for several hours high above the street crowds to serve as an example to all passersby.
UANI communications director Nathan Carleton said he believes companies send their products to Iran without knowing the troubling consequences.
“No one should be having their products going to Iran, particularly given the Iranian regime’s history of misusing products and money to fund terrorism,” Carleton said.
Wallace wrote, “It’s no coincidence that Iran’s increased staging of public executions came at the same time protest movements were gaining steam throughout the Middle East. What better way to keep Iranians from having ‘dangerous ideas’ like those of their neighbors?”
Actually, the use of cranes began long before the Arab uprisings began last November. Furthermore, the Islamic Republic is not known to have executed any political prisoners by crane. Political prisoners executed are normally done away with clandestinely. Those executed in public are generally common criminals who have committed heinous crimes. They are executed near the site of one of their crimes.
UANI has launched a “Cranes Campaign,” publishing on its website a list of 10 international companies that sell cranes to Iran, with photos of the cranes being used as execution devices.
The 10 companies named by UANI are: Tadano of Japan; UNIC of Japan; Kobelco of Japan; Liebherr of Germany; Gottwald of Germany; Zoomlion of China; XCMG of China; Konecranes of Finland; Cargotex of Finland; and Manitowoc of the United States.
US firms have been barred from selling any goods to Iran since 1995, so it isn’t clear if Manitowoc violated US sanctions, if the cranes seen in photos of hangings pre-date the sales ban, or if Iran has bought the cranes through some third-nation sales firm.