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U.S. Military Technology Being Exported Illegally Is a Growing Concern
Iran has been trying for years to obtain parts for F-14 Tomcat warplanes. A growing number of cases of illegal exports of military equipment are under investigation, the Justice Department says. Many are destined for groups or countries that target the United States and its allies.
(Photo By U.s. Navy Via Associated Press)
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Many export schemes involve brokers and businessmen who have no allegiance to a particular nation or organization, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Julie Myers said last week.
One of the biggest recent cases involved ITT, the 12th largest supplier of sophisticated defense systems to the U.S. military. In March, ITT pleaded guilty to a scheme to outsource production of sophisticated night-vision systems to China in violation of the Arms Export Control Act. The motive was enhancing its financial profit, according to Justice Department documents.
Globalization has facilitated some illegal exports. Trujillo and Wayne made their purchases online using the Internet, and Tabib bought some components for the F-14 Tomcats from the online company that auctions surplus equipment for the Pentagon.
The escalating threat led the departments of Justice, Defense, Homeland Security, State and the FBI to launch an interagency initiative last week that will develop coordinated task forces throughout the United States to investigate and prosecute illegal export cases. But officials say huge hurdles remain in tracking sales and securing convictions. "These are incredibly complicated cases," Wainstein said during a news conference.
In some instances, cases are brought only because of the export quantities involved. U.S. agents, for example, tracked the sale of the spark gaps used in lithotripter machines to break up kidney stones. Lithotripters need only a few spark gaps, which resemble small spools of thread. But in bulk, they can be used in the trigger for a nuclear weapon.
Asher Karni, an Israeli-South African businessman, was convicted in a Maryland court in 2005 for buying 200 spark gaps, ostensibly meant for a destination in South Africa but which investigators determined were ultimately bound for Pakistan, a nuclear power.
The problem of military technology illegally exported abroad "is a threat carried out in the shadows, and it does not raise the same level of alarm as the violence of a terrorist attack or the sword-rattling of a belligerent rogue state," Wainstein said. "But it is a very serious threat, nonetheless."
