Iran Buys Surplus U.S. Military Hardware

(AP)  The U.S. military has sold forbidden equipment at least a half-dozen times to middlemen for countries — including Iran and China — who exploited security flaws in the Defense Department's surplus auctions. The sales include fighter jet parts and missile components.

In one case, federal investigators said, the contraband made it to Iran, a country President Bush branded part of an "axis of evil."

In that instance, a Pakistani arms broker convicted of exporting U.S. missile parts to Iran resumed business after his release from prison. He purchased Chinook helicopter engine parts for Iran from a U.S. company that had bought them in a Pentagon surplus sale. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, speaking on condition of anonymity, say those parts made it to Iran.

The surplus sales can operate like a supermarket for arms dealers.

"Right Item, Right Time, Right Place, Right Price, Every Time. Best Value Solutions for America's Warfighters," the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service says on its Web site, calling itself "the place to obtain original U.S. Government surplus property."

Federal investigators are increasingly anxious that Iran is within easy reach of a top priority on its shopping list: parts for the precious fleet of F-14 "Tomcat" fighter jets the United States let Iran buy in the 1970s when it was an ally.

In one case, convicted middlemen for Iran bought Tomcat parts from the Defense Department's surplus division. Customs agents confiscated them and returned them to the Pentagon, which sold them again — customs evidence tags still attached — to another buyer, a suspected broker for Iran.

That incident appalled even an expert on weaknesses in Pentagon surplus security controls.

"That would be evidence of a significant breakdown, in my view, in controls and processes," said Greg Kutz, the Government Accountability Office's head of special investigations. "It shouldn't happen the first time, let alone the second time."

A Defense Department official, Fred Baillie, said his agency followed procedures.

"The fact that those individuals chose to violate the law and the fact that the customs people caught them really indicates that the process is working," said Baillie, the Defense Logistics Agency's executive director of distribution. "Customs is supposed to check all exports to make sure that all the appropriate certifications and licenses had been granted."

The Pentagon recently retired its Tomcats and is shipping tens of thousands of spare parts to its surplus office — the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service — where they could be sold in public auctions. Iran is the only other country flying F-14s.

"It stands to reason Iran will be even more aggressive in seeking F-14 parts," said Stephen Bogni, head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's arms export investigations. Iran can only produce about 15 percent of the parts itself, he said.

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[annd2302]

Posted by j-whitman at 09:10 PM : Jan 16, 2007

annd,, You question my honesty ??

No, I do not,

"You seemed to say nothing untill I mentioned Congressman Duncan Hunter..."

Did it all get flushed?

[annd2302]

j-whitman

38 total years in the Oklahoma Army National Guard with 20 of those years being a Federal technician. Retired as a Master Sergeant. I am 62

Do you recall the BOP

[j-whitman]

It's the system

patriotic9

This has very little to do with the bush family
The American government has a long history of this kind of stuff. The CIA first funded Saddam for a military coup in 1959, they funded the Shah of Iran in 1953 for a military coup to over through the democratically elected government of Iran. The Shah was brutal dictator till about 1979. Pinochet was also funded by the US, Hitler was.

America sells a third of the weapons in the world, then spends 440 Billion a year on military, mostly to enforce the 'corporate world's' economic ideas upon the rest of the world, and make money via war. Make note it isn't just America in on it, players in this game come from every corner of the world, just the majority are western.

Of the "Largest 200 companies" in the world around 100 are owned by the US, and together the west(europe/usa) have 170 of the 200.

So it's not bush, it's the whole system



vote with the way you spend your money
do some research, if the above stuff is true?
Spread the story


peace

[j-whitman]

annd,, You question my honesty ??

[j-whitman]

annd,, You have 38 years in the military, & 20 years civil service,, How old are you ??... I did 20 in the navy myself.

[j-whitman]

annd,,, I can tell you of supervisors at Mathis AFB who have submitted wrong budget reporting, as well as wide spread theft from othre bases as well if you wish... You seemed to say nothing untill I mentioned Congressman Duncan Hunter... I'm sure you did your job well, there are thousands who don't.

[roneztaylor]

The key is, That whatever sales, IS GOING TO SALE! I think that the most important thing is not to forget where these old parts came from. Does it seem logical intelligence doese'nt realize exactly what's been done, or that can even still be done. Have some good god.....;'ol American faith! I'm almost sure there's a master plan.

[j-whitman]

annad,,, Sorry for the double post... The problem we had was totally lax turn-in procedures & people who should have known better caring only about bonuses identifing the material... Instead of proplerly researching & classifing items they would simply assign a LSN-0000 to the items making it impossible for dimil tracking.

[j-whitman]

annad,,, Sorry for the double post... The problem we had was totally lax turn-in procedures & people who should have known better caring only about bonuses identifing the material... Instead of proplerly researching & classifing items they would simply assign a LSN-0000 to the items making it impossible for dimil tracking.