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Have Iran and China been shopping at Penatgon surplus auctions?
Sure looks like it.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. More, much more, at the link. Posted by: Seafarious 2007-01-16 |
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