Iranians seeking F-14 parts

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...1/AR2007012100
760.html



Military Surplus Parts Illegally Find Their Way to Iran, U.S. Officials Say

By Sharon Theimer
Associated Press
Monday, January 22, 2007; A17

Fighter-jet parts and other sensitive U.S. military gear seized from front
companies for Iran and brokers for China have been traced in criminal cases
to a surprising source: the Pentagon.

In one case, federal investigators said, contraband purchased in Defense
Department surplus auctions was delivered to Iran, a country President Bush
has 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. U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement agents say those parts reached Iran.

Sensitive military surplus items are supposed to be demilitarized or
"de-milled" -- rendered useless for military purposes -- or, if auctioned,
sold only to buyers who promise to obey U.S. arms embargoes, export controls
and other laws.

Yet 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 a top priority on Iran's
shopping list is within its easy reach: parts for the precious fleet of F-14
Tomcat fighter jets the United States allowed Iran to 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 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, Frederick N. Baillie, said his Pentagon unit
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 and revitalization policy. "Customs is supposed to check all
exports to make sure that all the appropriate certifications and licenses
had been granted."