- There is something very wrong inside the U.S. Commerce
Department and it involves some of the most deadly weapons ever developed.
In May 2002, I wrote an article on weapons sales taking place through the
U.S. Commerce Department.
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- The U.S. Commerce Department is not authorized to license
military items for export. Weapons systems such as missiles, warships,
and fighter jets are by law licensed for export only through the State
Department and the Defense Department.
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- Yet, documents from the U.S. Commerce Department show
that the agency in charge of civilian licenses was indeed heavily involved
in foreign arms sales.
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- For example, documents obtained from the Commerce Department
office of John Huang clearly show that the agency pressed the United Arab
Emirates, a very oil rich nation, to purchase a wide variety of U.S. weapons.
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- Being a good reporter I presented these documents to
the Commerce Department with a Freedom of Information request seeking more
data on the "arms sales" taking place within the agency. In response,
the Commerce Department decided to revoke my media credentials and deny
access to the documents.
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- "Please provide evidence in writing that you are
currently working for a news media which will be publishing the requested
information," wrote Jeannette Chiari, Bureau of Industry and Security
Director of the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Management, in a May
2002 letter.
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- According to Commerce officials, the Bureau of Industry
and Security, "formerly known as the Bureau of Export Administration",
has authority over weapon sales. They wanted assurance that I was indeed
a reporter.
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- WEAPONS ARE COMMERICAL ITEMS
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- "BIS (Bureau of Industry and Security) has the primary
responsibility within the U.S. Government for administering and enforcing
U.S. controls on the export of dual-use items (i.e., items that have commercial
and military applications) for national security and foreign policy reasons,"
states the letter from Ms. Chiari.
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- According to the Commerce Department, these "dual-use
items" that could be used for "commercial and military applications"
include U.S. made missile frigates, F-16 jet fighters and Patriot surface-to-air
missiles.
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- MISSILE FRIGATES FOR THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
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- The evidence of this interesting interpretation is overwhelming.
In 1994 Commerce Secretary Ron Brown wrote a letter addressed to Lt. General
Shaykh Mohammed bin Zyed Al-Nahyyan, Chief of Staff of the United Arab
Emirates Arms Forces. In the letter, Brown pressed the Commander of the
UAE Armed Forces to purchase advanced U.S. made missile warships.
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- "I am confident that Newport News Shipbuilding's
frigate FF-21 will be judged to be superior based on price, performance,
and logistical support. The selection of U.S. manufactured frigates will
also ensure the great interoperability with U.S. naval forces stationed
in the Gulf and Arabian Sea," wrote Brown.
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- "In this regard, the provision of two leased Oliver
Hazard Perry Class frigates (FFG-7) will provide excellent substitutes
while you await the delivery of your new ships," noted Brown.
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- For those who are not of Naval extraction, the warships
in question here are not something that a police force or coast guard could
use. These warships are very large, several thousand tons in size, manned
by over a hundred sailors each, armed with cannons and missiles that can
reach ranges of over 100 miles.
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- FIGHTER JETS FOR THE UAE
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- The Commerce Department documents also show that the
agency successfully pressed the UAE to purchase advanced F-16 Falcon jet
fighters. The UAE Falcon contract is worth up to $6.4 billion and includes
55 single seat and 25 two-seat versions of the Block 60 F-16.
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- According to Lockheed/Martin officials, the F-16s purchased
by the UAE are superior to those flown by the U.S. Air Force. The super-sonic
fighter jets are also known to be capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
Deliveries of the advanced strike aircraft to the UAE are scheduled to
begin in 2004.
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- JOHN HUANG HAD UAE DOCUMENTS
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- Again, being a good reporter, I faxed these documents
found in John Huang's office to the D.C. embassy of the United Arab Emirates.
I figured at very least the UAE should know that John Huang paid a great
deal of attention to arms sales to the Arab kingdom.
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- I also informed the UAE embassy that the convicted China-Gate
figure cited his Fifth Amendment rights 2,000 times when asked if he was
acting as an agent for the Chinese military.
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- I am sure that my contact with the UAE in early May had
absolutely NOTHING to do with the decision just days later at Commerce
to revoke my media status. After all, would UAE officials take the time
to phone someone high up in the Bush administration to complain about the
leaks of weapon sales information?
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- The UAE certainly would not like its people to find out
exactly how close the Arab nation is with the U.S., such as lending an
airbase to the CIA to run unmanned Global Hawk recon aircraft over Afghanistan
and Iraq. I am sure that the UAE also would not want its people to know
that most of the weapons purchased from the U.S. are identical to the American
weapons provided to Israel.
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- ILLEGAL ARMS SALES TO CHINA
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- Yet, the Commerce Department has also previously been
accused of illegally approving military technology sales to other nations.
In December 1998, the Defense Department accused the Commerce Department
of issuing licenses to the Chinese military that constituted a "defense
service" within the meaning of the State Department's International
Traffic in Arms Regulations under the Arms Control Act.
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- The Defense Department wrote, "This was clearly
beyond the scope of Commerce export control jurisdiction because only the
Department of State is authorized to issues licenses for defense services."
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- The 1998 case was not the only time the Commerce Department
dabbled in military exports. In 1996 Ron Brown was brought in to help export
a military grade Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) directly to the Chinese
Army.
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- A letter discovered in the previously unreleased files
of Ron Brown shows that Loral Defense Systems President, Jerald A. Lindfelt,
wrote Brown in March of 1996.
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- Lindfelt sought Brown's help in the export of SAR technology
to the Chinese Remote Sensing Center in Beijing. Lindfelt's appeal also
included a direct request for Ron Brown to over rule the Department of
Defense, the State Department and even Brown's own Commerce Department
which had all previously denied the SAR radar export to China.
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- "We've worked hard trying to resolve these problems
with the Department of State, the Department of Commerce and the Defense
Technology Security Administration (DTSA)," Loral's Lindfelt wrote
to Brown.
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- LORAL WANTED BROWN TO OVER-RIDE PENTAGON
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- "But someone in these organizations always manages
to block our participation... Over the years we have found that this type
of obstacle often comes from lower levels of management rather than by
people willing to look at the bigger picture. Could you help us by identifying
someone in the Commerce Department high enough in the organization to help
us resolve these issues and open this marketplace..."
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- Lindfelt knew he was writing to someone "high enough"
in the Commerce Department who could appreciate Loral's plight. Brown had
already established a long working relationship to Lindfelt's boss, Bernard
Schwartz, from his DNC fundraising days.
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- Loral's CEO, Bernard Schwartz contributed over a million
dollars to the DNC and accompanied Ron Brown to China on a trade trip with
the personal authorization of President Clinton.
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- Yet, Loral also had his own contacts inside the Chinese
government. Lindfelt attached a letter for Brown from Mrs. Zheng Lizhong,
Deputy Director of the National Remote Sensing Center for the State Science
and Technology Commission of China.
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- Mrs. Zheng wrote Frank Kelly, Loral's Defense Systems
Director in November of 1995. Loral Defense was then located in Arizona
and specialized in military radar and infrared systems. Please note - again
"Defense" means military NOT commercial products.
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- "Since 1989 the US Government has with held any
support for the equipment installed in our aircraft," Mrs. Zheng wrote
Loral's Kelly.
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- "Your company has been very helpful in trying to
solve the problems and release the equipment from the embargo, but so far
have been unable to achieve a result. According to your manufacturers because
of the function of the equipment can be classed as military and civilian
the U.S. State Department continues to block any moves to put the products
in the control of the Commerce Department".
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- I find it funny that even the Chinese knew that the Commerce
Department would approve the request for military radar. Yet, the real
punch line here is the Chinese National Remote Sensing Center is actually
the Chinese Army design bureau for all military radars and targeting systems.
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- In the end, the Chinese Army got its SAR radar and currently
uses it against Taiwan, Japan, Korea and the Philippines.
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- SELL ARMS THROUGH THE COMMERCE DEPT.?
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- Why would major U.S. corporations seek out the Commerce
Department for such sales when the law clearly specifies that they must
work through the Defense Department and the State Department?
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- The answer to that question is easy. Despite the leftist
mass media portrayal of the military as a tool of the industrial complex,
the Pentagon usually opposes such sales because they do not relish the
obvious fact that uniformed soldiers may have to face these weapons in
combat. The same answer applies to the State Department, which generally
opposes arms sales to dictatorships.
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- The Commerce Department, however, has no such restrictions.
The fact is that U.S. corporations sought out the Commerce Department to
over-ride the military and the diplomats when it came down to a question
of bucks versus right.
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- The curious point to this whole story is not why did
the Commerce Department revoke my media credentials after ten years as
a reporter, but how can anyone in their right mind classify a missile frigate,
an F-16 fighter jet or a Patriot surface-to-air missile as a "dual
use item"?
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- What is a weapon? The definition is clearly spelled out
in the law of the U.S. government. Seriously, when was the last time you
heard of anyone using a missile Frigate to go water skiing or using a Patriot
missile to go duck hunting?
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- The Commerce effort to revoke my media status has since
failed - badly - and the Freedom of Information request is now being processed.
The fact is that the Commerce Department was involved heavily in the sales
of weapon systems to foreign governments. The previously released documents
prove that point beyond any question or debate of what "is" a
weapon.
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- The public will soon know to what extent the Commerce
Department took it upon itself to become a merchant of death. They have
sown the wind and now they shall reap the whirlwind.
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- http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/6/26/140158.shtml
- http://www.softwar.net/patriot.html
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