Kowabunga

There is a report on FoxNews that Iran and China have been using middlemen to acquire U.S. weapons technology that is forbidden to them. The use of middlemen acting as purchasing agents is a means for countries such as Iran and China (and possibly others) to clandestinely obtain weapons tech via U.S. surplus auctions, thus circumventing security measures in place to prevent the transfer of our weapons technologies to our enemies.

In the case of Iran, this places critical replacement components for its squadrons of F-14 Tomcat fighters within reach.

In one case described in the article a Pakistani broker acquired components for Iran (and delivered same), was imprisoned, then resumed business, doing the same for Iran.

The question is: why was this weapons broker allowed to access to U.S. military surplus after having been convicted of funneling tech to our enemies? How many other such brokers are operating in the same fashion, as yet undetected, or have been caught, convicted, then allowed repeat access?

This is a troubling breach of national security.

The article points out that the U.S. has retired the F-14 Tomcat, and Iran is the only country currently flying this aircraft. Sounds to me like all of the surplus parts for the Tomcat should not be released for auction as the only country currently able to utilize them is Iran.

How, such has not been the case. The Defense Reutilization and Marketing Division has not only sold Tomcat parts to brokers who intended (and attmepmted) to ship the parts to Iran, the Customs Department caught them, returned the parts, and the DRMD resold them yet again, to a different set of brokers intent on shipping the same parts to, you guessed it, Iran.

Although the Customs Department has managed to stop these shipments, how many other shipments managed to get through the system and into Iran?

Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT) stated "The military should not sell or give away any sensitive military equipment. If we no longer need it, it needs to be destroyed - totally destroyed…the Department of Defense should not be supplying sensitive military equipment to our adversaries, our enemies, terrorists."

He's got that right. If it isn't destroyed, then the components, where feasible, should be stripped down and recycling any basic materials possible (metals, plastics, etc.).