http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~23827~2427643,00.html
( A Few Paragraphs )
U.S. arms deals elude required scrutiny
By Bruce Finley
Denver Post Staff Writer
Washington - The United States is failing to safeguard much of the highly sought weaponry it sends abroad - from assault rifles to sophisticated combat technology, a review by The Denver Post concludes.
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When government officials do review arms deals, they find increasing problems - including diversions to at least one criminal and several hostile nations. Nearly one in five arms deals checked last year - 76 out of 413 - had such problems.
"At a time when many consider the greatest threat to our national security to be terrorists getting their hands on weapons of mass destruction, I am extremely concerned that the U.S. government is not doing enough to make sure that we ourselves are not the source of any weapons that may be used against us either domestically or against our citizens, soldiers or allies abroad," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., ranking member of the subcommittee on terrorism and homeland security and member of the Select Committee on Intelligence.
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Eye on portable missiles
Consider the case of Stinger shoulder-launched missiles - which the United States supplies to at least 17 countries, including Egypt, Israel, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Experts agree that if any U.S. weapon must be controlled, this is it.
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The GAO also addressed dual-use technology sent to government-designated "countries of concern" such as China, India and Russia that are supposed to receive extra scrutiny. Of 26,340 approved dual-use sales during that period, 7,680 involved countries of concern. Commerce officials reviewed 428, or 5.6 percent, of those, according to another GAO study. It concluded that the government "cannot ensure that dual-use items exported to countries of concern are not misused or diverted."
Congressional leaders are considering action to deal with "lagging oversight," said Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"It seems incongruous to say one of the primary purposes of the war on terrorism is to make sure weapons of mass destruction don't get into the hands of evildoers, and then not to enforce our own safeguards on weapons sales," Nelson said.
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Last year, State Department officials charged with overseeing private-company deals selected 413 for more careful review, though still not inspections to verify where weapons are and how they are used.These targeted reviews found irregularities with 76, or 18.4 percent, of those deals. That's the highest percentage ever, up from 11 percent, or 50, of the deals reviewed in 2002, State Department documents said.
The 413 reviews interrupted a plan to move firearms to a criminal in Central America, sales of helicopter parts to a hostile country, and misuse of electronics and communications equipment sent to Asia, records show. Details were omitted.
The findings indicate more weapons may have slipped through in deals not reviewed. At a recent industry conference in Colorado Springs, Suchan, the State Department's chief regulator, appealed to defense companies for help. He urged senior managers to make sure their companies police themselves and voluntarily disclose violations.
State Department supervisors said 32 inspectors - including contract employees - must process applications for some 50,000 commercial arms deals each year.
Yep...they will finally find those WMD's
Right where they sold /em
...those shell corps shuffling WMD around the world...Where they stop nobody "knows." Much more important to fill pockets of corp execs than to protect against our own weapons in the battlefield.