While US is screaming about Iran's involvement in Iraq and it's nuclear aspirations, Bush administration is indirectly selling forbidden military equipment like fighter jet parts and missile components to Iran through middlemen. The AP story published in Indian Express is reporting that these contraband military parts made it to Iran and China at least a half-dozen times.
The US military has sold forbidden equipment at least a half-dozen times to middlemen for countries-including Iran and China-who exploited security flaws in the Defence Department's surplus auctions. The sales include fighter jet parts and missile components.
In one case, federal investigators said, the contraband made it to Iran, a country President George W Bush branded part of an 'axis of evil'.
In one instance the Iranians got Chinook helicopter engine parts from a US company that had bought them in a Pentagon surplus sale.
In that instance, a Pakistani arms broker convicted of exporting US missile parts to Iran resumed business after his release from prison. He purchased Chinook helicopter engine parts for Iran from a US company that had bought them in a Pentagon surplus sale.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, speaking on condition of anonymity, say those parts made it to Iran.
These arms sells are going on through US govt surplus property program which is advertised as "Right Item, Right Time, Right Place, Right Price, Every Time. Best Value Solutions for America's Warfighters" on it's own website. This program is so flawed that Iran tried to get parts for it's fleet of F-14 Tomcat fighter jets and got caught first time. Then guess what happened next.. the US govt sells the very same parts to a suspected broker for Iran.
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 Defence 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.
So Iran is getting it's F-14 fleet ready for future wars with the help from US! The AP story is reporting that Pentagon has recently retired its Tomcats and Iran is the only other country flying F-14s.
The Pentagon recently retired its Tomcats and is shipping tens of thousands of spare parts to its surplus office-the Defence Reutilisation and Marketing Service-where they could be sold in public auctions. Iran is the only other country flying F-14s.
"It stands to reason Iran will be even more aggressive in seeking F-14 parts," said Stephen Bogni, head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's arms export investigations. Iran can only produce about 15 percent of the parts itself, he said.
The Bush admin is so inept that any defence contractors can easily buy anything from rocket launchers, body armour, surveillance antennas to missile parts and then sell them to anyone illegally. So one should wonder how many of these arms have reached Al Qaeda.
The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, found it alarmingly easy to acquire sensitive surplus. Last year, its agents bought $1.1 million (euro850,000) worth-including rocket launchers, body armour and surveillance antennas-by driving onto a base and posing as defence contractors.
"They helped us load our van," Kutz said. Investigators used a fake identity to access a surplus Web site operated by a Pentagon contractor and bought still more, including a dozen microcircuits used on F-14 fighters.
The undercover buyers received phone calls from the Defence Department asking why they had no Social Security number or credit history, but they deflected the questions by presenting a phony utility bill and claiming to be an identity theft victim.
The article also provides details of how military Humvees equipped for combat zones were sold to a customer in Saudi Arabia.
So the question is why Bush admin is enabling our enemies. Bush brands Iran as part of an 'axis of evil' when he speaks to American people then behind the scene he helps the so called evil? This is how Republicans protect our country!