Charles R. Smith
Wednesday, June 26, 2002

Agency Hides Records on Arms to Foreign Buyers

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 Commerce Department. 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 and Defense departments.

Yet documents from the Commerce Department show that the agency in charge of civilian licenses was indeed heavily involved in foreign arms sales.

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.

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.

"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.

According to Commerce officials, the Bureau of Industry and Security, "formerly known as the Bureau of Export Administration," has authority over weapons sales. They wanted assurance that I was indeed a reporter.

Weapons Are Commercial Items

"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.

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.

Missile Frigates for the United Arab Emirates

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 armed forces. In the letter, Brown pressed the commander of the UAE armed forces to purchase advanced U.S.-made missile warships.

"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.

"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.

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.

Fighter Jets for the UAE

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.

According to Lockheed/Martin officials, the F-16s purchased by the UAE are superior to those flown by the U.S. Air Force. The superlsonic 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.

John Huang Had UAE Documents

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 the very least the UAE should know that John Huang paid a great deal of attention to arms sales to the Arab kingdom.

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.

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?

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.

Illegal Arms Sales to China

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.

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."

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. 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.

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 overrule 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.

"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.

Loral Wanted Brown to Override Pentagon

"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. ..."

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 with Lindfelt's boss, Bernard Schwartz, from his DNC fund-raising days.

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.

Yet Loral also had its 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.

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.

"Since 1989 the US Government has withheld any support for the equipment installed in our aircraft," Mrs. Zheng wrote Loral's Kelly.

"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."

I find it funny that even the Chinese knew that the Commerce Department would approve the request for military radar. Yet the real punchline here is the Chinese National Remote Sensing Center is actually the Chinese army design bureau for all military radars and targeting systems.

In the end, the Chinese army got its SAR radar and currently uses it against Taiwan, Japan, Korea and the Philippines.

Sell Arms Through Commerce Department?

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?

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.

The Commerce Department, however, has no such restrictions. The fact is that U.S. corporations sought out the Commerce Department to override the military and the diplomats when it came down to a question of bucks versus right.

The curious point to this whole story is not why did the Commerce Department revoke my media credentials after 10 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"?

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?

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 weapons systems to foreign governments. The previously released documents prove that point beyond any question or debate of what "is" a weapon.

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.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
China/Taiwan

Clinton Scandals
Middle East

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