Link

Illegal weapons exports up, US says
10/11/2007, 1:17 p.m. CDT
By LARA JAKES JORDAN
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Missile technology, fighter jet parts, night vision goggles and other U.S. wartime equipment increasingly are being illegally smuggled into hostile nations, including China and Iran, the federal government said Thursday.

Last week, two Utah men were arrested for allegedly trying to sell parts over the Internet for F-4 and F-14 fighter jets — which are only flown by Iran. The week before, two engineers were indicted in San Jose, Calif., on charges of stealing computer chip designs intended for the Chinese military.

Government lawyers and investigators Thursday described a growing number of unauthorized exports that could be dangerous if the parts and supplies end up in the hands of terrorists or hostile nations.

"The concept of terrorists, criminals or rogue nations obtaining weapons and other restricted technology is chilling," said Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Julie Myers, who oversees illegal export investigations as head of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Assistant Attorney General Ken Wainstein called new government efforts to crack down on illegal exports the Justice Department's top counterintelligence priority.

A Pentagon report noted a 43 percent increase in 2005 in what it described as suspicious foreign contacts with U.S-based defense companies. Another report last year by U.S. intelligence officials found that a record 108 nations were trying to buy or otherwise obtain U.S. technology that is restricted for sale. It did not list which nations or specify whether some of them were U.S. allies.

Night vision goggles, body armor and equipment used in improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, have been in particular demand since the 2001 terror attacks that prompted the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, officials said. But some prosecutors have been reluctant to pursue the smugglers because illegal export cases can be very complicated and time-consuming to chase.

"These are incredibly complicated cases," Wainstein said, adding that training and assistance will be given to prosecutors and investigators working on a new task force under the departments of State, Justice, Homeland Security, Defense, Commerce and the FBI. The task force largely will focus on U.S.-based exporters who sell or ship equipment overseas without proper authorization.

Other recent smuggling cases of concern to national security officials include:

_Pittsburgh company SparesGlobal, Inc., was sentenced last week for lying about exporting equipment used in nuclear reactors and ballistic missiles in 2003 that ended up in Pakistan.

_A man in California pleaded guilty in August to trying to smuggle 100,000 Uzi submachine guns and night vision goggles to Iranian government officials.

_Two men pleaded guilty in California on the same day, Aug. 1, to exporting military-use technology to China, including, in one case, computer code to help train fighter pilots.

I find it ironic that Iran would try to buy 100,000 Uzi SMG.
Persians being armed with Jewish weapon.

Hang them all.

Quoted: I find it ironic that Iran would try to buy 100,000 Uzi SMG. Persians being armed with Jewish weapon.

I was thinking the same thing.

Quoted: Quoted: I find it ironic that Iran would try to buy 100,000 Uzi SMG. Persians being armed with Jewish weapon. I was thinking the same thing.

Smells like BS to me. But 100,000 sterile weapons are sterile weapons. Iran could have shipped them to insurgents or Hezbos and had plausible deniability.

They were just parts kits

Quoted: If Iran doesn't have the ability to manufacture a gun as simple as the uzi domestically, they are more FUBAR than I thought.

Of course Iran has the capability.  Even Afghanistan has that capability.




5sub

Quoted: I find it ironic that Iran would try to buy 100,000 Uzi SMG. Persians being armed with Jewish weapon.

When my dad was in the Persian army under the Shah (requirement for college) he trained with an Uzi.  They were required to pick up every casing and they were not allowed to tell anyone outside of the army that they were using real Uzi's because the government didn't want the radicals (who obviously eventually became the government) to know they were actively buying Israeli weapons.  There was a lot of trade between the two governments before the revolution.

Quoted: They were just parts kits

Good grief, then the guy probably could have made more money by selling them in the U.S.

how would someone in CA get their hands on 100,000 weapons, let alone real submachine guns?

that sounds like a whole-lotta sensationalism to me.

Quoted: Quoted: I find it ironic that Iran would try to buy 100,000 Uzi SMG. Persians being armed with Jewish weapon. I was thinking the same thing.

Didn't the Iran/Contra fiasco was about the Israelis supplied Iran with aircraft parts?

Quoted: Quoted: They were just parts kits Good grief, then the guy probably could have made more money by selling them in the U.S.

Not that I would know or anything but certain "parts kits" are worth more in other countries.

Reminds me of "Lord of War" (the movie, not the dude on here)  when he talks about selling the Israeli Uzis to teh Mooslums

Quoted: Quoted: I find it ironic that Iran would try to buy 100,000 Uzi SMG. Persians being armed with Jewish weapon. I was thinking the same thing.

me too; however, using the weapon of the enemy can be an advantage.

Where the fuck did a californian get a 100,000 god damn uzis!!
why doesn't he pass them out to his neighbors and overturn some of the BS gun laws there lol

Report forgets to mention that they were Airsoft uzi's

Back when I was a young federal agent and going through training after being hired, we fired a qualification course with the Ingram M10 w/suppressor.  The agency was not known to have much of a budget for weapons, and I was surprised the issue SMG was a weapon with a suppressor (mid 1980s).  So not being bashful, I asked how it was selected and how we budgeted them.

The answer was short and direct.  "They were seized by U.S. Customs while they were on the way out of the U.S. en route to South America to 'vote' in an election!  Customs then gave them to us after the seizure!"

Neat little tidbit about the "Lord of War", in the commentary, the director said that it was cheaper to buy 5,000 real AK-47's for the bunker scene than 5,000 movie prop guns. After they filmed the scene, they sold the guns back, so that made them arms dealers, too.

Mmmmm, 100,000 Uzis. It would be cool to have just 10,000 of them in my barn. For a rainy day.

Last week, two Utah men were arrested for allegedly trying to sell parts over the Internet for F-4 and F-14 fighter jets — which are only flown by Iran.

F-14s?  Yes, Iran only.
F-4s?  Egypt, Germany, Greece, Iran, Japan, South Korea and Turkey.

Yep, the MSM gets another story 100% factually correct.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I find it ironic that Iran would try to buy 100,000 Uzi SMG. Persians being armed with Jewish weapon. I was thinking the same thing. me too; however, using the weapon of the enemy can be an advantage.

Well, FWIW, the UZI isn't used very much by Israel anymore.  Most of them have been replaced in active service with M4's and other short-barreled AR's.  

Quoted: _A man in California pleaded guilty in August to trying to smuggle 100,000 Uzi submachine guns and night vision goggles to Iranian government officials.

A man pleaded guilty in a scheme to buy submachine guns and sell them to Iranian government officials opposed to that country's current president, court records showed.
Under the plea agreement reached this week, Seyed Mostafa Maghloubi, an Iran-born U.S. citizen living in the San Fernando Valley, acknowledged that he attempted to obtain night-vision goggles and as many as 100,000 Uzis for shipment to Iran, in violation of U.S. laws.
He pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to export arms to Iran without a license, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Maghloubi's sentencing was scheduled for Nov. 26.
Maghloubi, 49, was the subject of a sting operation in February, when a person he had reportedly approached about buying the equipment brokered a meeting between him and a Los Angeles police detective that Maghloubi believed was an arms dealer, according to the plea deal.
Maghloubi, who claimed to have high-level contacts with government officials in Iran, eventually took delivery of three Uzis and a pair of night-vision goggles, the court papers showed.
He intended to ship the guns and goggles to a faction in Iran's government that is aligned with a former president who is a political foe of current leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
By arming an enemy of the Iranian administration, with which the U.S. is politically at odds, Maghloubi was trying "to actually try and help a rapprochement between the U.S. and Iran," his attorney, Deputy Federal Public Defender Guy Iversen, told the Los Angeles Times.
"This had nothing to do with terrorism," Iversen said

Linky

Story is: