Yahoo - AP, let's re-arm Iran! Yay!
"In one case, convicted middlemen for Iran bought Tomcat parts from the Defense 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 would be evidence of a significant breakdown, in my view, in controls and processes," said Greg Kutz, the Government Accountability Office's head of special investigations. "It shouldn't happen the first time, let alone the second time."
A Defense Department official, Fred Baillie, said his agency followed procedures.
"The fact that those individuals chose to violate the law and the fact that the customs people caught them really indicates that the process is working," said Baillie, the Defense Logistics Agency's executive director of distribution. "Customs is supposed to check all exports to make sure that all the appropriate certifications and licenses had been granted."
The Pentagon recently retired its Tomcats and is shipping tens of thousands of spare parts to its surplus office ? the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service ? where they could be sold in public auctions. Iran is the only other country flying F-14s."
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What incompetent idiots at the Pentagon think it's anything other than insane to sell F-14 parts that have only one market - Iran?
No matter who buys the parts, according to the quote above we know who the final buyer will be.
We may catch some of the parts on their way there, but hoping to do so seems incredibly irresponsible. The sane response would be to mothball the parts for now, or even destroy them.
"In one case, convicted middlemen for Iran bought Tomcat parts from the Defense 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 would be evidence of a significant breakdown, in my view, in controls and processes," said Greg Kutz, the Government Accountability Office's head of special investigations. "It shouldn't happen the first time, let alone the second time."
A Defense Department official, Fred Baillie, said his agency followed procedures.
"The fact that those individuals chose to violate the law and the fact that the customs people caught them really indicates that the process is working," said Baillie, the Defense Logistics Agency's executive director of distribution. "Customs is supposed to check all exports to make sure that all the appropriate certifications and licenses had been granted."
The Pentagon recently retired its Tomcats and is shipping tens of thousands of spare parts to its surplus office ? the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service ? where they could be sold in public auctions. Iran is the only other country flying F-14s."
-----------------------
What incompetent idiots at the Pentagon think it's anything other than insane to sell F-14 parts that have only one market - Iran?
No matter who buys the parts, according to the quote above we know who the final buyer will be.
We may catch some of the parts on their way there, but hoping to do so seems incredibly irresponsible. The sane response would be to mothball the parts for now, or even destroy them.
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