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Posted on 04/02/2004 6:30:05 AM PST by OESY
The Bush administration is imposing sanctions on 13 foreign companies and individuals in seven countries that it says have sold equipment or expertise that Iran could use in nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs, according to administration and congressional officials.
The sanctions will prohibit the companies and individuals from exporting goods to or receiving contracts or assistance from the United States and will prevent American companies from trading with them for two years. Officials said the sanctions were being imposed under the Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2000, which prevents sales of goods and technology that Iran could use to acquire long-range missiles and unconventional weapons.
Both the House and Senate foreign relations committees on Thursday received from the administration copies of a classified 30-page report that describes such trade and names the entities being penalized, Congressional officials confirmed.
One official called the list the largest and most varied group of entities to be hit by such sanctions, saying that it demonstrated the Bush administration's determination to use economic pressure on companies and individuals who sell goods and skills that Iran and other states hostile to the United States can use to acquire long-range missiles or unconventional weapons.
"This is about branding companies and people who make such sales as proliferators," said one official who has seen the list and followed the administration's use of sanctions.
The 13 entities include five Chinese companies as well companies in Russia, Macedonia, Belarus, Taiwan, North Korea and the United Arab Emirates. At least five have already been given sanctions at least once by the administration.
The number of companies receiving sanctions has grown under President Bush. In testimony on Tuesday before the House International Relations Committee in Washington, Under Secretary of State John R. Bolton said that the administration had imposed sanctions to punish suspected efforts to acquire illicit weapons 22 times in 2002 and 32 times in 2003, compared with the Clinton administration's average of eight times a year.
"This administration is very serious about using sanctions as a nonproliferation tool," Mr. Bolton said.
He said Iran had a "massive deception and denial campaign" aimed at preventing international inspectors from uncovering that country's "robust" biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programs.
"It is clear that Iran draws from many of the same networks that supplied Libya with nuclear technology, components and materials, including the Abdul Qadeer Khan black market network," he said, referring to the network run by the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program. Mr. Bolton called destroying the network through sanctions and other steps "a priority objective of the United States."
Mr. Bolton also shed new light on the administration's view of what President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan knew about Dr. Khan's illicit nuclear sales network before his confession and about the status of Pakistan and American efforts to stop such sales.
Questioned by committee Democrats about whether there was evidence that General Musharraf was complicit in nuclear sales by Dr. Khan's network to Iran, Libya and North Korea, Mr. Bolton said that while General Musharraf might have been aware of such sales, he might have been politically unable to stop them because Dr. Khan was "an icon in Pakistan -the father of the nuclear weapons program."
Mr. Bolton said he believed that President Musharraf might finally have been emboldened by the revelations last year of Iran's illicit nuclear activities and Libya's decision to renounce weapons of mass destruction.
Mr. Bolton, bristled visibly when committee Democrats suggested that he and other administration officials were overlooking Pakistani proliferation activities because of that state's cooperation in fighting terrorism.
"If we had information about complicity of top levels of the government of Pakistan, we would act on it," Mr. Bolton said.
Mr. Bolton also disclosed Tuesday that the administration would soon penalize more companies for trading in nuclear goods and technology with Iran, but he did not identify them at the hearing.
Nonproliferation experts who have seen the new report said American officials had repeatedly complained to China and Russia about their companies' involvement in such transfers. No company, officials said, has ever challenged the sanctions in court.
Gary Milhollin, director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, a nonprofit group that monitors the spread of unconventional weapons, said that while some sanctions were useful, the United States needed tougher rules and mechanisms.
"Many of these companies are repeaters and many don't even do much business with the U.S., nor we with them," he said. "Iran is trying to get the bomb under the shield of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty."
A Rogues Gallery that was the basis of concern for a viable missile defense pushed by Bush and Condi.
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This is a MUST READ speech.
Kerry can't touch Bush on this subject.
hehehe ... it's only 2 years but I think they'll get the hint
I remember seeing the President give this speech. I mostly remember how, when he said this sentence, his voice hardened, his tone sharpened and there was NO DOUBT to anybody listening that the President was speaking directly to the terrorists and rogue regimes.
He was Bush the Powerful during that speech.
Prairie
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