Posted on 08/27/2006 7:34:12 PM PDT by jdm
A firm suspected of illegally exporting precision measuring devices to Malaysia that could be used to make nuclear bombs is now suspected of exporting such equipment to Iran, police sources said.
Five executives of precision machinery maker Mitutoyo Corp. were arrested Friday on suspicion the Kawasaki-based company exported the devices to Malaysia without a permit.
Mitutoyo-made devices have been found in Libya in inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Because they can be used in building nuclear weapons, export of the devices was forbidden without a permit from the then Ministry of International Trade and Industry.
Mitutoyo is now suspected of having exported the device directly to Iran through a Tokyo trading firm sometime around 1997, the Metropolitan Police Department's public security division has found.
Before shipping the equipment, the trading firm learned the Iranian company buying it was likely developing weapons of mass destruction.
The trading firm advised Mitutoyo to change the name of the buyer on documents it submitted to the government.
Mitutoyo did as was suggested, but the delivery address for the shipment remained the same, police said.
Police searched the trading firm in 2000 when it came under suspicion in another illegal export case. During that search, police seized documents relating to shipments of precision machinery to a number of Iranian military units between 1984 and 1992, according to sources.
Mitutoyo and the unnamed trading firm have dealt with each other since the mid-1980s, with the trading firm acting as Mitutoyo's agent in exports to Iran, according to a trading industry source.
Mitutoyo directly exported to countries that have since been red-flagged as nuclear threats, such as Iran and Pakistan, from the late 1980s to the first half of the 1990s.
The company changed the practice after the government tightened export restrictions to countries suspected of developing weapons of mass destruction, sources said.
At the end of 1992, Japan revised the rules. Several items, including the precision measuring devices made by Mitutoyo, were restricted, and exporters were required to submit documents stating the purchaser's address, type of business, use of the machinery being exported and restrictions on resale.
After the new rules went into effect, Mitutoyo's exports of the devices to its Singapore operation surged from around 20 a year to more than 100.
At least one of the devices over which the Mitutoyo executives were arrested last week was exported via Singapore to a Malaysian company with alleged connections to the nuclear black market and ended up in Libya.
Mitutoyo is also said to have developed a device that looked like low-grade machinery, but which had all the same functions as the high-tech devices.
Police suspect these were developed to get around the restrictions on exports.
Get a tree
I wonder what they're up to?
"I wonder what they're up to?"
I can't understand the thinking of these people. Is it worth blowing the freaking world up to make a few sales?
They've both put their bottom line above the safety and security of western nations.
L
It appears without the details I cannot agree more with your statement. To damn many greedy bastards who could care less about winning the GWOT, verse making money.
OTOH, Mitutoyo makes very fine instruments.
(Time to find a second source)...
IIRC the 'executive' who did it was caught and prosecuted but committed suicide by hanging himself.
Hopefully this creep will have the same sense of honor and will do the same after he's spilled his guts.
L
They should be shot.
Carefull there, you are talking about capitalism, ô¿ô¬ and that can get you flamed.
For the love of money is the root of *all* evils...
the infowarrior
That should do the trick.
I would flame the dope back.
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