Posted on 08/28/2006 9:29:27 PM PDT by jdm
TOKYO, Aug. 28 — An investigation into a Japanese manufacturer suspected of exporting sophisticated measuring devices to Libya’s former atomic weapons program has increasingly focused on whether the company also sold similar equipment to Iran, a government official said Monday.
The police and regulators have broadened their investigation of the company, the Mitutoyo Corporation, a maker of precision instruments, as evidence has emerged that it may have also sold equipment to Iran for use in making centrifuges to enrich uranium, said an official in the Trade Ministry, which administers export restrictions.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the investigation, led by the Tokyo police.
On Friday, the police arrested five Mitutoyo officials, including the president, on suspicion of exporting equipment to Libya before that country scrapped its weapons program three years ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
FYI
Not unprecedented. The a-holes sold submarine quieting technology to the Soviets. I believe that Toshiba was the guilty party in that case.
Along with their subsidary Koenigsberg of Norway.
Yea I think it was 5 axis CNC boring mills...But what is up with trying to hold back the world through machine tools. It cracks me up. I am sure the soviets had a way they used to machine thier submarine props before the fancy western machine's showed up.. I am sure the Toshiba CNC gear was much faster and more precise too, but what did it really change in the whole cold war? Quiter props? Nothing I say. Please leave the machine shop and our tools out of your silly political arguments.. Tools will always be free...Like art, you can't legislate it, sorry....Dual use my ass. Whatever, the gennie was let out along time ago. Live Free And Machine
Glad you weren't around in WWII, we would be speaking German east of the Mississippi and Japanese in the west.
As someone who is familiar with machine toools and subs, Here's what happened due to the toshiba mills and Kronberg's design software. Before the soviets had the new props, a carriers escorts could hear the soviet subs over 100 km away. After the new props that dropped to 40km or so. The soviets anti carrier cruise missile range was about 60km. we dropped from picking them up out of cruise missile range to well in their range. This caused the carriers to have to increase Hoover flights to expand the ASW envelope. More flights = more accidents, on the deck and in the air.
US sailors lost their lives due to toshiba's sales.
Precision machining technology is the core technology for weapons technology. If you can't machine perfect hemispheres, you can't make warheads. And to know they are perfect, you have to measure them. When you machine do you count microns? or wavelengths of light? Probably not.
"While the police provided few details, reports in the Japanese news media said the devices had been sold to Scomi Precision Engineering, a company that was later linked to Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani nuclear scientist who sold nuclear technology to Libya."
Well, what do you know; it's our old buddie A. Q. He sure did get around. I think he'd make a great figure in a series of Bond flicks. Of course, he would have to work for Specter.
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