Free Republic

Three Israeli companies and 10 suspects were indicted on Monday after they were found to have exported cruise missiles to China without a permit. The Economic Department of the State Attorney informed the suspects that it would be filing an indictment on charges of committing security offenses, offenses in the field of weapons, offenses under the Defense Export Control Law, offenses under the Anti Money Laundering Law and more. Ephraim Menashe, the owner of the Solar Sky company, which manufactures cruise missiles, among other things, brokered a deal with entities from China who were competing for a tender to provide...

New Mexico Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson will go before the U.S. Senate in coming weeks as Barack Obama’s nominee for secretary of Commerce. Will Democrats in that chamber remember his performance in 1999 and 2000 as Energy secretary, when secrets disappeared from nuclear laboratories, and one Democratic senator promised to oppose Richardson for any future nomination? In the January of 1999, the U.S. House Select Committee on Intelligence published ... the “Cox Report” -- which found that China had stolen and still was stealing nuclear weapons secrets from the U.S. The committee reported that “the primary focus of this long-term,...

As part of just-inaugurated President Obama’s new foreign policy to improve relations between the United States and Russia, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in March 2009. Meeting in her hotel’s Salon Panorama in Geneva, she presented him with a small gift box containing a bright red button symbolizing the Obama administration’s desire to “reset” the relationship between the two governments. Thus began an effort to transfer American technology to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s own “Silicon Valley,” called Skolkovo. In a report released in late July by the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) entitled From...

The Bush administration has approved the sale of advanced dual-use computers to Syria. "It's a major piece of equipment and is being given to an ally that could use it for military purposes as well as share it with Iran," an official said. The export, disclosed by the U.S. television network Fox, was approved despite U.S. sanctions on Damascus of military and advanced dual-use systems. Syria, deemed a terrorist sponsor, has been in the same category as Iran and North Korea.

DUSSELDORF - Iran has obtained German guidance gear for its drones, a prosecutor disclosed in Dusseldorf Monday, just hours after the revelation that Britain had supplied night-vision equipment to Iran which ended up in the hands of Hezbollah fighters. Johannes Mocken, the prosecutor in Dusseldorf, said Tehran had obtained the global positioning systems (GPS) through Iranian merchants living in Germany. The delivery was first reported by a German television current-affairs programme, Fakt, which said seven German-made systems were exported but German authorities managed to stop three more. The systems use signals from satellites to help fly unmanned aircraft. Hezbollah deployed...

With President Vladimir Putin's blessing, Boeing struck an $18 billion deal Friday with VSMPO-Avisma to supply titanium for its airplanes. The agreement came exactly a week after the United States announced it had imposed sanctions on state arms trader Rosoboronexport, which is acquiring VSMPO-Avisma, and could help Boeing land a large planes order with Aeroflot. The development should alleviate fears that the sanctions will harm U.S. companies' business in Russia. As part of a 30-year deal, Boeing and VSMPO signed off Friday on a joint venture under which Boeing will purchase $18 billion-worth of VSMPO's titanium products. Meeting with a...

Multi-national defense programs have gone from isolated instances to a major defense industry trend over the last two decades, and technology transfers are a critical and often-overlooked aspect of that trend. They also play a major role in fostering interoperability among allied militaries, especially those who wish to keep up with the USA and its seemingly endless stream of high-tech kit. Britain is the USA's single most important global defense relationship, and they were promised a waiver for the USA's International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) under the Clinton administration in 2000. That waiver would enable the UK to acquire...

"ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS The Military Power of the People's Republic of China" ....

HONG KONG -- China has over the past several months quietly scaled back plans for a multibillion-dollar upgrade of its wireless networks, dealing a possible blow to U.S. and European phone-equipment companies that hope to cash in on the construction. China's powerful, state-controlled phone companies are now expected to deploy fewer -- and smaller -- "third-generation," or 3G, wireless networks across the country in the next few years, industry executives and analysts say. That means significantly less spending on big-ticket equipment from Western suppliers. Those companies built most of China's existing wireless infrastructure and were hoping for big upgrade contracts...

BRITAIN is facing an increasingly acrimonious argument with America over military exports to China after the Communist party pledged yesterday to push through legislation allowing for war with Taiwan. Washington fears its sailors and pilots could face weapons guided by European technology in a battle over Taiwan, which split from China in 1949 and is a thriving democracy. One example cited by American analysts is a micro-satellite developed by Surrey University’s commercial arm which will give China increased ability to survey the Taiwan Straits and enhance knowledge that could be used to wage war in space. The firm, Surrey Satellite...

Ning Wen and his wife were arrested last fall at their home office in Manitowoc, Wis., for allegedly sending their native China $500,000 worth of computer parts that could enhance missile systems. As these naturalized citizens await trial, similar episodes in Mount Pleasant, N.J., and Palo Alto, Calif., point only to the tip of the iceberg, according to FBI officials keeping tabs on more than 3,000 companies in the U.S. suspected of collecting information for China. A hotbed of activity is Silicon Valley, where the number of Chinese espionage cases handled by the bureau increases 20% to 30% annually. Says...

The good news is that the Pakistan Air Force has finally phased out its 36-year-old U.S.-supplied F-6 aircraft and inducted a fleet of 22 F-7PG jets, newly acquired from China over the past three months. The bad news is that China's F-7 (although much modernized, and beefed up with a MiG-29 engine) is basically a venerable Soviet-era MiG-21 Fishbed, which first flew in 1955. With more than 8,000 produced, the MiG-21 remains by far the most popular combat aircraft of the jet age. China has been producing the F-7 for even longer than the Pakistanis have had the old F-6...

US smart bomb technology unit to move to China U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-1st, and U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., have made another move in their efforts to prevent the closure of the Magnequench facility in Valparaiso and its re-location to the People’s Republic of China. According to a statement released Friday, Visclosky and Bayh have requested the U.S. Department of the Treasury to release the facts of its investigation into its review of Magnequench’s sale in 1995 to a consortium which included Chinese interests and Magnequench’s acquisition in 2000 of the Valparaiso facility. Visclosky also asked the House Armed...

  No. 499-03 IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 10, 2003 DCIS Agents Launch 18-Company Search in Tech Transfer Case Joseph E. Schmitz, Department of Defense Inspector General, announced today that agents from the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) executed search warrants on 18 U.S. companies in ten states as part of an ongoing investigation regarding illegal transfer of military components in violation of the Arms Export Control Act.DCIS agents, working with Department of Homeland Security ICE agents, launched a multi-state execution of search warrants in Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire, New...

An important U.S. high-tech manufacturer is shutting down its American operations, laying off hundreds of workers and moving sophisticated equipment now being used to make critical parts for smart bombs to the People's Republic of China (PRC), Insight has learned. Indianapolis-based Magnequench Inc. has not yet publically announced the closing of its Valparaiso, Ind., factory, but Insight has confirmed that the company will shut down this year and relocate at least some of its high-tech machine tools to Tianjin, China. Word of the shutdown comes as the company is producing critical parts for the U.S. Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM)...

WASHINGTONThey never learn. Remember, a couple of years ago, the scandals about the way corporate giants like Hughes Electronics and Loral Space, led by big Democratic contributors, sold secret U.S. satellite technology to Chinese aerospace companies and semiconductor manufacturers? Remember how right-wingers like me got all worked up about our shortsighted government and venal executives placing the interests of international trade over the needs of national defense? I am ashamed to report that the Bush administration is getting ready to let our ever-hungry multinationals do the same thing. This time, however, it would all be legalized. If current legislation (Senate...

THE CHINA OPENING: MOVING AT CROSS PURPOSES by William R. Hawkins The February meeting between President George W. Bush and Chinese President Jiang Zemin in Beijing was cordial, but uneventful. Beijing was clearly not prepared to give an inch on any of the issues which divide the two Asian powers. On key matters--proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, missile defense and Taiwan--the two sides remain at loggerheads. Even benign statements, such as Jiang's "we want the Korean Peninsula to have peace and stability," indicated conflicting views. Beijing supports the survival of the heavily militarized North Korean dictatorship. China supplies North...