Apparently it never dawned on many in Washington that an unwatched, unrestricted globalization may ever come back to haunt us. U.S. Exports Used To Create Roadside Bombs In IraqBy Cliff Montgomery – Apr. 14th, 2008The roadside bombs which have killed numerous U.S. troops in Iraq often are employed with detonators containing American-made computer circuits purchased by a trading cartel in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), military investigators have discovered.Readers may remember the 2006 uproar over a Bush approved-plan to authorize a company from Dubai to manage a number of U.S. port terminals. Dubai is the U.A.E. partner now thought to be at the center of the bomb detonator controversyApparently it never dawned on many in Washington–Republican or Democrat–that an unwatched, unrestricted globalization may ever come back to haunt us.When this bomb detonator business was discovered last year, the White House says it soon also observed that specialized metals, gas detectors and aircraft parts with a potential military use were being shuttled through Dubai to such countries as Pakistan, Iran and Syria.This began a diplomatic row between the Bush Administration and the U.A.E., which strangely has drawn little corporate media attention. The White House says it threatened stringent new controls on U.S. exports to the emirates, a declared “ally” in Bush’s War of Terror. The emirates had spent billions in the hopes of becoming a hub of global trade.A few things were said by both sides, but in the end the Bush White House let the matter drop after the U.A.E. promised to create and enforce a new export control law.So the very people who apparently were allowing computer parts to find their way into American troop-killing roadside bombs in Iraq were going to serve as their loyal policemen. The predictable result is that almost a year after the passage of the U.A.E.’s ‘tough export law’, there’s little evidence that it is being broadly enforced, say trade experts.“It has virtually had no effect, to be honest,” Deputy President of the Iranian Business Council in Dubai Nasser Hashempour recently told The New York Times.“If someone wants to move something…it is easy to be done,” added Hashempour.American-U.A.E. relations are in fact more cozy than most realize. Dubai, for instance, hosts more U.S. Navy vessels than any foreign port. The emirate also serves as a major listening station for America’s cloak-and-dagger personnel. Almost $12 billion of American exports poured into the U.A.E. last year alone.Emirates officials apparently have met a White House request to inspect U.S.-bound ship containers as they shuttle through Dubai for possible nuclear threats.But U.A.E. officials complain that America has complicated their serious efforts to faithfully follow the rules.The officials say U.S. representatives overstate the possible dangers of choice goods, or have given tips about dangerous shipments that–they say–have proven either to be wrong or too vague for serious action.No doubt the Bush boys can be an alarmist, downright wrong-headed bunch at times. But the arguments of imprecision are poor excuses for doing practically nothing, counter some U.S. trade experts.Commerce Department inspector Mary O’Brien went to the U.A.E. in 2002, and was appalled at what she discovered there.O’Brien’s simple spot checks of freight forwarders, factories and other companies revealed that numerous dual-use products–such as computer equipment–were being diverted to questionable groups on a more grand scale than previously imagined, Commerce Department officials recently told the Times.For example: A business claiming to be a humble woodworking shop had ordered an elaborate U.S. machine normally used for creating metal parts. O’Brien knew the complex machine also could fashion missile system components.She told the Times that the “woodworking shop” contained practically no sawdust, and that the employees she met could not properly explain just how they planned to use the apparently out-of-place machine.“This is not right,” O’Brien told herself. Truer words have never been thought.Like what you’re reading so far? Then why not order a full year (52 issues) of thee-newsletter for only $15? A major article covering an story not being told in the Corporate Press will be delivered to your email every Monday morning for a full year, for less than 30 cents an issue. Order Now!
How Necessary Laws Are Killed These Days
Lawmakers generally only fight to protect the things they care about – and all too often, that just doesn’t include the lives of most of their constituents.
