Mil-Tech

U.S. Weapons Technology Is Finding Its Way To Iran

The shadow war between the U.S. and Iran was briefly visible this week at an extradition hearing in a Paris courtroom, where an Iranian engineer was answering U.S. charges that he’d illegally shipped U.S. technology to Iran.

French authorities detained Majid Kakavand, 37, at the request of the U.S., as he stepped off a plane last year. On Wednesday he got a big boost when a French state prosecutor unexpectedly argued that the technology he allegedly shipped through his global procurement network had no military application.

Whether France extradites Kakavand or doesn’t, as now seems more likely, this was the latest round in an escalating contest over what U.S. officials say is Tehran’s voracious appetite for technology to feed its nuclear, missile and other military programs.

While diplomats dither about imposing new U.N. sanctions on Tehran because of its suspected nuclear weapons program, the real struggle over Iran’s capabilities is taking place in courtrooms and intelligence centers, via sting operations, front companies and falsified shipping documents.

In the last year alone, U.S. law enforcement and customs officials have uncovered at least 16 cases in which Iranians or their agents allegedly tried to buy night vision equipment, military aircraft parts, vacuum pumps with nuclear uses, and a lot more.

The U.S. counterattack has gone well beyond U.S. borders, provoking controversy and complications.

Suspects have been arrested and extradited from the country of Georgia and, just three weeks ago, from Hong Kong. A former Iranian ambassador to Jordan, nabbed in a U.S. sting operation, is fighting extradition from the United Kingdom.

Iran is fighting back. In December, state media released a list of 11 Iranians it said were being improperly detained, either in the U.S. or in other countries at U.S. request.

Kakavand was on the list, as was Nasrollah Tajik, the former ambassador to Jordan. Also listed was Shahram Amiri, an Iranian nuclear scientist who disappeared in Saudi Arabia last year and was reported by ABC News to have defected to the U.S.

Manoucher Mottaki, the foreign minister, called Kakavand earlier this month to offer encouragement. The call fueled suspicions that if France releases him, Iran will free Clotilde Reiss, a young Frenchwoman who was detained after Iran’s disputed July 2009 elections.

U.S. officials say Iran has also responded by trying better to cover its tracks.

Proliferation networks “are becoming increasingly more sophisticated — laying out a smoke trail, really,” said special agent Clark Settles, the chief of counter-proliferation investigations at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“They’ve added more middlemen” to hide the true destinations of shipments of U.S. technology, and have become more proficient at forging documents and falsifying export licenses, Settles said.
The U.S. effort also has gotten a lot more aggressive, said David Albright, the president of the private Institute for Science and International Security and the author of a new book on illicit nuclear trade.
“I think it’s hurting them. You can see in some cases, they get pretty desperate,” Albright said.
Iran is dependent on foreign technology to expand its uranium enrichment efforts, which U.S. and European intelligence agencies say is aimed at acquiring enough fissile material to make a nuclear weapon.
“They want to get 20,000 centrifuges” for enrichment, Albright said. “They’re constantly needing to go out and buy things. . . . You hurt them on the build-up.”
Iran is using U.S. technology for non-nuclear applications, as well to harm Americans, law enforcement officials and analysts say.
Sophisticated roadside bombs, thought to have been assembled in Iran, have been discovered in Iraq and Afghanistan containing electronics whose serial numbers trace them back to the U.S., they say.
At ISIS’ Washington offices, Albright pointed to a picture of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad touring one of Iran’s nuclear sites. Also in the photograph is a pressure transducer, which can be used to measure pressure inside a centrifuge that’s enriching uranium — almost certainly of U.S. origin.
Steven Pelak, a senior Justice Department official said recently that there was a more than 30 percent increase in criminal defendants between late 2006 and late 2007. Most cases are focused on Iran and China, said Pelak, who coordinates an inter-agency export enforcement task force. He said there are more than a dozen open investigations into illegal proliferation networks.
Despite a near-total U.S. ban on trade with Iran and significant restrictions in Europe, a lot apparently gets through.
“Cases lead to other cases. Every time we’ve taken down one of these networks, we literally found hundreds of leads,” said Settles, the ICE special agent.
The U.S. last year acquired an extensive “electronic Rolodex” as part of a plea bargain with the owner of a Dutch aviation services firm, who with his son was charged with transshipping U.S. goods to Iran. Robert Kraaipoel and his son came voluntarily to the U.S., because after charges against them were made public, no Western banks would hold their money, throttling business.
U.S. customs agents also have lured Iranian front men to third countries that have extradition treaties with the U.S., and later brought them to U.S. jails.
Pelak disputed that the U.S. government is trying to enforce its laws overseas. He said suspects are using U.S. financial institutions, buying American technology and often causing U.S. companies to file false export certificates, unwittingly he said.
Kakavand was supposed to be a case in point. Documents filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California charge that he and his associates set up a firm, Evertop Services, in Malaysia, and used it to buy at least 30 shipments of U.S.-made electronics worth more than $1 million. Once in Malaysia, they were shipped to Iran via Iran Air, the state-controlled airline.
E-mails from Evertop show the company’s customers included Iran Electronics Industry and Iran Communications Industries, entities that supply Iran’s military.
Kakavand’s attorney in Paris, Diane Francois, told McClatchy that the Iranian dealt with “no arms or dual-use (items), period.” Because he didn’t break French law, he shouldn’t be extradited, she said.
A federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing, said the real issue is that the two Iranian entities were designated for their involvement in Iran’s nuclear missile programs by the U.S. and one, IEI, by the European Union.
“These facilities don’t make toys,” he said.
The case helped prompt Malaysia, long seen as transit point for goods to Iran, to adopt an export control law in time for President Barack Obama’s nuclear security summit this week.
A ruling on Kakavand’s extradition is expected May 5.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/04/15/92289/how-us-weapons-technology-is-finding.html#ixzz0lpV8WkFL

Combat Aviation Brigade wraps up error-free Iraqi deployment

The 4th Infantry Division’s Combat Aviation Brigade found another reason to celebrate its recent return from a successful year-long deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom – everyone returned home to their families.

The “Iron Eagle” brigade didn’t lose one Soldier or aircraft during its deployment to Taji, Iraq, said Col. Patrick Tierney, the brigade’s commander.

“We’re the first aviation brigade in history to return from combat with zero losses – neither casualties nor aircraft,” said Tierney, adding that the accomplishment is even more remarkable as it is often a difficult task to accomplish during peacetime operations.

“It’s difficult to put these aircraft in the air for the number of hours that the mission required of them and not have any incidents,” added Tierney. “By the time you add in all the environmental conditions we had to overcome – dust, heat, the small area of operations and the enemy forces shooting at us – this really is an amazing achievement for the entire Aviation Branch, not only 4th Infantry Division”

Tierney credited the brigade’s success to the leaders at the lowest levels, taking initiative, ensuring everyone’s job was completed to standard, and meeting safety requirements.

Tierney, Command Sgt. Maj. Archie Davis Jr., and Iron Eagle Soldiers reunited with their families, friends and community supporters in Fort Hood early June.

“As leaders, we want nothing more than to train the Soldiers under us to be able to perform their job well enough that we can accomplish this feat,” said Davis, the brigade’s senior enlisted leader. “It is truly remarkable to know that for 12 months in a combat environment every Soldier in this brigade performed to the highest standards, and we were able to bring everyone home. That says a lot for these Soldiers.”

Davis added that the workload throughout the entire deployment was nearly triple the operational tempo they’d experienced during garrison or training operations.

“At any given time we had between 65 to 75 percent of our aircraft in operation for the entire year,” said Davis. “My hats off to the maintainers as each of the 110 aircraft in our fleet went through a complete strip and rebuild at least once during the deployment, yet we were never unable to meet the demands of the mission due to maintenance delays.”

Tierney added that the brigade’s success was the result of a full team effort from the maintainers and logistics specialists to the pilots and air traffic controllers and everyone-in-between.

“My mission statement for everyone in the brigade, regardless of (military occupational specialty) was to ‘launch aircraft,’” said Tierney. “Between the 5 million gallons of fuel pumped, the thousands of hours flown and the countless hours put in by the maintainers, everything came together throughout the deployment and everyone did their part flawlessly.”

Tierney added that the CAB received unprecedented amounts of support from the entire aviation branch which helped his brigade to accomplish their missions without failure.

Though the accomplishment of bringing everyone and everything home from a combat deployment was previously an unheard of accolade for an aviation brigade, Davis said he hopes as many of the CAB Soldiers move on to new duty assignments they take with them lessons learned to help future commands achieve the same results.

“These Soldiers now have the experience and knowledge to know that it can be done,” said Davis. “My hope is that the Soldiers pass on their knowledge, so other units can learn from our success; and this can be a recurring accomplishment.

“The Soldiers are the reason we did this,” Davis continued. “It was a whole team concept and each and every one of the 4th Infantry Division’s Combat Aviation Brigade Soldiers should be proud of what we accomplished as a team.”

Satellite Broadband Internet in Iraq and Afghanistan for U.S. Troops

WARSAW, Poland, Jan. 22 /Reuters/ — TS2 Satellite Technologies‘ network in Iraq and Afghanistan has over 15,000 military users of local broadband satellite connections.

“We were among the first telecommunications operators in the satellite technology in the territory of Iraq and Afghanistan, and as such we have enjoyed a successful cooperation with the U.S. Army for several years now,” says Marcin Frackiewicz, CEO of the TS2 Satellite Technologies.

TS2 Satellite Technologies offers two-way high-speed Internet access with no phone lines, no cable and no dial-up modem. It’s always on, available virtually anywhere, and affordable. The laptop or Wi-Fi network can receive Internet signal through a special satellite VSAT modem, which was usually set up in a building or tent when deployed.

The one VSAT access point provides the following services for soldiers:

– Broadband access to the Internet (WWW, E-mail, FTP etc.)
– Data transfer to many other users simultaneously
– Telephone connections including VoIP, IP phone
– Video-conference connections

Advantages of the system:

– Short set-up time
– Fast and easy upgrades
– Possibility of guaranteed CIR
– Transmission in almost all weather conditions

The communication among the bases is possible thanks to the simultaneous lease of bands on the Intelsat 10-02, Intelsat 901 and Eutelsat W6 satellites whose coverage enables configuration of connections between any place in Europe, Middle East and Southwest Asia.

TS2′s satellite military networks are located in Al Taqaddum Air Base, Bahgram AF, Balad Base, Baquba Airfield, Brassfield-Mora, Cob Adder, Cob Speicher, Camp Al Asad Airbase, Camp Bucca Basra City, Camp Buehring, Camp Charlie Basra, Camp Eggers, Camp Fallujah, Camp Grizzly, Camp Korean Village, Camp Liberty, Camp Mejid, Camp Ramadi, Camp Slayer, Camp Stryker, Camp Taji, Camp Victory, Fob Bagram, Fob Brassfield Mora, Fob Delta Al Kut, Fob Diamondback, Fob Falcon, Fob Garryowen, Fob Gardez, Fob Ghazni, Fob Kalagush, Fob Kandahar, Fob Lagman, Fob Mchenry, Fob Marez, Fob Normandy, Fob Rustamiyah, Fob Summerall, Fob Sykes, Fob Salerno, Fob Torkham, Fob Warhorse, Fob Warrior, Herat RTC, Jallahabad Air Base, Kabul Airport, Kabul Camp Eggers, Kandahar Air Base, Lsa Anaconda Balad, Q-West Base Complex and Tallil Ab Lsa Adder.

Especially for U.S. Military Personnel, Contracting Officers and DoD Contractors, TS2 delivers satellite equipment to most of all military addresses in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East, within maximum of 7 days.

Supported military locations in Iraq -
http://www.ts2.pl/en/Internet-in-Iraq-for-US-Army-Soldiers

Supported military locations in Afghanistan -
http://www.ts2.pl/en/Internet-in-Afghanistan-for-US-Army-Soldiers

Contact:

Piotr Kubiak and Michal Skrok
TS2 Satellite Technologies
phone +48 22 630 70 70
fax +48 22 630 70 71
http://www.ts2.pl