Indictment: Iraq bomb parts came from South Florida

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/top-stories/v-print/story/690944.html


Indictment: Iraq bomb parts came from South Florida
BY JAY WEAVER
Sixteen foreigners and overseas businesses were charged in Miami on Wednesday with illegally supplying U.S.-made electronic parts to Iran for producing explosives to kill American soldiers fighting in the Iraq War, federal authorities said.
The computer chips and other high-tech goods -- made in South Florida and other regions of the country -- were used by Iranian-controlled companies to make roadside bombs, federal officials said. The chips play an integral role in triggering the bombs, known as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

The IEDs have been a major cause of death and injuries to U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq.

''We cannot allow American-made goods to threaten our soldiers abroad,'' said U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta, who said that the part numbers on the U.S.-made microchips matched those found on unexploded IEDs in Iraq.

Still, officials could not tie any of the illegal exports cited in the Miami case to actual deaths on the battlefield.

The U.S.-based technology exporters were not identified in the 13-count indictment. Acosta said that was because they were ''tricked'' into selling their products to middleman companies that actually were fronts for Iran. The corporations were based in the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Singapore, England and Germany.

None of the eight individuals -- who were indicted on the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks -- has been arrested, but U.S. authorities will be seeking their extradition.

The indictment, unsealed Wednesday, spans 2004 through the present. It stems from an investigation led by the Commerce Department that exposed a global network selling U.S.-made ''dual use'' goods to Iran.

That is a violation of a federal prohibition on such export sales to that country, U.S. officials said. Dual use goods are software and technology products that are used for both commercial and military purposes.

Mario Mancuso, undersecretary of Commerce for industry and security, said a multiagency group including Immigration and Customs Enforcement broke up a ''lethal international ring.'' He said it was ``seeking to harm American and allied forces as well as innocent civilians by acquiring sensitive U.S. technology capable of producing improvised explosive devices similar to those being used in Iraq and Afghanistan.''

American officials have become increasingly alarmed in recent years about dual use exports making their way into terrorists' hands.

In 2005, investigators found an American-made computer circuit in an unexploded roadside bomb in Iraq. Through serial numbers and shipping records, they traced the computer chip's path from its manufacturer in California to Mayrow General Trading in Dubai, according to an April New York Times article.

The chip manufacturer, AMD of Sunnyvale, Calif., cooperated with federal investigators and said its customers are bound by contracts not to re-export its products to Iran.

Mayrow General Trading was among the eight companies named in the Miami indictment Wednesday. Also charged were a German resident, a Malaysian resident and six natives of Iran living abroad.

[FreakinDJ]

1. Ebay ????

I'm sure all those parts are available there

[stillcool]

2. I don't suppose Michael Ledeen..

is in the mix?

[O.M.B.inOhio]

3. America is supplying weapons to terrorists.

And a food vendor at the airport in Boston gave aid to the 9/11 hijackers in the form of a croissant. Bush would invade the U.S. with National Guard, but it would cost to much to get them there.

[amdezurik]

4. let me guess

the US firms have investors who would be embarrassed...like McSame and Cheney maybe?