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No Surprises

Iran celebrated last weekend’s disintegration of talks with the U.S. about its nuclear program by annoucning it intended to launch five more new nuclear reactors.

The care and feeding of this prolific activity is gratis decades long semi-legal and illicit technology transfers of nuclear related  equipment and materials from businesses, businessmen and arms smugglers throughout the world and especially from and through the United States. The last six months of Major Export Enforcement summaries illustrates this point. A businessman in Texas was sentenced to 33 months in prison for aiding and abetting an attempt to export Hawk Air Defense Missile Batteries to Iran. Federal criminal charges were recently filed in Virginia against an Iranian corporation, its officers and business partners for illegally exporting $30 million in computer goods from U.S. companies to Iran. A U.S. citizen was arrested in Florida for providing remote Information Technology (IT) services and support for U.S. origin computer systems located in Iran. Four U.S. citizens were charged in New York with sending carbon fiber (which has nuclear applications in uranium enrichment as well as applications in missiles), to Iran.  

A little known federal enforcement agency, the Office of Export Enforcement (OEE) in the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is the primary law enforcement organization targeting the most significant diversions of sensitive dual-use goods and unauthorized military systems to prohibited nations. They have their hands full.

Until  this pipeline dries up, count on a nuclear armed Iran.