Men tried to export F-14 parts to Canada: police

[GAP]

Men tried to export F-14 parts to Canada: police
Updated Mon. Oct. 8 2007 9:24 AM ET The Associated Press
Article Link

SALT LAKE CITY -- Two Utah men have been charged with attempting to export surplus components of F-14 fighter jets to Canada.

The fighter jet is no longer in service in the U.S. and Iran is the only airforce that still uses F-14's.

Twenty-two-year-old David Waye and 61-year-old Abraham Trujillo are alleged to have tried exporting the parts to Canada and are charged with attempting to export a defence article without a licence.

But the charges don't specify how they supposedly got the parts and don't list all buyers.

Court documents say U.S. government agents placed online orders, then intercepted the goods before they made it out of the country.

Iran is trying to maintain its F-14s and is aggressively seeking components from the retired U.S. Tomcat fleet.

The men will receive a summons to appear before a magistrate.

They could face up to 10 years in prison and millions of dollars in fines.
More on link

 

[Cheshire]

I wonder who they tried to export them too? I hope the police are following up on that. We have Iranian sympathisers here in Canada one would presume.

 

[DirtyDog]

Intresting indeed.  It's a shame seeing how the US is shredding up the Tomcats but it looks like a neccesary precaution.

 

[vangemeren]

I thought absolutely everything was going to be shredded?

 

[George Wallace]

I thought absolutely everything was going to be shredded?

Nope!  One flew away into the unknown, under the radar, in the grass and is now in a barn somewhere in Alberta; parked wing tip to wing tip with Avro Arrow #205.    ;D

 

[midget-boyd91]

Nope!  One flew away into the unknown, under the radar, in the grass and is now in a barn somewhere in Alberta; parked wing tip to wing tip with Avro Arrow #205.    ;D

I was going to mention something about the Arrow, but as is the usual case with me, I couldn't put the words in the right order so decided not to. 

 

[midget-boyd91]

Are they also getting rid of the outer shells of the aircraft? Ones that could be put up on display.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

I wonder who they tried to export them too? I hope the police are following up on that. We have Iranian sympathisers here in Canada one would presume.

From the article:

"Court documents say U.S. government agents placed online orders, then intercepted the goods before they made it out of the country."

 

[DirtyDog]

Are they also getting rid of the outer shells of the aircraft? Ones that could be put up on display.

I'm sure they'll leave a few for static display.  I know of few that have been on display for a few years (early ones) and I doubt they'll tear them down.  I wonder if they'll keep any flyable for historic purposes?

 

[Cheshire]

Quote from: Cheshire on October 08, 2007, 17:45:13
I wonder who they tried to export them too? I hope the police are following up on that. We have Iranian sympathisers here in Canada one would presume.


From the article:

"Court documents say U.S. government agents placed online orders, then intercepted the goods before they made it out of the country."

From the Article:

"But the charges don't specify how they supposedly got the parts and don't list all buyers."

Who here in Canada, other than US Agents, are wanting these parts??

 

[MarkOttawa]

Story in the Washington Post that notices Canada:

U.S. Military Technology Being Exported Illegally Is a Growing Concern
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/13/AR2007101301277.html

Pentagon investigators thought they had discovered a major shipment of contraband when they intercepted parts for F-14 Tomcat warplanes headed to Iran, via FedEx, from Southern California. Under U.S. sanctions since its 1979 revolution, Tehran had been trying for years to illegally obtain spare parts for the fighters, which are used only in Iran.

But when agents descended on the Orange County, Calif., home of Reza Tabib, the 51-year-old former flight instructor at John Wayne Airport who sent the shipment, they were astonished to discover 13,000 other aircraft parts, worth an estimated $540,000, as well as a list of additional requests by an Iranian military officer and two airplane tickets for Tehran.

Caught red-handed, the Iranian-born American citizen pleaded guilty in May and was sentenced to two years in prison.

The Tabib tale is among a growing array of cases either under investigation or being prosecuted for illegally exporting sensitive military equipment, from missile parts and body armor to nuclear submarine technology, according to the Justice Department. Many are destined for groups or countries that target the United States and its allies, such as night-vision equipment destined for Iran and for Lebanon's Hezbollah, and components for improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, used against U.S. troops in Iraq.

At least 108 countries have "full-fledged procurement networks that work through front companies, joint ventures, trade delegations and other mechanisms to methodically target our government, our private industries and our universities as sources of this material," Assistant Attorney General Kenneth L. Wainstein told reporters last week.

The Pentagon last year reported a 43 percent increase in suspicious foreign contacts with U.S. defense firms.

The biggest offenders are Iran and China [emphasis added], U.S. law enforcement officials say. Since 2000, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have launched more than 600 investigations into illicit Iranian military procurement efforts and more than 540 investigations into illegal exports of restricted U.S. weapons technology to China. Additional investigations have been launched by other U.S. agencies, with overall cases doubling in recent years...

Some of the most audacious cases involve Iran. Through reverse engineering, Iranian engineers have produced only about 15 percent of the parts needed for the F-4, F-5 and F-14 warplanes -- made famous in Tom Cruise's 1986 "Top Gun" -- that have been the mainstay of Iran's air force since the days of its monarchy, U.S. law enforcement officials say. Tehran has also been trying to acquire parts for Boeing 707s, Lockheed C-130 transports, and Cobra, Chinook and Sikorsky helicopters, they say.

This month, Abraham Trujillo and David Wayne were charged in Utah with attempting to export F-4 and F-14 parts to Canada that were ultimately destined for Iran [emphasis added]. Last month, Dutch-based Aviation Services International was charged in Washington, D.C. with illegally exporting U.S. aerospace-grade aluminum and 290 aircraft-related components to Tehran. And in July, the founder of Vash International Inc. was charged in New York with illicitly exporting F-5 and F-14 parts...

Mark
Ottawa

 

[geo]

From a personal perspective, why would F4 Phantom & F14 Tomcat parts even raise a flag in Canada.  We never flew these birds and thus have no interest in them.  I would imagine that whoever was shipping the parts out of the US should have been asking themselves a lot of questions about WHY anyone in Canada would want said parts.

WTF?

 

[Good2Golf]

It would be much cleaner if the US DoD destroyed all F-14-related parts and there was no inventory of pieces to sell/export...

 

[DirtyDog]

It would be much cleaner if the US DoD destroyed all F-14-related parts and there was no inventory of pieces to sell/export...

I'm pretty sure that's what they're attempting to do.

 

[aesop081]

It would be much cleaner if the US DoD destroyed all F-14-related parts and there was no inventory of pieces to sell/export...

In the case of the F-14 this makes perfect sense, simply eliminate the problem altogether. In other cases, such as the F-4, it is rather more complicated as there is a large supply of parts in the world with alot of allied countries still flying the F-4. One cannot simply shread all parts and stop making them.

 

[Flip]

Wait a minute.....

Even if they get a few parts - do they REALLY pose much threat?

The act of obtaining the parts illegally is probably doing more political
harm to Iran than the a few parts would help Iran in the event of action.

From what I've read - The early F14 was a relatively underpowered
fighter and then there are the issues of pilot skill and weapons.
I suspect the Americans would be able to render their radars useless.
Electronics and computer technology have come a long way in the
intervening years and the Iranian inventory has only gotten
older.

I dunno - any airforce guys with an opinion?

 

[geo]

I think the US at times goes off on a tangent...

Like, what is the relevance of blockading Cuba?
There are thousands of Americans who travel to Canada & Mexico in order to board flights to vacationland Cuba.  The Cuban custom agents even accomodate the american tourists by stamping loose pages they place inside their passports.  However, considering the number of Cuban expats who can vote Republican, the blockade persists.

 

[DirtyDog]

Wait a minute.....

Even if they get a few parts - do they REALLY pose much threat?

The act of obtaining the parts illegally is probably doing more political
harm to Iran than the a few parts would help Iran in the event of action.

From what I've read - The early F14 was a relatively underpowered
fighter and then there are the issues of pilot skill and weapons.
I suspect the Americans would be able to render their radars useless.
Electronics and computer technology have come a long way in the
intervening years and the Iranian inventory has only gotten
older.

I dunno - any airforce guys with an opinion?

They do seem to be putting a fair amount of effort into shredding F14s, so somebody, somehwere considers it a risk.

Or it's just to spite the Iranians.....

 

[aesop081]

Wait a minute.....

Even if they get a few parts - do they REALLY pose much threat?

The act of obtaining the parts illegally is probably doing more political
harm to Iran than the a few parts would help Iran in the event of action.

From what I've read - The early F14 was a relatively underpowered
fighter and then there are the issues of pilot skill and weapons.
I suspect the Americans would be able to render their radars useless.
Electronics and computer technology have come a long way in the
intervening years and the Iranian inventory has only gotten
older.

I dunno - any airforce guys with an opinion?

Flip,

Only one country uses the F-14.....Iran. The US and Iran are not exactly freinds........

A missile can still ruin someone's day wether its fired from a brand new fighter or an outdated one. Since no american ally uses the F-14, why not simply ensure that nothing gets to the ennemy ?

As for your assesemnt of the F-14, let me tell you this.  The americans in Vietnam had the state of the art in fighters, The F-4, yet the VPAF gave them a serious blow using "outdated" MIG-17s and MIG-19s.........

 

[Shamrock]

Like, what is the relevance of blockading Cuba?

Fidel's still alive.