MILITARY MARKETERS
To the average eBay shopper, the rusty hunk of metal in the thumbnail photo probably isn’t worth its $150 starting bid. But to an international arms broker trolling the Web for deals on surplus military parts, $150 for the 20 mm cannon mount on an F-4E fighter jet might seem reasonable – especially if the seller will ship it illicitly outside the United States, no questions asked.
Although the Defense Department destroys most of its damaged or outdated technology, congressional investigators say weaknesses in the Pentagon’s oversight of this process make some sensitive military hardware available to the public. Lax security allowing those items to be stolen is the chief reason such equipment ends up online, a government report found.
Exporting sensitive U.S. military technology without a State Department license is illegal in the U.S., though buying and selling some defense-related items domestically – even on international sites like eBay and Craigslist – is not. While many of these items are sold as “collectibles” to hobbyists and military enthusiasts, arms-control advocates say the anonymity of online purchases means some sensitive technology ends up in the wrong hands.
“Just because it’s going to a company in the U.S. doesn’t mean it’s staying there,” said Matthew Schroeder, manager of the Arms Sales Monitoring Project at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, D.C. “Even if an eBay seller will only sell to U.S. citizens, the buyer could be indirectly facilitating an arms dealer and ultimately finding a way to ship it illicitly.”
Last year the Justice Department handled more than 30 noteworthy criminal cases and prosecutions involving the transfer of sensitive defense-related technology or know-how. Only a few of the 2007 cases involved online activity, but the trend shows more Web trafficking taking place.
In October 2007, Abraham Trujillo and David Wayne of Ogden, Utah, were charged with attempting to illegally export F-4 and F-14 aircraft components using the Internet. Such exports are worrisome, the Justice Department has said, because F-14 components are widely sought by Iran, the only nation still flying the fighter jet.
Sales of such defense technology to Tehran ended with the 1979 revolution. Over the years, Iran has made do with newer Russian MiG-29s and Sukhois. But U.S. intelligence sources estimate American-made F-4s are Iran’s most capable fighters, putting them in the market for any illicit spares that could keep the aging planes in service.
In the case of the F-4 20 mm cannon mount – an eBay auction that ended in April – the seller was willing to ship the item internationally. In an e-mail, the seller said the only concern was the difficulty in freighting such an unwieldy item from its location in Tennessee.
Richard Grimmett, an international security specialist at the Congressional Research Service in Washington, D.C., acknowledges that such a transfer would be illegal without a State Department export license.
But what about more sophisticated defense items, like the engine monitoring system processor on an F-16? Or military-spec night-vision goggles? Or the radar components for an E-3 AWACS aircraft? These are sensitive components not intended for everyday use, yet all are available on the Internet, including some with no seller restrictions on international shipping.
Even if these defense articles pose no direct threat to the U.S. or its allies, Schroeder said foreign companies or governments seeking to “reverse engineer” them could copy the technology or develop countermeasures against U.S. weapons.”The problem is that arms transfers and arms embargos really are tools of foreign policy,” he said, citing America’s existing arms blockade against Venezuela. “If the Venezuelans can get the F-16 components they need to keep their fleet in the air, then the weapons embargo and what we hope to accomplish in cutting off arms exports to Venezuela is undermined.”
On the Web
For a government report about online military sales, go to www.gao.gov/new.items/ d08644t.pdf