Rogue Planet

U.S. Policy Is Fuzzy on Arms Purchases From Former Warsaw Pact Nations

By Walter Pincus
Monday, September 29, 2008; A17

What is the U.S. policy about supplying weapons to Afghanistan that come from Russia and former Warsaw Pact countries? Can the U.S. military deal directly with foreign countries that have these weapons and the ammunition that goes with them? Or must they go through private contractors, who act as middlemen and profit from such transactions?

Since 2003, the U.S. military has purchased, through private contractors, billions of dollars worth of former Warsaw Pact arms and ammunition for Iraq and Afghan security forces, rather than buying them directly or seeking donations of such equipment from countries that are coalition members. In June, Congress was told by an Army general that U.S. law and government procurement regulations required using contractors to purchase such ammunition.

Last Tuesday, however, Maj. Gen. Jay Lindell, commander of the Combined Air Power Transition Force in Afghanistan, told Pentagon bloggers during a teleconference that he was outfitting the Afghans with used, Russian-designed Mi-17 helicopters that were donated by the United Arab Emirates and purchased directly from the Czech and Slovak republics. In addition, he said, negotiations are underway to buy new ones from Russia.

He said the Afghans received Russian-made aircraft because "that's what the Afghans know how to fly and maintain so very well." Negotiations with Russia are "happening right now to determine the number of aircraft that we will purchase and the delivery dates," he said.

U.K. Legislative Committee Tackles Brokering Issues

Earlier this month, the the House of Commons' Quadripartite Committee released a report entitled Strategic Export Controls: 2007 Review. In the report, the Committee recommends that the U.K. adopt a broker registration system that is interesting both in itself and in comparison to the current treatment of brokers in the United States under the provisions of Part 129:

We accept that the EU Council Common Position on the control of arms brokering, adopted on 23 June 2003, does not call for the registration of arms brokers. Article 4 suggests that Member States "may" establish a register of arms brokers, and that "registration or authorisation to act as a broker would [.] not replace the requirement to obtain the necessary licence or written authorisation for each transaction". We conclude that the EU Common Position on the control of arms brokering sets the best practice and we recommend that the Government follow best practice to establish a register of arms brokers. We conclude that a register will help to ensure that brokers meet defined standards, requirements and checks as well as deterring those-for example, with a relevant criminal conviction-for applying for registration. We also recommend that any brokering or trafficking in arms by a person in the UK or a British citizen abroad who is not registered be made a criminal offence.

The report doesn't address, or even seem aware of, the difficulty of defining what activities in connection with the sale of a defense article constitute brokering. But leaving aside that question, it approaches the
registration issue in ways that are significantly different from Part 129.

Arms and Private Security Contractors

This paper, written for the British International Studies Association's Annual Conference, discusses arming of private security contractors and the issues involved in adhering to international regulations (ITAR, etc.). Also discussed is the 'paradox' involved in quelling the illigitimate flow of arms to troubled regions, while allowing the PMCs to do their jobs.

Full text can be found here.

The DDTC also offers a fairly decent discussion on approval of arms tranactions for PMCs here.

Iran proposes bill against 'arms smugglers'

These guys can't be serious.  How about a similar bill controlling weapons being smuggled *out* of the country?

Tehran, July 21, IRNA - Vice-President for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Hojjatoleslam Ahmad Mousavi said on Saturday that a bill for unishment of smugglers and holders of unauthorized arms and ammunition will be submitted to Majlis.

Hojatoleslam Mousavi said the bill, adopted by the cabinet on June 24, will be submitted to Majlis presiding body in the next parliamentary session.

He said the unauthorized arms and ammunition, smuggled occasionally into the country from the eastern and western neighboring states, prompt other crimes too.

He added that the latest law on punishment of the smugglers and holders of such arms dates back to 36 years ago, failing to cover chemical and biological substances and toxic gases.

Due to the same reason, he noted, Judiciary suggested the bill to the government.

Hojatoleslam Ahmadi said under the bill, the smugglers and holders of such arms would be subject to five to 12 years of prison terms and in case of resisting to government officers, they would be entenced to life imprisonment or capital punishment.

He added that anybody keeping, hiding or carrying light arms illegally or being engaged in building, assembly and any form of trading such weapons would receive three to 10 years of jail terms.

He went on to say that on the case of semi-heavy weapons, the holder, carrier, manufacturer, assembler or trader of such arms would be given five to 12 years in prison and if it is the heavy one, the person(s) would be sentenced to life imprisonment or capital punishment terms.

The holders and carriers of radioactive or biological substances would thus be sentenced to life imprisonment or capital punishment, the ones having military or chemical explosives would be given three to 12 years prison terms, the holders of flamatories or explosives would be targeted to two to five years in prison, the ones being guilty of having or carrying inflammables and explosives would receive six months to two years of jail terms plus a cash fine two to four times the value of the confiscated substances, and the holders of anaesthetics and tear gas to six months to three years of jails terms plus a cash fine two to four times the value of the confiscated materials, he concluded.

From [http://www.payvand.com]

U.S. Tightens Up Military Exports to China

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/112609.htm

U.S. tightens up military exports to China

Sunday, June 17, 2007
By Jim Puzzanghera,
WASHINGTON, Los Angeles Times

Despite protests from some major U.S. corporations, the Bush
administration on Friday tightened regulations governing the export
to China of aircraft engines, high-performance computers and other
technologies that have possible military uses.

The Commerce Department added 31 new products requiring special
export licenses in hopes of keeping them out of the hands of
China's military. The licenses, which companies complain are complicated to obtain, try to
assure that technology sold to civilian companies doesn't end up
being used to improve Chinese missiles and other weapons.

Administration officials say they are trying to balance economic
needs with growing concerns about the communist nation's rapid
military modernization and access to advanced Western technology. But
U.S. businesses say the new rules, proposed last summer and sharply
criticized since, won't be effective because many of the so-called
"dual-use" products are easily available from other countries.

Export License-Free Arms to the UK

Looks like the Bush administration wants to ease up on the regulation of military hardware exports to the UK.  Why not?  We haven't fought them for over 200 years, so everything should be cool.  We have a similar policy in place with Canada, and they've shown no sign of invading us (no, Michael J. Fox, Alex Trebeck, and Jim Carrey don't count).

Full story after the jump.