Wes Vernon, NewsMax.com
Friday, Oct. 11, 2002

Ironically, the bill, passed by the Senate before 9/11, has been readied for House consideration just as the lawmakers have been debating whether to give President Bush the go-ahead to use military force against the very same Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein.

It is formally known as the Export Administration Act, but a very concerned Center for Security Policy (CSP) refers to it as the "Arm Saddam Act.”

'Dangerous Provisions'

Frank Gaffney, CEO of the organization, warned that the bill "contains dangerous provisions that not only will hamper the war on terrorism. They also will inadvertently aid in the development of mass destruction by terrorist regimes.”

For example, "if this law were in effect, it would be far easier for Saddam Hussein to acquire certain restricted technologies he is desperately seeking to buy.”

"In Saddam’s hands,” Gaffney said, "even less menacing technology can pose a mortal peril to Americans.” As an example, he cited fiber-optic technologies sold to China that Beijing resold to Iraq to improve Saddam’s air defense system.

Some security-minded Senate opponents, urging the House not to approve the bill, fear that in a war with Iraq, American service personnel could be the victims of the technology Saddam acquires, courtesy of U.S. companies.

White House Sees No Danger

The Bush administration wants action on the measure before Congress goes home to campaign. It has the full support of the computer industry. The White House argues it poses no danger.

Last year, in applauding approval of the bill by the Senate Banking Committee, President Bush complained: "The existing export controls forbid the sales abroad of computers with more than a certain amount of computing power. With computing power doubling every 18 months, these controls have a shelf life of sliced bread. They don’t work.”

Condoleezza Rice, Bush’s national security adviser, added that S.149 "will strengthen the president’s national security and foreign policy authorities to control dual-use exports in a balanced manner, which will permit U.S. companies to compete more effectively in the global market place.”

A Few Senators Point Out Hazards

Wishful thinking, say five Republican U.S. senators who fired off a letter Sept. 6 to President Bush urging him to reconsider.

Sens. John Kyl of Arizona, Jesse Helms of North Carolina, Richard Selby of Alabama, John McCain of Arizona and Fred Thompson of Tennessee cite two "rather alarming reports” Congress has received regarding the antics of communist China.

One such report comes from the administration’s own Defense Department. It "warns that China is using legally acquired U.S. dual-use technology to modernize its military.” Electronic warfare capabilities have been accomplished "mainly through cooperation with Western companies and by reverse engineering.”

Further, the senators tell the president, "it is important to note that Beijing continues to transfer dual-use technology to states that support international terror networks,” and in fact "have exported substantial dual-use telecommunications equipment and technology to Iraq.”

In a separate article in the Washington Times, the five senators, joined by Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H., say that passage of the Export Administration Act "would seriously hamper the president’s ability to carry out his own national security strategy. Yet some in Congress – and remarkably enough, in the administration – are determined to push the bill through.”

Arming the Enemy

"During the 1990s,” the senators wrote, the Chinese company Huawei Technologies "bought a number of dual-use items from the United States, such as high-performance computers and telecommunications equipment, including switches, chips and digital signal processing technologies. In other words, U.S. pilots are threatened by an Iraqi air defense network that could very well contain U.S. technology.”

A knowledgeable source cites a recent Washington Post story about huge tubes, a component of a nuclear arsenal.

"Those tubes are currently on the Export Control Administration list” of items whose exports are tightly restricted for security reasons. Under S. 149, this source explains, they would be removed.

"So we could give this to China, and China could export to Iraq because China is one of the leading proliferators in the world of this kind of dual-use technology to terrorist states,” an expert confirmed.

Few people are paying attention to all this. Those lawmakers who are alarmed are having a hard time getting their colleagues to focus on the measure, especially in view of the soothing assurances coming from the White House.

The House International Relations and House Armed Services committees have made some changes "around the edges,” according to Gaffney. In their letter to the president, the senators say these are "steps in the right direction,” but they "remain concerned that the baseline bill is fundamentally flawed.”

A few lawmakers such as Reps. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., and Curt Weldon, R-Pa., have succeeded in delaying House action on the measure, which was originally scheduled for last week.

'Seriously Concerned'

"Mr. President,” the senators’ letter reads, "we are seriously concerned at the prospect of further weakening the U.S. export control process through the Export Administration Act.

"We therefore respectfully request that, rather than seeking action on S. 149 at this late stage in the congressional session, you review the situation … and ask all interested parties to work with you in the next Congress to develop [new legislation] that strikes the right balance between national security and trade, and can be quickly passed by both Houses.”

But nothing short of public outrage from the public, including the families of U.S. military personnel, is likely to stop the steamroller heading toward approval from a Capitol Hill itching to get out of town and hit the campaign trail. Any differences between the House and Senate versions would have to be resolved in a conference committee, after which it would go to the White House for the president’s signature.

Attempts by NewsMax.com to elicit comment from the White House on the objections of the senators were unsuccessful as of press time.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

Bush Administration

China/Taiwan

George W. Bush

NewsMax Scoops

Saddam Hussein/Iraq

War on Terrorism

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