21 December 2009 by poblete
Space travel has been an exciting new phase in our history. As the most experienced and technologically advanced nation in this field, the United States has been in a unique position to chart the growth of the industry and should continue to do so. It took vision and leadership to get us to the moon, to build the shuttle, and the International Space Station. There is a great and exciting future ahead for our country in outer space. We must maintain this edge and surpass it.
Last week House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that she was not “a big fan of manned expeditions to outer space, in terms of safety and cost.” It is either an ignorant comment or, if not, we will need to accept at face value that the Speaker of the House could care less about outer space and its vast potential for our country. Fortunately, not all Democrats think that way. As far as lack of safety, it is a specious comment that the facts just do not support. Same goes for cost. We have spent more on bailing out failed companies or federal health care programs this year than we did on our space programs (as is always the case year after year).
When compared against the accomplisments and deliverables, both safety and cost are substantially outweighed by the benefits. The programs – both government and private sector – have succeeded in spite of federal government funding. Maybe that is a good thing because as soon as you allow the federal government to tinker too much with something, well, things just break down. But looking at human space flight in only dollars and cents is politically myopic.
Florida Representative Suzanne Kosmas (R-Fla.) who represents the Kennedy Space urged Pelosi to change her focus. ”Increased funding for NASA will preserve and create high-tech jobs across our nation, help to mitigate the impending space flight gap, and ensure our nation’s continued leadership in space and technology,” Kosmas said in a letter to the Speaker. We can cooperate with allies when it serves our interests, but being the undisputed leader in human space travel should be our mindset. There is nothing wrong in being a leader, in being number one. If not us, it will be China or another power – and this is surely not in the U.S. national interest by any stretch. Ask the folks over at the nearby Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) in Wallops Island, Virginia. They would agree.
Investing in human space travel is grounded in science and a strong track record of accomplishments. For some reason, the Speaker would rather invest billions of U.S. taxpayer monies in schemes to protect the world from scientifically-disputed “global warming” problems. There is a greater danger from aliens visiting earth than anything discussed at Copenhagen last week. If political leaders such as Dwight Eisenhower and John Kennedy had thought that way, we would still be tinkering on the ground while other nations beat us to the moon, and beyond.
Posted in Democrats, Space, Western Hemisphere, current events, national security, news | Tagged Copenhagen, current events, global warming, Kosmas, Mars, Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, NASA, news, Space, space shuttle, Wallops Island | 1 Comment »
12 December 2009 by poblete
According to the Wall Street Journal, “[m]ore than $2 billion allegedly held on behalf of Iran in Citigroup Inc. accounts were secretly ordered frozen last year by a federal court in Manhattan, in what appears to be the biggest seizure of Iranian assets abroad since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Read the complete article, here. The announcement comes at a good time. Next week, the House of Representatives will likely vote on final passage of the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act of 2009 (“IRPSA”).
IRPSA amends the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996 (“ISA”). ISA requires that the president impose two sanctions from a set menu of options. These “cafeteria sanctions” includes such things as denial of Export-Import bank loans to blocked entities or the denial of licenses to the blocked party for the export of U.S. military or dual-use technology. Congress has modified and extended the measure several times since 1996.
If IRPSA becomes law, it could lead to the seizure of additional Iranian funds that can be used to compensate victims of Iranian terror. The main target of IRPSA however is the Iranian petroleum sector and it is not expressly designed to capture Iranian tainted monies. It will make companies that do business in the United States and Iran think long and hard about transacting any business with the Iranian oil sector. And to the extent that funds in the international monetary system can be tied to the Iranian oil sector, these funds can be frozen.
IRPSA expands the President’s existing authority to impose sanctions on Iran. It will also make three new sanctions mandatory because it : 1. prohibits transactions in foreign exchange by sanctioned petroleum companies caught doing business with Iran; 2. would essentially block sanctioned companies from the U.S. financial system; and, 3. blocks the sanctioned entity from acquiring or owning any U.S. property.
All of this begs the question, why would any company bother doing business with the Iranian regime? By most accounts of people who have done business in the region, the regime bureaucrats are unreliable and drive hard deals that usually make for bad business in the long run. The Iranian regime is a bad corporate citizen – it is causing regional instability and spreading its poison around the world through a network of terror tentacles that reaches places like other state sponsors of terror Cuba and her supporters in Venezuela and Ecuador. It should be a no-brainer, find another business partner.
The global kabuki dance that diplomats engage in on this Iran matter borders on nonsensical. The media hyper obsesses about it making it just about comical. Never in the history of humanity has negotiating with megalomaniacs reached fruitful conclusions. Iran will be no different.
Global, comprehensive, and hard-hitting sanctions are long overdue. The piecemeal approach, well, stay tuned for Monty Python moments in the weeks and months ahead. All in all while it may make for good political theatre, if things do not go well, the final scene can have some rather serious repercussions for us and others.
At last count, IRPSA had close to 350 co-sponsors and is expected to pass at least in the House. The companion Senate measure, S.908, has not been scheduled for a vote, yet. As is usual in these matters, the U.S. is leading the effort. The Europeans, so heavily invested in the Iranian energy sector, keep dragging their feet.
Posted in Economic Sanctions, Iran, current events, news | Tagged Congress, current events, Economic Sanctions, Iran, Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act of 2009, news, Obama, OFAC, S.908, Treasury | Leave a Comment »
6 December 2009 by poblete
- According to DEBKAfile, a “senior official in the Obama administration described the UN nuclear watchdog inspectors’ discovery of traces of highly processed plutonium at the bombed Syrian-North Korean facility at Dir a-Zur as a “smoking gun” – evidence of Iran’s covert nuclear activities and proliferation.”
- The continued standoff between Iran and the world over Iran’s nuclear program escalated—at least verbally—with Iran’s oil minister, Masoud Mirkazemi, threatening to cut off Iran’s oil exports if economic sanctions continue.
- Cuban dictator Raul Castro “has urged his Tanzanian counterpart, Mr Jakaya Kikwete, to use his closeness to the United States administration to have the decades long economic sanctions against his country lifted.” According to the news article, “last month, the Cuban Ambassador to Tanzania, Mr Ernesto Gomez Diaz, appealed for support to pressure the United States to free five of their nationals being held in American jails.” By the way, those five are convicted spies.
- The government of Zimbabwe rants again against U.S. economic sanctions and USAID programs. It is not a new argument. In this latest op-ed, they say that the “purpose of the global propaganda onslaught against Zimbabwe’s land reform is to hide the agricultural histories of settler Rhodesia and white South Africa as well as to deny the reality of illegal economic sanctions in order to make it possible to condemn and reverse the land revolution. That is why there is money for constitution-writing for non-governmental organisations, but not for irrigation pumps and electricity transformers for the agricultural sector.”
- Missed this one last week, but worth passing along – Swiss voters overwhelming and wisely rejected a left-wing driven arms export ban at the polls recently. Of note, the “neutral” Swiss do ban weapon sales to Israel.
- Iranian arms dealer is harmless, his attorney says?! No comment.
Posted in Export Controls, Iran, Israel, current events, national security, news, terrorism | Tagged Amir Hossein Ardebili, arms, Cuba, current events, Europe, Iran, news, Russia, Switzerland, Venezuela, weapons, Zimbabwe | Leave a Comment »
4 December 2009 by poblete
- The QRS-11 is back in the news this week. QRS what? In 2006, the Boeing corporation paid a $15 million fine and signed a consent decree with the U.S. government t stemming from the the unlicensed foreign sales of commercial airplanes carrying a small gyrochip with military applications, the QRS-11. This time it was not a major corporation in trouble, but a fellow the government calls an Iranian Arms Procurement Agent (i.e., an arms dealer). Mr. Amir Hossein Ardebili pled guilty to multiple violations of the Arms Export Control Act, International Emergency Economic Powers Act, smuggling, conspiracy, and money laundering. According to the Justice Department, the charges result from “a three year international undercover investigation which exposed Ardebili’s role as a prolific arms acquisitions agent for the government of Iran.” Just the ammunition needed by several Congressional Committees that are considering closing several loopholes in the Iran sanctions regulations.
- The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) issued a letter to President Barack Obama signed by more than 100 CEOs urging him to take action on a number of initiatives to modernize the export control system. According to a press release, the letter identifies five areas of reform to improve the export control system that do not require new legislation. It is very true that reform is needed, but why would you want to work around the Congress on issues such as these? It is almost inviting Members and staff to weigh in before the process even gets off the ground. Almost all of the five points listed in the letter will require some form of Agency/Congressional collaboration, if not legislation. Be careful how you waive the talisman. The letter can be read here.
- Not sure how long it has been posted on the Commerce Department website, but thought we would pass along anyhow because it seems like a fairly recent addition. The Bureau of Industry and Security has posted video of presentations from its 2009 conference, “Facilitating Secure Trade,” held September 30 – October 2 in Washington, DC. You can access the videos here.
- The editorial board of the Dallas Morning News penned an editorial earlier this week urging “harsh sanctions” to weaken the Iranian regime and create changes in the government. Fair enough. Then they made took a perfunctory swipe at U.S.-Cuba sanctions, saying that “not all trade blockades force change, as a five-decade U.S. embargo of Cuba has demonstrated.” A quick glance at the latest screeds from the Cuban regime propaganda machine tell another story. Anyhow, economic sanctions are tools, not regime change weapons. Tougher sanctions on Iran and Cuba are long overdue, but it will only work if it is part of a process where diplomatic doublespeak takes a back seat to robust action by the United States and our allies.
- And while on the subject of diplomatic doublespeak, according to Andres Oppenheimer, Brazil, the U.S., and the Organization of American States (OAS) have earned a gold medal for flunking. In his latest op-ed he says that the three “deserve a gold medal each for their awful handling of Sunday’s presidential elections in Honduras.” Indeed. The Obama Administration eased already weak sanctions on Cuba, but, working with Brazil and the OAS, imposed a series of sanctions on democratic Honduras. Oppenheimer is wrong to call what happened in Honduras a coup, legally, it was anything but. However, we’ll give him some points on calling to task the Obama Administration’s National Security Council team for bungling U.S. relations and stability in the Americas with the indiscriminate use of economic and political sanctions.
Posted in Export Controls, Iran, Western Hemisphere, current events, national security, news, terrorism | Tagged AIA, BIS, Commerce, current events, Export Controls, Honduras, Iran, news, Obama, Oppenheimer, QRS-11 | Leave a Comment »
2 December 2009 by poblete
According to the Japan Trade Compliance blog, the owners of a small trading company have been arrested for exporting household items to North Korea without a license. The likely punishment? Violations of the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law face jail time for as much as give years and/or a fine of five million yen, or both.
While it may sound somewhat excessive, the stakes are quite high in those parts of the world. North Korea firing and testing rockets, along with its advanced nuclear program, calls for a robust policy of economic and political isolation that includes sanctions. Engaging the North Koreans is a waste of time as they have demonstrated that they are going to build nuclear bombs no matter what the civilized world has to say. Curbing all unlicensed commerce with North Korea makes sense for the Japanese – even it if it just clothes.
Just ninety miles from our shores, state sponsor of terrorism Cuba may not be building a nuclear bomb, but it causes problems in other ways to the United States and the region. Yet everyday about eleven (11) charter flights depart from Miami International Airport chock full of travelers with bags of clothes, food, computers, and many other consumer staples.
The Castro brothers and their henchmen and women of the Communist Party know what they need to do to secure concessions from the United States for an easing of the economic sanctions – the few that remain and are enforced (in reality, we’ve never had a full embargo on the regime). We’re we to shut down family reunification flights and all other junkets, the power holders would be forced to change or step aside. That will never happen, at least not in today’s DC. If official Washington were to have its way, it would be Cuba Libres for every American that wanted to travel to Cuba.
It is not Wassenauer-worthy, but it is good to see the Japanese standing firm on principle even if it is just clothes and household goods. If it were up to some of us that have either directly suffered communist repression or have family members who did, then people would understand why we say that no trade with the Cuban government is the answer for regime change. No trade or travel at all – even most humanitarian-based exchanges. It was a tool that worked to ease out the apartheid government of South Africa – a tool that can work in Cuba if folks really wanted it to.
And for those Americans that want to travel the Caribbean, consider Puerto Rico – its a territory of the United States, they need the tourist travel, and its a great place to island hop throughout the region.
Posted in Cuba, Western Hemisphere, current events, news, sanctions | Tagged Cuba, current events, Economic Sanctions, Japan, news, Puerto Rico, terrorism | Leave a Comment »
1 December 2009 by poblete
When President Obama visited China last week he announced that the “United States and China look forward to expanding discussions on space science cooperation and starting a dialogue on human space flight and space exploration … the two sides believed that the two countries have common interests in promoting the peaceful use of outer space and agree to take steps to enhance security in outer space. The two sides agreed to discuss issues of strategic importance through such channels as the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue and military-to-military exchanges.” The Chinese space program is an arm of the Chinese military. Any cooperation with China that affords it access to sensitive U.S. technology in this area should be a non-starter.
Eric Sterner of the George C. Marshall Institute pens in Aviation Week that closer space cooperation with China will likely lead to “greater opportunities for China to acquire sensitive technology.” He argues it could contribute to Chinese military modernization and, a more than certain scenario, the proliferation of sensitive U.S. technologies to state sponsors of terrorism such as Iran and other countries that have no business acquiring cutting-edge U.S. technology. A former Congressional and NASA staffer, Sterner reminds readers of China’s long record of illegal trafficking in sensitive U.S. technologies.
International space cooperation should come second to U.S. technological and security superiority. If we are going to closely cooperate with foreign powers, it should be with our allies that are not out to undermine U.S. interests in a myriad of ways. While the U.S. export control regime toward China is good, it could be better. At this juncture, opening the door to more access to U.S. technology via outer space cooperation is not the way to go. While it is unlikely to take this step, before the Obama Administration opens this cooperation portal, it should seriously consider a September 2008 Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommendation that “Commerce should suspend the [Verified End User] VEU program to China until an amended or new agreement is reached to conduct onsite reviews and VEU-specific procedures for conducting on-site reviews are established.”
The Bush Administration put in motion the VEU program. The program authorizes the export of certain sensitive technologies to China without export licenses from the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). Barely a few years in operation, a paper by the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Controls shows that some pre-approved Chinese companies in the VEU program have been “linked to proliferators, to violators of U.S. export controls, and to China’s military production complex.” And it is not just the VEU program that poses risks, there are problems right here in the U.S. For a good summary of 2008 Chinese industrial espionage cases, take a look at Appendix B of the Annual Report to Congress on Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial Espionage released this summer by the National Counterintelligence Executive (NCIX).
A bottom up review of the U.S. export control regime with regards to China is long overdue. The United States needs a better handle on what controls need updating or, in some cases scrapping, before it expands cooperation in sensitive fields such as outer space exploration. We want to keep and strengthen our competitive and security advantage, not give it away or unwittingly weaken it.
Posted in China, Export Controls, Space, U.S. Politics, national security, non-proliferation | Tagged China, Congress, current events, NASA, national security, NCIX, news, Obama, outer space, politics, satellites, Verified End User, VEU, White House | Leave a Comment »
24 November 2009 by poblete
- Fausta’s Blog pens an item on Brazil’s ongoing relationship with the other state sponsor of terrorism. Lula da Silva and Brazil remain one of the most important relationships for Iranian regime in the Americas. The more we try to close the noose on Iran, the more Brazil comes to Iran’s aid.
- While on the subject of Brazil, according to an annual report recently released by the U.S. Government Brazil made a modest yet healthy set of purchases of U.S. defense articles valued at $48,075,000. Last week the Department of State published its 655 Report – Direct Commercial Sale Authorizations for FY2008. Want to know what countries are buying U.S. defense articles? Take a look.
- Over at Right Side News, George Friedman pens in an otherwise interesting article on economic sanctions only to ruin it with the worn out yarn that “the sanctions the United States placed on Cuba have dramatically diminished in importance … [i]ndeed, the U.S. embargo has provided the Castro regime with a useful domestic explanation for its economic failures.” What is it about folks and a near obsession with the regime in Havana and travel to a state sponsor of terrorism? Americans can travel freely to 99% of the world and, contrary to what pundits on the right and left will have you think, it is not and never has been about the sanctions.
- Clif Burns over at the Export Law Blog pens on a fellow who was pleaded guilt in a Mobile, Alabama federal court yesterday for selling airplane parts to state sponsor of terrorism Iran.
- The Whig Standard reports on a Canadian Space Summit this past weekend held at the Royal Military College where Canadian space industry experts opined, among other things, that “both the military and civilian space research programs in Canada are hobbled by the fact that the country needs to rely on rockets launched by India, China or Russia, over which the U. S. holds wide-ranging veto powers.” Guess what else they said? Indeed, the waved the export control talisman. According to the article, “laws signed in the United States by former president Bill Clinton have put incredibly tight controls on other countries’ space programs.” Here is an area where targeted reform may indeed be long overdue.
Posted in Bolivia, Cuba, Western Hemisphere, current events, news, non-proliferation, nuclear | Tagged Brazil, Canada, Cuba, current events, DDTC, Economic Sanctions, Iran, Lula da Silva, news, sanctions | Leave a Comment »
31 October 2009 by poblete
The Law Library of Congress – a non-partisan entity of the Library of Congress – has come under attack by high-ranking Congressional Democrats for a recent legal opinion on the situation in Honduras. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-Calif.) are trying to politically browbeat Library of Congress professionals to change a Honduras legal opinion because the current one does not suit their political goals. This is somewhat similiar to what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is doing to the intelligence community as she tries to hide the truth of what she knew about enhanced interrogations of radical terror suspects. They can throw as much sand in our eyes as they want but, in both cases, it is an abuse of power and undermines processes designed to help policymakers make informed decisions.
As a matter of law, the current Honduran government is in the right (which, one wonders why, the Micheletti team signed off on an agreement yesterday that may allow the return of the legally removed former President Manuel Zelaya). This was not a military coup or a coup of any kind. The Law Library of Congress report clearly outlines the legal steps undertaken by the Honduran Government to remove and arrest former President Zelaya. This bothers Messrs. Kerry and Berman, as it does the Obama Administration and his Latin American team. The report does not take sides, it outlines legal arguments. For reasons that we may never know, the Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats have been beating up on Honduras from the very first day that the Supreme Court determined that former President Zelaya had broken the law. And now they are turning their frustrations to the Library of Congress.
While the Honduran government has made mistakes such as expelling Zelaya from the country and canceling certain civil liberties, these errors in judgment are a far cry from the raw accusations hurled at them by Zelaya supporters in the National Security Council, the Congress, and certain pockets of the Department of State. As baseless as they may be, supporters of the constitutional government of Honduras are fair game for these attacks – that is part of the political process. However, the Law Library of Congress is one of several departments of the Library of Congress that serve Members of Congress and Staff, and do avery good job of it. They should not be dragged into political fights or forced to change an opinion because it does not suit the whims or political agendas of the consumer.
The agreement forced on the Honduran people yesterday by the Obama Administration and the politically inconsequential Organization of American States (OAS) should be challenged in the Honduran Supreme Court for it, much like this request by Senate and House leaders, is a legally nullity and another political misstep. Congressional Republicans should keep the holds on various nominees for Senate confirmation until after the Honduran elections set for November 29, 2009.
Posted in Congress, Democrats, Honduras, current events, news | Tagged Central America, Congress, current events, Honduras, Howard Berman, John Kerry, Micheletti, news, politics | Leave a Comment »
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