Halleluiah! Capitol Hill Finally Awakens To Frightening Specter Of Failed Export Controls

The Center for Security Policy today commended the House Government Operations Subcommittee on Commerce, Consumer, and Monetary Affairs for its active investigation of recent U.S. sales to Iraq and those countries known to be supporting Iraq in the development of nuclear and missile systems. These efforts hold out the promise that sorely needed oversight of the interagency export control process will at last be forthcoming.

In an important development, the Subcommittee wrote Commerce Under Secretary Dennis Kloske a stern letter (a copy of which is attached), dated 28 September 1990. Kloske has repeatedly been identified in press accounts as one of the prime-movers behind ill-considered liberalization of the U.S. and multilateral export control regime.

The Subcommittee expressed its interest in scrutinizing export licensing decisions which may have resulted in Iraq obtaining "unrestricted access to nuclear, biological, and missile technologies." Members gave Kloske until Friday, 5 October, to provide the Subcommittee with a detailed break-out of all dual-use U.S. technology exports to Iraq since 1985.

The congressional inquiry led by Subcommittee Chairman Doug Barnard (D-NC) and Rep. Christopher Cox (R-CA), a member of the Center’s Board of Advisors, follows appalling testimony taken last week in a hearing into the conduct of Commerce and State Department officials. This hearing revealed a pattern of acts of omission — if not commission — involving sensitive export shipments to Iraq and countries known to be assisting Iraq’s nuclear weapons program.

"It is heartening to know that at least some Members of Congress are treating this matter with the seriousness it deserves," said Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., the Center’s director. "Unless that legitimate concern is translated swiftly into action, however, we may soon find that Congress could actually facilitate the efforts of countries like Iraq to acquire militarily relevant U.S. technology. This would be the certain result if it agrees to the provisions of H.R. 4653, known as the ‘Export Facilitation Act of 1990.’"

It can only be hoped that the keen interest being expressed about U.S. technology security by the House Government Operations Committee — together with similar concerns exhibited in a recent hearing of the Joint Economic Committee — will have a therapeutic effect on the members of a Senate-House conference now underway on H.R. 4653. The serious shortcomings of this legislation were dissected in a Center critique released on 28 September 1990, entitled Will Congress Restore U.S. Technology Security? Export Controls’ Imminent Moment of Truth. Copies of this analysis may be obtained by contacting the Center.