Documents released through the Freedom of Information Act make clear that the fiber-optic system Chinese technicians have been putting in place to upgrade Iraq's air defense system, and about which the Bush administration has complained, in fact comprises American-made technology sold to China by AT&T in a mid-1990s deal promoted by then Clinton secretary of defense William Perry.
According to NewsMax.com reporter Charles Smith, with Perry's explicit backing the sale was made to a Chinese company being run as a front by the military. (The company's head was the wife of the Chinese military's research bureau chief and herself a general in China's army.) With the wheels greased, it's no surprise that AT&T apparently didn't even bother to ship the system to the front company, instead delivering it directly to a Chinese army unit.
But despite the abundant evidence that countries like China and Iraq are routinely using "dual-use" technologies (technologies that can have both commercial and military purposes) to upgrade their military capabilities, there is increasing pressure from the business community in this country (and the members of Congress who listen to them) to eliminate or lighten export controls over these items.
The latest such attempt comes from the Senate Banking Committee, which last week voted to send to the floor a Swiss cheese version of the Export Administration Act. The only dissent in the committee came from Richard Shelby of Alabama, the head of the Senate's intelligence committee -- which gives you a clue about the weight given national security concerns in the bill.
Last year, when Phil Gramm's Banking Committee made a similar effort to please business exporters, the chairmen (Warner, Helms, Shelby, Thompson, Kyl, and Roberts) of six of the Senate committees concerned with national security blocked it. We know the effort to weaken export controls is hugely popular with exporters. But perhaps before he proceeds further, Gramm could take a poll of U.S. airmen flying over Iraq and find out how popular the bill is with them.