ADN

Pentagon halts sales of F-14 parts


January 30, 2007


WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon said Tuesday it had halted sales of spare parts from its recently retired F-14 fighter jet fleet, even as lawmakers pledged tougher oversight of the military's surplus sales.

Sales of F-14 parts were suspended Friday pending a comprehensive review, Defense Logistics Agency spokesman Jack Hooper said.

"It was the prudent thing to do," he said.

The review will examine Pentagon policy for handling the spare parts and determine what should be done with them "in light of the current situation with Iran," Hooper said.

Iran, currently at odds with the United States and other countries over its suspected nuclear weapons program, among other issues, is still flying the F-14 Tomcat.

The decision drew immediate praise from Congress.

"This is an appropriate and necessary short-term step to solving this problem," said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Connecticut, a longtime critic of security gaps in Pentagon surplus sales.

The Defense Department, Shays said, "needs a comprehensive review of its entire surplus sales operation to ensure that we aren't arming our own adversaries, selling them equipment we still need at bargain prices."

Earlier this month, an Associated Press investigation found buyers for Iran, China and other countries had exploited gaps in sales security to get their hands on sensitive military equipment.

The purchases included parts for the F-14 and other aircraft and missile components. Law enforcement officials say that in at least one case the contraband made it to Iran.

"In this era of instability, we can hardly afford to be sloppy about something as sensitive as our national security," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who had requested a Senate inquiry into surplus security following the AP report.

Sen. Ron Wyden has introduced legislation to permanently end all Pentagon sales of surplus F-14 parts, saying the military's marketing of the spares "defies common sense" in light of their importance to Iran.

Wyden is among lawmakers calling for stronger congressional oversight of the surplus program.

The Oregon Democrat's legislation would bar the Defense Department from selling surplus F-14 parts and ban buyers who have already acquired surplus Tomcat parts from exporting them.

The U.S. military retired its Tomcats last fall. Iran bought some of the fighter jets in the 1970s when the country was a U.S. ally and is still trying to maintain its fleet.

Iran is heavily dependent on foreign markets for spare parts. U.S. law enforcement officials believe Iran can make only about 15 percent of the components it needs for the jets.

The Pentagon had already intended to destroy at least 10,000 parts it considers unique to the Tomcat. It had planned to sell about 60 percent of the roughly 76,000 parts for the F-14, considering them general aircraft hardware that was safe to sell without restrictions.

The military had been reviewing 23,000 other parts it believed it could sell under existing law but wanted to examine further in light of their potential value to Iran. It will now also review the thousands of general nuts-and-bolts-type components.

The Pentagon says it has followed all procedures in selling its surplus, including those instances in which equipment was acquired by buyers for Iran and China.

Iran involvement suspected in Karbala compound attack



January 30, 2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The Pentagon is investigating whether a recent attack on a military compound in Karbala was carried out by Iranians or Iranian-trained operatives, two officials from separate U.S. government agencies said.

"People are looking at it seriously," one of the officials said.

That official added the Iranian connection was a leading theory in the investigation into the January 20 attack that killed five soldiers.

The second official said: "We believe it's possible the executors of the attack were Iranian or Iranian-trained."

Five U.S. soldiers were killed in the sophisticated attack by men wearing U.S.-style uniforms, according to U.S. military reports.

Both officials stressed the Iranian-involvement theory is a preliminary view, and there is no final conclusion. They agreed this possibility is being looked at because of the sophistication of the attack and the level of coordination.

"This was beyond what we have seen militias or foreign fighters do," the second official said.

The investigation has led some officials to conclude the attack was an "inside job" -- that people inside the compound helped the attackers enter unstopped.

Investigators are looking particularly at how the attackers got U.S.-style military uniforms and SUVs similar to those used by U.S. troops. (Watch what could happen if the U.S. opts to strike Iran )

"'Who was behind it all?' was the fundamental question," the first official said.

Some Iraqis speculate that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps carried out the attack in retaliation for the capture by U.S. forces of five of its members in Irbil, Iraq, on January 11, according to a Time.com article published Tuesday.

The Bush administration has authorized U.S. forces to kill or capture Iranian agents plotting attacks in Iraq, a U.S. national security official said Friday.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has a reputation for taking harsh and unrelenting revenge on its enemies, the Time.com article says.

Violence targets Shiite pilgrims

Meanwhile Tuesday, a string of attacks on Shiite pilgrims in Iraq and a mortar strike on a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad killed at least 48 people and wounded more than 100.

The violence comes on the final day of Ashura, when Shiite Muslims mark the seventh-century martyrdom of the Imam Hussein, the Prophet Mohammed's grandson. (Watch why rising Shiite power raises concerns )

People filled the streets of Karbala, the Shiite holy city south of Baghdad, to commemorate Ashura.

The violence was farther north in Baghdad and Diyala province.

Two major attacks occurred Tuesday in Diyala, a religiously and ethnically mixed province northeast of Baghdad.

In Balad Ruz, about 50 miles northeast of Baghdad, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the main gate of the Ali al-Akbar mosque, killing at least 19 people and wounding 54, said police in Baquba, the provincial capital.

In Khanaqin, about 100 miles northeast of Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded among a group of Shiite pilgrims. At least 11 were killed and 33 wounded, police said.

As many as 1.5 million Shiite pilgrims who couldn't get to Karbala for the holy day trekked instead to Baghdad's Kadhimiya district, site of the Musa al-Kadhim shrine.

In southwestern Baghdad's Amil neighborhood, two cars filled with gunmen opened fire around midday on a minibus of pilgrims believed headed to Kadhimiya. Seven people were killed and seven wounded, according to the Interior Ministry.

Also, nine people were wounded in a mortar attack in the district, police said.

Earlier, a mortar round hit a Shiite mosque in northern Baghdad, killing one person and wounding two.

The U.S. military late Tuesday said U.S. aircraft shot at an insurgent mortar team firing in the direction of the Musa al-Kadhim shrine at midafternoon. It was not known whether there were casualties.

Later in the day, 10 people were killed and 16 wounded when 10 mortar rounds were fired at the Adhamiya district, a Sunni neighborhood in northern Baghdad, police said.

The bodies of eight people thought to be victims of sectarian violence were found throughout Baghdad on Tuesday.

Other developments

In Sukariya in Salaheddin province, police seized 59 people in anti-terror raids, including three senior leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq and a Libyan, a provincial security official told CNN. He added that two suspected insurgents and a police officer were killed in the raids, and six insurgent suspects and three police officers were wounded.

Iraq is at a "precarious juncture" after nearly four years of war, with chances for increasing stability weighed down by increased violence, corruption and sectarian division, outgoing Intelligence Director John Negroponte said Tuesday. Negroponte, nominated to become deputy secretary of state, announced that a long-awaited national intelligence estimate on Iraq will be sent to Congress by Monday. The estimate is the authoritative consensus of U.S. spy agencies.