Long Beach Missile Transfers

...So far, the U.S...

...officials that as a foreign national he posed a security risk and that allowing him access to munitions-list items was illegal...

...partner in an international joint venture to launch satellites from a floating platform in the South Pacific, using Cold War rocket technology from the former Soviet Union...

...Buying Good Behavior So with all the problems, why is the Vice President so eager to pro- mote business for Russian and Ukrainian missile makers...

...intelligence community thought it would take China five to ten years to deploy the new missile...

...We really chewed them out...

...Flash forward to Iran's flight test on July 21 of a new medium-range missile, the Shahab-3, which the Clinton administration tried to depict as "an Iranian version of a North Korean model called the No Dong," but which in fact was the result of an intensive joint effort by Russian and Iranian research institutes...

...Both agencies backed up the Los Angeles Customs agents, prompting Special Agent in Charge John Hensley to send a letter to Boeing and Sea Launch shortly afterwards, informing them that the vessel would be seized if it came within three miles of Long Beach harbor...

...Apparently heartened by the president's silence on the Iranian shipment, the Chinese conducted a ground test of its latest ICBM, the DF-3i, on July 1—just three days after the Clinton-Jiang summit in Peking...

...If that's what they thought," the official said, "they ought to get their heads examined...

...The Zenit booster—which forms the first two stages of the Sea Launch rocket—is a larger, commercial version of Russia's ten-warhead SS-18 "Satan" ICBM, the huge city-buster that still threatens the American mainland...

...This is one of the great ploughshares projects in the world," said Tim Dolan, a Boeing spokesman at nearby Seal Beach, California...

...Sound like some cockeyed real-life version of a James Bond movie...

...Hughes has booked thirteen launches, and Loral five, at prices ranging from $70 million to $ioo million each...

...48 September 19 9 8 • The American Spectator The passage by Congress in June of the Iran Missile Sanctions Act, which would impose tough economic sanctions on the Russian government if it didn't stop the transfers, undoubtedly helped focus minds back in Moscow...

...officials tracking proliferation said the Chinese are continuing to provide nuclear technologies to Iran, despite explicit promises to curtail such cooperation...

...So this provides a lot of cover...

...Naval Station at Long Beach, California, carrying Russian and Ukrainian-built missiles...

...export laws in connection with the Sea Launch venture...

...Kovalev had previously asserted to national security adviser Sandy Berger in a Moscow meeting on May 8 that the whole problem of Russian missile transfers to Iran was a "CIA sting operation...

...The DF-3i is expected to have a range in excess of 4,5oo miles, making it capable of hitting targets in the American Midwest...

...The American Spectator • September 1998 at the last minute—or even worse, see it transformed into a mutual finger-pointing session...

...intelligence sources say, the Russians and the Chinese are incorporating U.S...

...Under existing U.S...

...U.S...

...Boeing's Tim Dolan says satellite makers Hughes and Loral Space Systems are solidly behind the project, since it is cheaper and easier for them to mate their satellites to the launch vehicle in California, where they are both based, instead of mounting a traveling road show to China or Kazakhstan for launches there...

...Put simply, Sea Launch was one way of keeping Boeing's Russian and Ukrainian partners from selling the same technology to Iran...

...and Israeli intelligence sources say Iran is seeking to build a series of solid fuel ICBMs with Chinese and Russian help, that would be capable of reaching targets in the continental United States...

...legislation, the president is required to cut off U.S...

...Basically, we told them we would impound the ship," an official present at the meeting told TAS...

...Boeing fired him in October 1997 after they were informed by U.S...

...On June 3o, Boeing lawyers met with inspectors from the U.S...

...Since then, he has returned to Russia several times with Boeing officials on contract negotiations and for technical talks...

...Just three weeks before the trip, however, Gore's aides were panicking at the thought that they would have to cancel the visit KENNETH R. TIMMERMAN, publisher of Iran Brief, is a frequent contributor to The American Spectator...

...According to Boeing, technical issues drove their deal with the Russians as much as politics...

...By contrast, the Chinese have made no attempt to crack down on companies selling missile and nuclear gear to Iran...

...company bringing Russian ICBMs into a U.S...

...One year before Boeing started the Sea Launch negotiations, the head of the NPO Yugmash plant in Ukraine (now known as KB Yuzhnoye, and the source of the Zenit boosters) told a visiting French parliamentarian, Bertrand Gallet, that he was then negotiating to build strategic missile systems for Iran...

...Dolan also acknowledged the active support of Vice President Al Gore, who traveled to Ukraine on July 22 for high-profile talks with President Kuchma...

...Sources knowledgeable of the briefings say the Chinese may have been seeking to test the president's resolve, by brazenly loading the ship in full view of U.S...

...And far from buying good behavior, the Clinton administration policy of setting a price for every misdeed is interpreted by more and more companies as simply the price of doing business...

...believes these programs are not very far along...

...satellite surveillance...

...It's very simple," said one official present at the meeting...

...That is, unless federal prosecutors scuttle the entire deal...

...Now the CIA believes it will be deployed later this year...

...Customs Service in Los Angeles, where they were read the riot act about the impending arrival of the Sea Launch Commander and the rockets it was carrying in its hold...

...It's a positive development for the space industry, for the former Soviet Union, and for international cooperation...

...But we are working very closely with the government to make sure our processes and procedures are correct...

...But in an unusual closed door meeting in Washington on July 9, Banks was confronted by his chief counsel, who informed him that for Boeing to import the Russian and Ukrainian missiles without proper authorization would set a precedent that would encourage other companies to break the law...

...One area of concern: NASA's Tracking Data and Relay Satellite System, a network of six military satellites launched by the Space Shuttle in the late 1980's better known by its acronym, TDRSS...

...aerospace firms and satellite makers has allowed China to "dramatically shorten the timetable," sources familiar with the highly classified intelligence reports said...

...And we have every intention of complying with the law of the land...

...With the Russians, as with the Chinese, the Clinton administration has sought to buy good behavior with generous commercial deals and astonishing transfers of advanced U.S...

...And the threat of them doing so was not an idle one...

...Behind the scenes, the Boeing team went to work the way that all big U.S...

...In September, they will be joined by a second ship, the Odyssey, a self-propelled oil-drilling platform that has been converted by the Norwegian shipbuilder Kvaerner into a submersible launch platform...

...There were lots of defense conversion programs talked about in the early 1990's...

...Like the Russians, the Chinese have contracted with the Sanam Industries Group, the lead organization for the development of the Shahab-3 missile, the officials said...

...It's all of a piece with a policy that is also helping to arm China and Iran...

...The NP-no is not prohibited under the MTCR," said Gordon Oehler, the former director of the CIA's Nonproliferation Center...

...Boeing claimed that because they were making only a temporary import into the United States, Sea Launch fell through the cracks of the law and didn't need any license...

...technologies in the products they are offering for sale overseas...

...These were munitions items, and required licenses...

...They called for backup to the Pentagon's Defense Technology Security Administration, which has the technical expertise to determine whether shipments require licenses or not...

...The U.S...

...And Glavcosmos has played an instrumental role in negotiating all foreign cooperation deals for the Russian Space Agency and its component research institutes, design bureaus, and manufacturing facilities...

...This is one of the first major ones to come on line...

...Sea Launch got its start in 1993, when the White House and Congress were urging U.S...

...What you have is a U.S...

...To disguise their intent, the scientists filed travel documents showing Tajikistan as their final destination, not Iran...

...The missile and nuclear sales to Iran and to other rogue states continue unabated—and increasingly, U.S...

...Period...

...This project is Al Gore's baby," a knowledgeable Washington official tells TAS...

...The next day, July 1, Boeing lawyers met with aides to Vice President Al Gore, urging the Veep to use his political clout to get Customs off their back...

...TAS has learned from law enforcement sources in Long Beach, Seattle, and Washington that Boeing has admitted to more than 35o violations of U.S...

...Once we had decided to launch off a sea platform at the equator," Torres said, "we needed a booster that could be fully integrated and transported to the launch site horizontally—and the Russians and Ukrainians were the only ones who had one...

...There always are, when you're dealing with rocketry...

...One of the guises they have used in Iran is a project to build a 17o-kilometer range ballistic missile known as the NP-no...

...president viewed their behavior as aggressive...

...but then, just last year CIA Director George Tenet was saying the U.S...

...After several rounds of closed-door meetings at the White House, Gore's staff convinced the State Department's Office of Defense Trade Control to issue the temporary license allowing the ship to dock on July 10—just three days before it actually arrived from Saint Petersburg, where it had been fitted out 47 with more than 600 tons of mission control equipment and a huge covered assembly bay where the rockets would be put together...

...Boeing spokesman George Tones acknowledged that there had been licensing and technology transfer problems with the project...

...China Great The American Spectator • September 1998 Wall Industry Corporation, which makes China's space launch rockets as well as the DF-3i ICBM, was the supplier of the telemetry gear...

...It has direct, institutional ties with Russian missile manufacturers such as Boeing's Moscow partner, RSC Energia...

...technology...

...It's illegal...

...Chinese Affronts For now at least, the Russians are making a show of cracking down on the missile dealers in their midst, albeit only after making the critical transfers to Iran...

...He also revealed that the FSB had uncovered and stopped secret trips to Iran by missile scientists from the Tikhomirov Instrument Building Scientific and Research Institute and the Komintem Factory of Novosibirsk...

...Meanwhile, the White House put pressure on Customs to back off, and nearly convinced Acting Customs Commissioner Sam Banks to call off his agents...

...FSB Director Nikolai Kovalev (who was abruptly fired by Yeltsin on July 25) said the FSB had put a halt to a scientific exchange program between Russian design institutes and Iran's primary missile development institute, the Sanam Industries Group, which had provided a front for many of the procurement operations...

...The DF-31 test, and the shipment of rocket fuel to Iran, are but two instances of China's brazen flaunting of its nonproliferation commitments, the sources said...

...Only one week before the test, the head of the Federal Security Service (FSB) announced in Moscow that the Russian government was taking action against nine companies involved in helping the Iranians design and build the new missile, which has an estimated range of between 800 and 93o miles—long enough to bring Israel and U.S...

...Why should we be surprised...

...49...

...Although the legislation was vetoed on June 23 by President Clinton, it had previously been cleared by a veto-proof majority in the Senate...

...Clearly the Clinton export control scandals, which initially focused on satellite technology transferred by the Loral and Hughes Electronics corporations to China (see "Loral Exams," TAS, July 1998), are much broader and deeper than initially thought...

...Government officials said the license has not allayed their fears that Boeing could inadvertently transfer strategic technology to its Russian and Ukrainian partners through the project...

...Senior U.S...

...companies do in the Clinton era when they have a problem with national security licensing: they sent their lawyers to the White House...

...If the president applied the law, that would put an end to U.S...

...Prior to the test, conducted at the Wuzhai Missile and Space Test Center some 25o miles south of Peking, the U.S...

...Later this year, they will mate it to a satellite built by Hughes Space and Communications, based in neighboring El Segundo, California...

...Fidarov came to the United States in 1992—well after the failed coup against Yeltsin —and claimed political asylum on grounds that he feared for his life if he returned to Russia...

...intelligence community was monitoring the loading operation during the president's trip, and briefed National Security Adviser Berger on its progress...

...That statement so irked Berger that he publicly warned that U.S.-Russian relations were headed for a "train wreck" unless the Russians stopped the missile deals with Iran...

...The Immigration and Naturalization Service granted him temporary asylum in 1996...

...02 46 September 1998 • The American Spectator n July 13, a Norwegian-built cargo ship, the Sea Launch Commander, steamed into the former U.S...

...So this is a creative way of approaching that market...

...It is estimated there will be 1,700 satellites needing to be launched over the next decade...

...Gore's official visit to Ukraine was less than two weeks away, and it now looked as if it would end in a train wreck...

...Al Gore's White House staff was furious...

...Until now, it has been primarily used by Russia to send military spy satellites into space...

...When he was told the only way to authorize the license would be for him to personally sign off on it, Banks finally backed down...

...Boeing engineers are now working with their Russian and Ukrainian counterparts to assemble the three-stage rocket loaded into the ship's hold in St...

...By conducting the test during the Clinton trip, the Chinese were undoubtedly attempting to gauge whether the U.S...

...Again and again, both countries have shown they are more than willing to take the prizes—and extremely reluctant to offer anything in exchange, until Congress threatens to upset the applecart by passing new sanctions legislation...

...But the White House was seeking a political, and arguably, a national security payoff as well: bribing the Russians and Ukrainians into good behavior...

...This is totally unprecedented...

...TAS has learned from sources with access to highly classified intelligence information that while President Clinton was visiting China in late June, workers from China Great Wall Industry Corporation were loading thousands of tons of solid rocket fuel on board a ship bound for Iran...

...Not if you talk to Boeing Space Systems, the U.S...

...defense contractors to explore a host of initiatives under the Nunn-Lugar program, aimed at helping the former Soviet Union "reconvert" its military industries to civilian production...

...The sale of rocket fuel to Iran is a direct violation of China's pledge to abide by the terms of the Missile Technology Control Regime, and was also a direct affront to the president...

...The Chinese are using this program to ship production equipment to Iran to make solid fuel boosters...

...As it turned out, lawyers from Boeing had applied for a temporary import license two weeks earlier, but didn't tell the Los Angeles Customs team, perhaps in the belief that a seizure of their ship would make Customs extremely unpopular...

...If all goes according to plan, the two ships will set sail early next year from Long Beach to the Christmas Islands, which lie on the Equator in the South Pacific, to make their first commercial satellite launch...

...As part of the deal, Energia supplied mission control equipment developed specifically for the Russian Space Agency...

...While neither Yugmash or Boeing's Russian partner was identified as having helped the Iranians with their missile project, the Russian Space Agency, Glavcosmos, was one of the companies named by the Russians as guilty parties...

...But Fidarov's fears vanished miraculously once he was hired by Boeing as a translator for the Sea Launch project...

...believed the Shahab-3 missile was not likely to be deployed for "at least five to ten years...

...cooperation with foreign entities found to be supplying missile technologies to countries such as Iran...

...The Chinese claim that such sales are not prohibited under Chinese law or under their international treaty obligations...

...port without a license," one official said...

...The shipment was expected to reach Iran in mid-August...

...Petersburg...

...But that didn't stop the Customs officials monitoring the case in Long Beach...

...Government investigators say that a search carried out on December 12 at the home of Marat Fidarov, a Russian-born translator working for Boeing in Seattle, turned up computer disks with codes needed to access the highly classified TDRSS system...

...They also turned to the State Department's Office of Defense Trade Control (ODTC...

...troops in Saudi Arabia into range of an Iranian nuclear or chemical weapons strike...

...satellite launches in China —and probably in Russia, as well...

...And transfers to Iran of missile guidance components and telemetry equipment were "ongoing," the officials said, and included equipment used for the Shahab-3 missile test on July 21...

...Majority Leader Trent Lott and his co-sponsor, Connecticut Democrat Joseph Lieberman, vowed to override the president's veto unless the Russians took serious action...

...By all accounts, he did not...

...It now appears that assistance from U.S...

...It has been since Day One...

...So they think anybody can bring missiles into the United States—just like that...