Acquiring bomb components

Monday, Jan. 19, 2009 | 2:07 a.m.

It is said that consumers can buy just about anything they want over the Internet. It appears that this truism applies even to rogue nations that are in the market for bomb parts.

As The Washington Post reported recently, Iran has been able to use front businesses based in other countries to acquire, via the Internet, high-tech electronics from American companies, including components that have been used for roadside bombs in Iraq. The Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, which maintains statistics on troop fatalities, calculates that 1,815 American soldiers have been killed by roadside bombs since the war in Iraq began in 2003.

Despite efforts by the Bush administration to stop illegal exports, Iran has been able to purchase circuit boards, software and Global Positioning System devices by contacting friendly importers that are able to purchase the bomb-making parts from U.S. companies. The U.S. government in 2006 applied sanctions against Iranian front companies that were operating in the United Arab Emirates, but the Justice Department and the nonprofit Institute for Science and International Security in Washington said Iran continues to skirt the U.S. export ban on those components. U.S. officials and weapons experts said Iran has new front companies in Asia.

“The schemes are so elaborate, even the most scrupulous companies can be deceived,” David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, told the Post.

There is a legitimate fear that if Iran can be so successful at obtaining parts for roadside bombs, it would also be able to use front companies to acquire components for nuclear weapons.

Iran’s stealthy import activity will have to be addressed by the incoming Obama administration so the loopholes that now exist can be tightened, if not closed.