Pentagon Halts Sale of F-14 Parts

[Omaha Steve]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20070130/D8MVS6C80.html

Pentagon Halts Sale of F-14 Parts

Jan 30, 5:13 PM (ET)

By SHARON THEIMER

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 to stop buyers for Iran and other countries from acquiring gear.

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

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


This Oct. 26, 2005 file photo released by the US Navy, shows an F-14 "Tomcat" from the Fighter Squadron (VF) 31 patrolling the skies over Iraq. The Pentagon retired the F-14 fleet in Sept. 2006. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., presented a bill, the Stop Arming Iran Act, that would ban the Defense Department from selling surplus F-14 parts, and prohibit buyers who have already acquired surplus Tomcat parts from exporting them. Wyden's bill is co-sponsored by the Senate's No. 2 lawmaker, Democratic Whip Richard Durbin of Illinois. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy Photo, File)

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 the only nation still flying the F-14 Tomcat.

FULL story at link.

[Little Wing]

1. Heh, it's like those moronic *CONFIDENTIAL EMAIL* disclaimers

you find on the bottom of some corporate emails that essentially say

**If you received this email in error, you'd better unread it or else. Oh, please alert our administrators that you received a confidential email by emailing ...**

[spag68]

2. Stopping sales of this plane or parts is stupid

We have a new plane that can take on six F-14 planes at one time and defeat them all. Do you remember the Trojan horse story?

[struggle4progress]

3. Pentagon stops F-14 parts sales amid Iran concerns

Pentagon stops F-14 parts sales amid Iran concerns
By Andrea Shalal-Esa
ReutersReuters

Jan 30, 2007 — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Tuesday said it had stopped selling surplus parts for the F-14 fighter jet, saying it was the "right thing to do," given congressional concerns that some parts could land in the hands of Iran ...

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2836390

Congressional concerns means:

Senator Targets Surplus Sales to Iran
Monday January 29, 2007 11:46 PM
By SHARON THEIMER
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - A Democratic senator wants to cut off 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.

Sen. Ron Wyden's bill came in response to an investigation by The Associated Press that found weaknesses in surplus-sale security that allowed buyers for countries including Iran and China to surreptitiously obtain sensitive U.S. military equipment including Tomcat parts ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6379723,00.html

Weaknesses means:

Military Surplus Parts Illegally Find Their Way to Iran, U.S. Officials Say
By Sharon Theimer
Associated Press
Monday, January 22, 2007; Page A17

Fighter-jet parts and other sensitive U.S. military gear seized from front companies for Iran and brokers for China have been traced in criminal cases to a surprising source: the Pentagon. In one case, federal investigators said, contraband purchased in Defense Department surplus auctions was delivered to Iran, a country President Bush has branded part of an "axis of evil" ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/21/AR2007012100760.html

How could that happen? Let's note an anniversary:

Iran/contra: 20 years later and what it means 2007-01-02 By David Corn
The Nation

It's the 20th anniversary of the Iran-contra scandal. Two decades ago, the public learned about the bizarre, Byzantine and (arguably) unconstitutional actions of high officials in the post-Watergate years. But many Americans did not absorb the key lesson: the Iran/contra vets were not to be trusted. Consequently, most of those officials went on to prosperous careers, with some even becoming part of the squad that has landed the United States in the current hellish mess in Iraq ...

http://www.athensnews.com/issue/article.php3?story_id=26944

Looks like the old gang's been back together for a while:

Cheney Channeled Ghorbanifar (After All)

Over at Tapped, Laura Rozen points out this choice bit from "State of Denial:"
Kay got a cable from the CIA that the vice president wanted him to send someone to Switzerland to meet with an Iranian named Manucher Ghorbanifar.

“I recognize this one,” Kay said when he saw the cable. “This one I’m not going to do.”

Ghorbanifar had been the Iranian middleman in the Reagan administration’s disastrous secret arms-for-hostages deals in the Iran contra scandal. Though he had been a CIA source in the 1970s, the agency had terminated him in 1983 and the next year issued a formal “burn notice” warning that Ghorbanifar was a “talented fabricator.” ...

Kay discovered the latest Ghorbanifar stunt involved Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute, a former NSC colleague of Oliver North who had been involved with Ghorbanifar in the Iran-contra days.

http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2006/10/cheney_channele.html

Oh my goodness! This name sounds familiar:

Published on Friday, November 24, 2006 by Consortium News
Gates & the Iran Arms Sales
by Robert Parry

In November 1987, as the Reagan administration was still scrambling to contain the Iran-Contra scandal, then-deputy CIA director Robert M. Gates denied that the spy agency had soft-pedaled intelligence about Iran’s support for terrorism to clear the way for secret U.S. arms shipments to the Islamic regime ...

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1124-29.htm

Could they be that stupid? Oh, you betcha! :evilgrin:

[rocktivity]

4. We arm them. Then we attack them because they're armed.

What part of that do you not understand?

:crazy:
rocknation

[daleo]

5. Yep, that pretty well describes Iraq. n/t

[struggle4progress]

7. Reading 1: And now, for the 20th anniversary of Iran-Contra ... we sell arms to Iran

Theme Music: Hail, hail the gang's all here!

Synopsis: Twenty years ago, as Congress threatened to cut off funding for an unpopular war, Republicans sold arms to Iran -- while constantly warning Americans about the threat Iran posed to world peace. Today, they're back! And they're .. uh .. doing the same the same thing ...

Moral: That's a one-trick pony, folks.

[struggle4progress]

8. Reading 2: Shoot-out at O.K. Corral (with special guest Bozo the Clown)

Synopsis: Bozo shoots himself in the knee twirling his gun

Moral: Once you've warned everybody else not to arm those guys, it's not polite to arm them yourself.

[Cobalt-60]

6. If the ayatollah gets a tomcat, I want one too

If they'll sell them to Iran, I want some too.
It's one of the finest rides Grumman ever made.