ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:95041203.ECO
DATE:04/12/95
TITLE:BUSINESSES WARNED ABOUT TRICKY EVASIONS OF EXPORT CONTROLS
TEXT:
(Proliferation threats identified) (550)
By Bruce Odessey
USIA Staff Writer
Washington -- Countries seeking to acquire or produce weapons of mass
destruction are using all kinds of tactics to evade multilateral
export-control regimes, U.S. intelligence experts say.
In an open April 12 workshop at a U.S. Department of Commerce
export-control conference, members of the intelligence community's
Non-Proliferation Center described for members of the business
community the spread of front companies and false end-users.
They said more sophisticated evasion tactics have arisen in response
to the advance of export-control regimes: the Australia Group for
chemical and biological weapons, the Missile Technology Control Regime
(MTCR) and the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
Edward Milenky named India, Pakistan and Israel as countries already
having nuclear weapons and Iran and Iraq as having serious programs to
develop them. He identified as other countries with nuclear programs
to be concerned about Libya, Algeria, North Korea and Brazil (where he
said the military continues to have safeguard problems). Indonesia
warrants attention because of its potential capability, he said.
Libya uses cover companies in Malta to buy controlled goods from all
over the world, Milenky said by way of example.
If a U.S. company gets a request for dozens of sophisticated machine
tools from an unfamiliar company in Malta, a country with little
industrial capacity, he said, the company should raise questions about
the ultimate destination of the export.
Libya was used as an example also by Bernadette Camille, who described
that country's use of a pharmaceutical plant as a cover for chemical
weapons production. Iraq's choice of cover was a pesticides plant, she
added.
More than 20 countries have chemical weapons programs or biological
weapons programs or both, Camille said, identifying as countries of
special concern Iran, Iraq, Libya and Syria. She named as countries
having a strong potential for developing such weapons Pakistan, North
Korea, South Korea and possibly Taiwan.
Chemical and biological weapons are the weapons of choice for
developing countries that lack the infrastructure or resources for
making nuclear weapons, she said.
"It's simple and it's cheap," Camille said.
The small, nondescript facilities for making chemical and biological
weapons are difficult to detect, she said, adding that Libya is making
detection even more difficult by building an underground facility.
Andrew Makridis identified the countries of concern over missile
proliferation as North Korea, India, Iran, Syria and Libya. Iran and
Syria have been supplied by North Korea, he said.
North Korea and India have the more advanced programs, working to
develop missiles with a range of 600-1,000 kilometers, he said.
The Non-Proliferation Center representatives presented a long list of
goods having potential application to weapons of mass destruction,
most of them also having legitimate non-military uses.
Some of them are sophisticated machine tools, electronic equipment and
composite materials while others are simple chemicals, such as that
used to make the ink in ballpoint pens flow.
The members of the intelligence community indicated that
export-control regimes were useful even if they ultimately fail to
prevent proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
"While we may not be able to end a program entirely," Camille said,
"at least we can slow it down."
NNNN
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