DATE=10/8/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=MCDONNELL DOUGLAS / CHINA (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-254807
BYLINE=JIM RANDLE
DATELINE=PENTAGON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A major U-S defense contractor may be indicted
[formally accused of a crime] soon for violating U-S
export laws. A report by Time Magazine says the
McDonnell Douglas company sent advanced machine tools
to China that were used to make anti-ship missiles.
The company denies breaking any laws. V-O-A's Jim
Randle reports.
TEXT: The news report says McDonnell Douglas company
has two weeks to either admit breaking the law, or
face indictment. The Time story is based on unnamed
prosecutors in the Justice Department.
The report says McDonnell Douglas got a license to
export advanced machine tools to China on the
condition that the equipment only be used to build
commercial aircraft. Instead, the tools went to a
plant that makes weapons, including the anti-ship
"Silkworm" missile that now faces U-S forces in the
Persian Gulf.
The China National Aero-Technology Import-Export
Corporation received the tools, and its officials have
also reportedly been told to expect legal action.
A spokesman for McDonnell Douglas, Larry McCracken,
says his company obeyed the law and informed the U-S
Government when some of its exports went to unlicensed
locations.
/// MCCRACKEN ACT ///
We believe that we lived up to the terms of the
license agreement and that the export control
system worked.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. McCracken spoke in a V-O-A interview from the
Boeing Company headquarters in Seattle, Washington.
Boeing bought McDonnell Douglas two years ago,
becoming the world's largest aerospace company,
employing more than 200-thousand people. The
company's annual revenue topped 56-billion dollars in
1998.
The McDonnell Douglas division of Boeing builds the
top U-S fighter planes, including the Navy's F-18 and
the Air Force's F-15. (Signed)
NEB/JR/WTW
08-Oct-1999 12:08 PM EDT (08-Oct-1999 1608 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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