USA's High Tech Exports to India & China; Cirrus Electronics Employees Arrests
USA's High Tech Exports to India & China; Cirrus Electronics Employees Arrests for Exports to Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Aeronautical Development Establishment, and Bharat Dynamics
By Ravi Visvesvaraya Prasad
Published in May 2007 issue of Realpolitik Magazine, http://www.realpolitik.in
Copyright 2007, Ravi Visvesvaraya Prasad
International Publishing Rights in all Media, in all Jurisdictions, in all Languages with Realpolitik Magazine, http://www.realpolitik.in
Reproduction & forwarding strictly prohibited, and will be prosecuted without any warning
Written on Wednesday, 25 April 2007
by Ravi Visvesvaraya Prasad
CellPhones: {91}(0) 92 12 08 86 00, 99 90 265 822
Tel: {91}(11) 25 26 54 39, 25 26 42 75
Fax: {91} (11) 25 26 68 68
Email: rp at k dot st, p at r 6 7 dot net, r at 50g dot com
Ravi Visvesvaraya Prasad, an alumnus of Carnegie Mellon and IIT Kanpur, is Consulting Editor of Realpolitik. He also heads a group on C4ISRT (Command, Control, Communications & Computers Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance
It is gratifying that USA has announced that the indictment of top executives of Cirrus Electronics, as well as of Indian government officials posted at the Indian Embassy in Washington DC, for supplying US electronic items to Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Aeronautical Development Establishment, and Bharat Dynamics, will not affect negotiations on the 123 Agreement. US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack stated that he did not see any connection between the indictments and the US-India nuclear deal, and added: “I expect that the Indian Government will continue to negotiate the 123 Agreement in good faith. Certainly, the United States will.”
Following the Pokharan-I nuclear blasts in 1974, USA had placed severe restrictions on transfer of high technologies to India, especially those having applications in the nuclear and space sectors. In May 1992, USA imposed sanctions on Indian Space Research Organization due to its deal with Russia’s Glavkosmos for transfer of cryogenic rocket engine technologies. In particular, USA had placed ISRO on the “US Department of Commerce’s Entity List” consisting of “organisations which present an unacceptable risk of diversion to developing weapons of mass destruction or missiles used to deliver those weapons”.
On 23 March 2007, a US District Court indicted four officials of Cirrus Electronics, with offices in Singapore, Bangalore, India, and South Carolina, USA, of violating USA’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act and its Arms Export Control Act. Also indicted were an unnamed official of the Indian embassy in Washington as well as an Indian employee of the Aeronautical Development Establishment in Bangalore. This followed a joint investigation by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, the US Department of Commerce, and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and a 15-count indictment was returned by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia.
The indictment alleges that Singapore-based Cirrus Electronics took orders for electronic components from Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre and Bharat Dynamics, both on the US Department of Commerce’s Entity List. The Entity List is “designed to inform the public of entities whose activities imposed a risk of diverting exported and re-exported items into programs related to weapons of mass destruction.” The indictment alleges that in coordination with an official in the Indian embassy in Washington DC as well as an official of the Aeronautical Development Establishment, the US subsidiary of Cirrus purchased from US vendors electronic items such as Intel i960 microprocessors, capacitors, semiconductors, rectifiers, and resistors. These purchases were allegedly made without obtaining the licenses required by the US Bureau of Industry and Security for exports to parties on the Entity List. Cirrus USA would ship these items to Cirrus in Singapore which would them reship them to Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Aeronautical Development Establishment, and Bharat Dynamics in India. The indictment alleges that when the US vendors requested End-User Certificates for the parts being sold to Cirrus USA, its chief executive, Parthasarathy Sudarshan, would lie to them and claim that the parts were destined for the Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory in Kochi.
But it is clear that USA has been having double standards in dealing with India, China and Pakistan.
First, USA has already lifted sanctions on Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Aeronautical Development Establishment, and Bharat Dynamics, although such sanctions were in place during most of the time the alleged exports took place. USA started relaxing sanctions on India since 2004 following several measures taken by India. Under an updated End-Use Verification Agreement, India agreed to allow US Department of Commerce officials to conduct end-use spot checks at Department of Space entities importing US dual-use items. India also agreed to the placement of an export-control attaché in the US embassy in New Delhi to further monitor end-use verification of US exports to India. In addition, India took measures to ensure that indigenous, Indian-made dual-use products and expertise are not transferred to potential proliferators.
Second, there are several unexplained loopholes and discrepancies in the indictment, which alleges that Cirrus and Sudarshan obtained and exported, without obtaining the necessary license from the US Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, items on the United States Munitions List, such as Intel i960 microprocessors, as well as capacitors of model numbers M39014/01-1284, M39014/01-1299, M39014/01-1317, M39014/01-1535, and M39014/01-1553.
The Intel i960 microprocessor was already long obsolete during the time of the alleged exports. The i960 was manufactured and utilized during the early 1990s. Only one variant, called the i960MX, was specifically designed or configured for military use. However, the indictment against Cirrus does not allege that the military grade i960MX microprocessor was exported, and it refers only to the i960. Moreover, even the i960MX was apparently no longer in production by Intel during the time frame covered by the indictment. Further, the capacitor models mentioned are Commercially-available, Off-The-Shelf (COTS) items which are widely used in civilian applications all over the world.
Third, it was hypocritical of the US government to have denied much-needed technologies to India’s peaceful space programme for three decades, when it was simultaneously permitting transfer of identical technologies by US corporations to China, which was transferring nuclear and missile technologies to Pakistan.
A few months after USA placed sanctions on ISRO over the Glavkosmos deal, Pakistan bought 34 M-11 missiles from China in November 1992, in violation of the terms of the Missile Technology Control Regime. These are based at Sargodha air force base, west of Lahore, next to Pakistan’s plutonium reactor at Khushab. Pakistan’s National Defense Complex’s missile production factory at Fatehgunj (40 kilometres west of Islamabad) imported gyroscopes, accelerometers, on-board computers, and other equipment to manufacture M-11 missiles from China Precision Machinery Import-Export Corporation in 1996.
There have been numerous instances when advanced equipment and technologies imported from USA by ostensibly civilian Chinese companies have been diverted to China’s People’s Liberation Army. In February 1997 Sun Microsystems exported an E-5000 server to ‘Automated Systems Limited Warehouse’ in Hong Kong. This powerful computer immediately ended up in Changsha Institute of Science and Technology, which trains PLA officers in missile and rocket technology, where it was used to design the Dong Feng series of nuclear missiles. In contrast, the US government hauled up Chyron Corporation of New York for exporting a harmless animation system to ISRO.
While USA insinuated, without any proof, that Indian organizations were re-exporting US technologies to Iraq, Chinese companies have done so for years. In 1994, AT&T transferred advanced fiber-optic communications equipment and encryption software to a Chinese company called Galaxy New Technology, mentioning in its export license that these were intended for commercial civilian use within China. These were immediately incorporated by the PLA’s Electronics Design Bureau into a secure air-defense system (NATO code-name Tiger Song), and re-exported to Iraq. AT&T officials stated that they saw no reason to question Galaxy New Technology’s bona fides, even though it had been formed only a few weeks earlier and was headed by Madam Nie Lie, wife of General Ding Henggao, who then commanded China’s Commission on Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense. Galaxy’s President was Senior Colonel Deng Changru, head of the PLA’s Communications Corps, and its General Manager was Senior Colonel Xie Zhichao, director of PLA’s Electronics Design Bureau. It was later discovered that General Ding Henggao had arranged for political contributions to the Democratic Party (the notorious China-gate scandal), and that the deal had been facilitated by William Perry and Adlai Stevenson III.
China’s PLA obtained satellite and missile technologies such as encrypted radiation-hardened integrated circuits from Loral, post-boost vehicle technologies from Lockheed, telemetry systems from Motorola, and nose-cone technologies from Hughes. The US government denied these corporations permission to transfer similar technologies to India’s civilian space programme.
Hughes also supplied remote-sensing data-acquisition, processing, archival and distribution equipment to China’s remote-sensing cum real-time secure-communications Feng Ho series of military satellites. Other space technologies transferred by Hughes to China included anti-jam capabilities, advanced antennas, cross-links, baseband-processing, encryption devices, radiation-hardening processes, and perigee kick motors, as well as the design and manufacture of missile nose cones and electronic missile control systems. The PLA incorporated these in its Dong Feng 31 missiles. DF-31, with its range of 6000 miles and warhead of three 90-kiloton nuclear bombs, poses a serious threat to all of India.
These US corporations had made political contributions to the Democratic Party, then headed by Ron Brown, who later became Secretary of the Commerce Department. Sources close to the Chinese government had also contributed to the Democratic Party - the notorious China-gate scandal. Faced with opposition from the US Departments of State and Defense regarding exports of satellite technologies to China, Michael Armstrong, then chief executive of Hughes, Bernard Schwartz, then CEO of Loral, and Daniel Tellep, then CEO of Lockheed, co-wrote a letter to President Bill Clinton in October 1995 stating: “We respectfully request your personal support for establishing the Commerce Department’s jurisdiction over the export of all commercial communications satellites...The US government does not require Congressional approval to remove commercial satellites from the United States Munitions List, which is under State Department jurisdiction, and placing them on the Commerce Control List, which is under Commerce Department jurisdiction...” President Clinton granted this request quickly without consulting the US Congress.
A US House of Representatives Committee charged Lockheed, Loral, and Hughes with violating national security. Hughes pleaded ‘No Contest’ to 123 charges of violating the “US Arms Export Control Act” and “International Traffic in Arms Regulations”, and was fined 32 million dollars. Lockheed paid a penalty of thirteen million dollars to settle thirty charges of violating these Acts, and Loral was penalized twenty million dollars.
No official from China or from Lockheed, Loral, or Hughes was jailed. In contrast, of the four Cirrus employees indicted, Parthasarathy Sudarshan faces a likely sentencing guideline range of 97-121 months in prison, if convicted of the charges. Mythili Gopal faces a likely sentencing guideline range of 63-78 months. A.K.N. Prasad and Sampath Sundar face likely sentencing guideline ranges of 78-97 months, if convicted of the charges.
In another instance, Boeing sold transport aircraft to China United Airlines, a front company owned by China’s People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). These aircraft could be used to quickly airlift troops to the Tibetan plateau near India’s borders. In response to a request under USA’s Freedom of Information Act, Barbara Fredericks, assistant general counsel of the US Commerce Department, replied: “Information about export licenses and license applications that list China United Airlines as a consignee or end-user are protected from disclosure. Disclosure would not be in the national interest.”
In contrast, the US government denied permission to Boeing to enter into a joint venture with ISRO to manufacture satellites for the international market.
While negotiating the 123 Agreement, India should emphasize that it is high time that USA transferred not only space technologies, but even much-needed defence, nuclear, and missile technologies to India. India is in particular need of US space technologies in launch vehicles, sensors, telemetry, communications surveillance and decryption, real-time imagery, and data-mining.
by Ravi Visvesvaraya Prasad
Written on Wednesday, 25 April 2007
Ravi Visvesvaraya Prasad, an alumnus of Carnegie Mellon and IIT Kanpur, is Consulting Editor of Realpolitik. He also heads a group on C4ISRT (Command, Control, Communications & Computers Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance
By Ravi Visvesvaraya Prasad
Published in May 2007 issue of Realpolitik Magazine, http://www.realpolitik.in
Copyright 2007, Ravi Visvesvaraya Prasad
International Publishing Rights in all Media, in all Jurisdictions, in all Languages with Realpolitik Magazine, http://www.realpolitik.in
Reproduction & forwarding strictly prohibited, and will be prosecuted without any warning
Written on Wednesday, 25 April 2007
by Ravi Visvesvaraya Prasad
CellPhones: {91}(0) 92 12 08 86 00, 99 90 265 822
Tel: {91}(11) 25 26 54 39, 25 26 42 75
Fax: {91} (11) 25 26 68 68
Email: rp at k dot st, p at r 6 7 dot net, r at 50g dot com
19 Maitri Apts
A-3, Paschim Vihar
New Delhi 110 063
India
posted by Ravi Visvesvaraya Sharada Prasad | 4/26/2007 03:00:00 pm
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