US Can't Track Its Own Exports to Iran

(March 5) -- Even as the U.S. pushes for tougher international sanctions aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear program, a government investigation suggests Washington is doing a lousy job policing the sanctions already in place.

The Government Accountability Office said that the government hasn't been able to prevent even dual-use and military goods from traveling from the U.S. to Iran, and that the Treasury Department's statistics on trade with Iran include goods that didn't even go there. The GAO also found that the department's paper-based export-licensing system is too slow to give Customs and Border Protection officials the data they need for effective inspections at U.S. ports.

"According to U.S. officials, Iran is obtaining U.S. military and dual-use goods that are being illegally trans-shipped by firms and individuals through locations in numerous countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Singapore," the GAO said. "The goods include components for U.S.-built fighter aircraft, electronics and specialized metals."

The cases uncovered by Justice Department investigators include shipments of missile parts, laboratory equipment, night vision goggles, submachine guns and "sensitive technologies sent to Iranian missile and nuclear entities," the GAO added.

The GAO report comes out the same week U.S. diplomats at the United Nations Security Council are ratcheting up the push for new sanctions aimed at forcing Iran to stop enriching uranium in a program the West suspects is aimed at developing nuclear weapons. Economic sanctions proposed by the U.S., Britain and France are thought to target Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which oversees the country's nuclear programs and exerts growing control over Iran's government and commercial sectors.

But China, which can veto any sanctions as a permanent Security Council member, remains resistant to punishing one of its biggest energy suppliers. Brazil, also a major trade partner of Iran, has opposed new sanctions. And Turkey -- furious at the U.S. over a House committee's vote Thursday to condemn Ottoman Turks' genocidal killing of 1.5 million Armenians nearly a century ago -- may also fight the sanctions effort against its neighbor.

Opponents of economic sanctions may now use the GAO report to undercut arguments that such punishments, on top of three previous sets of U.N. sanctions on Iran, will persuade the Islamic republic to curtail its nuclear ambitions.

The GAO began its investigation of the government's check on exports to Iran in 2008 after members of Congress questioned whether trade and licensing statistics were accurately tracking American goods sold to Iran during the George W. Bush administration. At the time, tension was on the rise over Iran's nuclear program and its role in Iraq.

Commerce Department data now available show that the value of exports to Iran grew to $683.1 million in 2008 from just $8.1 million in 2001. Last year, U.S. exports to Iran dropped sharply to just over $281.8 million in goods.

The GAO said it has recommended that the treasury secretary ensures that the department develops "the capability to provide other agencies and Congress with complete and timely information concerning all licenses issued for the export of goods to Iran."

"In commenting on a draft of this report, Treasury stated that it was upgrading the licensing system that tracks agricultural and medical exports to Iran," the GAO said. "However, it did not specify when similar upgrades would occur for a licensing system that tracks other exports, including dual-use items that have potential military applications."