U.S. Parts Smuggled to Iran for Iraq Bombs

Electronic parts made in Minnesota were smuggled through Singapore to Iran, and some of them ended up in the remote controls of makeshift bombs seized by American forces in Iraq, the Justice Department said on Tuesday.

The parts are normally used in commonplace devices like routers that wirelessly connect computers and printers in a typical office network. The Justice Department said in an indictment that the ones smuggled to Iran had been put to use in sophisticated improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.'s, that could be triggered from miles away.

Four men have been arrested in Singapore on charges of breaking American export-control laws by smuggling 6,000 radio frequency modules through Singapore to Iran beginning in 2007. At least 16 of the devices, bought from a Minnesota company, were found in unexploded bombs in Iraq in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Singapore has agreed to arrange the extradition of the men Wong Yuh Lan, Lim Yong Nam, Lim Kow Seng and Hia Soo Gan Benson to the United States for trial. A fifth man Hossein Larijani, a citizen and resident of Iran was also charged, along with companies that he controls; he remained at large.

About 60 percent of all American casualties in Iraq have been caused by makeshift bombs, and the American military has long reported finding evidence that the most sophisticated and deadly of them were designed or fabricated in Iran.

By implicating Iran, at least circumstantially, in insurgent attacks on American soldiers in Iraq, the charges add to the ever worsening tensions between the countries. Two weeks ago, the United States accused Iran of complicity in a foiled plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Washington.

"This case underscores the continuing threat posed by Iranian procurement networks seeking to obtain U.S. technology through fraud," Lisa Monaco, assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement that was released on Tuesday as the indictment, issued by a grand jury in September 2010, was unsealed in Washington.

The Minnesota company that produced the parts was not named or charged; it was apparently duped by the buyers in Singapore, the Justice Department said.

The indictment provides details of five shipments from the company and says the suspects who were arrested earned tens of thousands of dollars from their dealings. It includes evidence of conversations with an Iranian contact over the need to skirt American export controls.

Two of the men are also charged with fraudulently shipping military antennas, of a kind used on combat aircraft and ships, from a Massachusetts company to Singapore and Hong Kong.

Source: NEW YORK TIMES