Iran, Iraq scientists allowed to enter top-secret U.S. labs
Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Friday, April 23, 1999
WASHINGTON [MENL] -- Scientists from Iran and Iraq, countries believed
to be seeking intermediate ballistic missile and nuclear weapons, are
permitted to tour leading U.S. weapons laboratories, a House chairman
says.
Fred Upton, chairman of the House Commerce Committee Oversight and
Investigations subcommittee, said he was stunned by testimony over the
ease in which foreign scientists are allowed access to facilities and
information that will help the weapons program of nations hostile to the
United States.
"I must say that one particular area stands out in my mind," Upton said
in a Tuesday hearing, "the fact that thousands of foreign scientists
from countries such as China, Cuba, Iran, and Iraq are permitted to
visit our most sensitive weapon laboratories and have fairly
unrestricted exchanges with our scientists -- including those working on
matters that, while technically unclassified, are immensely useful to
the weapon programs of foreign nations with potentially hostile intent
towards the United States or its friends and allies around the world."
U.S. officials said Iran has completed development of its Shihab-3
intermediate range ballistic missile and on Tuesday a member of a
presidential commission on missile defense said the missile will be
deployed later this year.
Upton said that China alone sent nearly 1,500 scientists -- including
suspected intelligence agents -- to three of what he termed the most
sensitive U.S. weapon labs from between 1994 and 1996. Testimony to his
committee asserted that less than two percent of those Chinese
scientists received any background checks by the U.S. Energy Department.
The House chairman said he was concerned about countries other than
Iran. He said he cannot be certain that U.S. scientists are letting slip
classified information on weapons technology in their meetings with
Iranian, Iraqi or scientists from other countries hostile to the United
States.
"My concern goes to the very heart of this peculiar arrangement," Upton
said, "and whether we are doing all that we should to give
counter-intelligence training to those American scientists who must
interact with foreign scientists, either here or abroad."
Friday, April 23, 1999
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