"AP Enterprise: How nuclear equipment reached Iran" by Peter Enav and Debby Wu, Associated Press Writers | February 28, 2010
TAIPEI, Taiwan --Early last year, a Chinese company placed an order with a Taiwanese agent for 108 nuclear-related pressure gauges. But something happened along the way. Paperwork was backdated. Plans were rerouted, orders reconfigured, shipping redirected.
They didn't steal foreign citizens identities and use them for an assassination ring like Mossad, did they?
And the gauges ended up in a very different place: Iran.
The story behind the gauges shows how Iran is finding its way around international sanctions meant to prevent it from getting equipment that can be used to make a nuclear bomb. At least half a dozen times in recent years, the Persian Gulf nation has tried to use third countries as transshipment points for obtaining controlled, nuclear-related equipment....
As of last November, Iran had 8,692 centrifuges, of which 3,936 were running, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency....
Oh, they are RUNNING at LESS than 50% CAPACITY, huh?
This is what never made my printed piece, readers:
Taiwan, however, let the shipment go through.
For more than 30 years, the island has been the orphan of the international community, denied membership in organizations like the United Nations because of China's insistence that it has no sovereign status of its own. The result has been a gaping lack of familiarity with push-button issues for the West -- Iran among them -- and a strong interest in building up the trade links that define its place in the world.
Oh, right, TAIWAN an ALLY!
Is that why this DID NOT MAKE the WEB VERSION, readers?
Taiwan, unlike Switzerland and China, does not belong to the Nuclear Suppliers Group, an alliance of 46 countries that seek to limit the spread of nuclear-related equipment. However, Taiwan says it enforces export control lists based on NSG protocols....
Taiwan may not be so quick to allow such transactions in the future. The Taiwanese official said the government has decided to require Heli-Ocean to declare any further sales to the Iranian company before they are carried out.
"Taiwan had contacts with a foreign intelligence agency after the transaction," the official said. "The agency provided us with intelligence that it suspected an Iranian entity could be procuring pressure transducers from a company in a third country and using them for nuclear proliferation purposes."
Gee, I Can't Imagine Anybody, can you, readers?
Taiwanese companies have been caught exporting sensitive items before.
And NO SANCTIONS or SCREAMING like what happens to the Koreans, etc?
Oh, right, TAIWAN a FRIEND and a USEFUL TOOL against CHINA!!!!
In January, a freight forwarder employee was indicted for helping Taipei-based Axiomtek Co. move industrial computers to Iran. In 2008 a court convicted Taipei-based Trans Merits Co. Ltd. of exporting proscribed computing equipment to North Korea....
Anywhere there i$ a buck to made, right?
Steve Lin, the Heli-Ocean boss, declined to answer specific questions about the deal but insisted he had done nothing wrong.
"I don't support terrorists," he told the AP in January. "I don't want to hurt people."
As for China, the incident will likely fuel suspicions about its commitment to nonproliferation.
Then MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, 'eh, war-promoting agenda-pushers?
The oil-hungry nation is heavily invested in Iran's energy industry and has opposed tougher sanctions on Tehran.
Yeah, THEY are OIL HUNGRY!
Of course, the Chinese CUT DEALS for access!
They do not INVADE NATIONS to slake their THIRST for oil like WE DO, AmeriKa!!!
A blog on Roc-Master's Web site highlights its role in supplying equipment for a natural gas project on Iran's Kharg Island in March 2008....
Gee, the Zionist MSM sure can find the blogs when it wants to, huh?
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