Made In the USA, Part III: US Company Listings A-M

Other contracts: $254,000 worth of frequency synthesizers for developing surveillance radar; $834,000 worth of computers for engineering applications and cryptographic and related equipment to the Ministry of Oil; $25,000 worth of electronic-testing and computer-graphics equipment to the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission, which was responsible for nuclear-weapons research. Also, through German firm Messerschmidt Bolkow Blowm (Iraq’s main missile-technology supplier), sold more than $600,000 worth of testing and measurement equipment and general-purpose computers for developing and testing radar antennas, radio-spectrum analyzers and optical-fiber cable for use in labs at Saad 16, Iraq’s missile research-and-development center.

Also provided three computers for operating machine tools, which were discovered by U.N. inspectors at Al Rabiya, a manufacturing site for enriched uranium. (Hewlett-Packard also obtained letters of credit from BNL [an Italian bank] totaling $326,000 to sell computer-systems hardware and software to the Iraqi Trading Company, a front group for the Iraqi government. Iraq, in turn, received a BNL loan for $142,055 to buy spare parts from Hewlett-Packard.)

HIPOTRONICS

(Brewster, New York)

1989 — Sold nine power-supply units worth $287,000 — key equipment used in Iraq’s nuclear-weapons program.

HONEYWELL

(Morristown, New Jersey)

1984 to 1988 — Provided more than $353,000 worth of computers to monitor heating, ventilation and air conditioning to the Iraqi Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization (MIMI), which supervised nuclear-, conventional-, missile and chemical-weapons programs. Also prepared for Iraq a feasibility study and design data for a fuel-air explosive warhead for ballistic missiles.

Honeywell also sold compasses, gyroscopes and accelerometers to Iraqi Airways, listed by the U.S. Department of Justice as a front company for military procurement. These components could be used for building ballistic missiles. In addition, Honeywell supplied a "process flow controller" used in Iraq’s chemical-weapons program.

Richard Silverman, a spokesman for Honeywell, declined comment on the company’s business dealings with Iraq during the 1980s. "Honeywell has been, and continues to be, in compliance with all U.S. export-control laws and with U.S. sanctions against Iraq," said Silverman.

HUGHES HELICOPTER

(Was based in Culver City, California. The company is now called MD Helicopters, Inc., and is based in Mesa, Arizona, after being sold in 1984 to McDonnell Douglas.)

1983 — Supplied Iraq with 60 civilian helicopters, eventually modified for military use. Sale approved by Reagan administration.

IBM

(Armonk, New York)

2000 — Provided switches, chips and processing technology to Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., a Chinese maker of communications networks. Between 2000 and 2001, Huawei outfitted Iraq’s air-defense system with fiber-optic equipment in violation of the U.N. embargo. Huawei also bought Commerce Department–approved supercomputers not only from IBM but also Digital Equipment Corporation and Hewlett-Packard.

INTERNATIONAL IMAGING SYSTEMS

(Formerly located in Milpitas, California)

1981 to 1990 – Sales to Iraq included $28,000 worth of electronic-imaging equipment to Iraqi Directorate General for purpose of enhancing satellite photos used in reconnaissance or missile targeting; more than $295,000 worth of electronic image-enhancement equipment to the Iraqi Space and Astronomy Research Center; $693,000 worth of infrared image-enhancement equipment for aerial reconnaissance and missile tracking to the University of Mosul, a procurement arm for Saad 16, Iraq’s primary missile research-and-development site.Records from California’s Secretary of State office indicate this company began operations in 1980 and has since been dissolved.

INTERNATIONAL SIGNAL AND CONTROL CORP.

(Formerly located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania — company defunct.)

1984 to 1989 — ISC supplied, via Chilean arms dealer Carlos Cardoen, cluster-bomb technology and blueprints to build a cluster-bomb factory in Iraq. Cardoen is now on the run from a federal warrant for illegally exporting weapons to Iraq. ISC’s technology and blueprints were allegedly used to build a factory in Iraq to manufacture electronic fuses. James Guerin, now serving a 15-year sentence in federal prison in connection with illegal arms exports and other crimes, founded ISC. Some of the arms shipments made were diverted to Iraq. Before Guerin was exposed — he later pleaded guilty in criminal proceedings in 1992 — ISC was purchased by Ferranti International, a British company. Ferranti was forced into receivership because of the ensuing financial losses.

Guerin had filled his company with ex-U.S. military and intelligence officers. During the Ford administration, Guerin began illegally selling arms to South Africa as part of an intelligence operation in which the South African military agreed to spy on Soviet ships off its coast. (President Jimmy Carter later terminated the ISC-South African covert operation.) A former deputy CIA director, Admiral Bobby Inman, then head of Naval Intelligence, served as the liaison between Guerin and the U.S. government. And it was publicity about Inman’s connections to Guerin that ultimately cost him the chance to become CIA director.

IONICS

(Watertown, Massachusetts)

Date Uncertain — Ionics supplied a water-demineralization plant and pumping station costing $1,780,000 to the State Establishment for Heavy Engineering Equipment (SEHEE), a front for Iraq’s nuclear-weapons program. Deal was financed with a letter of credit from BNL (an Italian bank). Ionics also supplied SEHEE with a water-desalination plant costing $1,375,000, financed by a BNL loan. These transactions were documented in a 1992 hearing by the Senate Banking Committee.

KENNAMETAL, INC.

(Latrobe, Pennsylvania)

1987 to 1990 — Sold $900,000 worth of metalworking products to Iraq, including $81,917 to Al Kadisya State Establishment, a manufacturing program specializing in metallurgy. The Atlanta branch of BNL (an Italian bank) financed the deals. In a written statement, the company acknowledged sales of "approximately $900,000 of products that were used to tool machines — some of those machines ended up in Iraq." But "all of the sales were in full compliance with the laws at the time and had been approved in advance and licensed by the British government," stated Riz Chand, Kennametal’s vice president of Human Resources and Corporate Relations. He also stated that two separate U.S. government reviews "found that Kennametal made no illegal exports and no charges were filed."