Made in the USA, Part III: US Company Listings N-Z

SERVAAS, INC.

(Indianapolis, Indiana)

1988 to 1990 — Supplied Iraq with "copper scrap refining machines, tools, parts and technical documents" to build a factory that would have made artillery shells and gun cartridges, according to records introduced at a 1992 Senate Banking Committee hearing. The work was done by Bridgeport Brass, an Indiana brass mill owned by Servaas.

The $40,602,000 deal was financed, with U.S. government approval, through a letter of credit from BNL (an Italian bank). The go-between with the Iraqis was Matrix Churchill, a now defunct company that was bought by the Iraqis (see Matrix Churchill entry). Servaas shipped all the material to Iraq, but the first Gulf War halted construction. The U.S. government eventually helped Servaas get full payment on the deal by allowing it to draw from frozen Iraqi funds for the final $16 million. Company owner Beurt Servaas, a former Indianapolis city councilman, testified before Congress that he had no knowledge that the factory would be producing ammunition. He said he believed the factory was to produce commercial, non-military items.

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SIEMENS CORP.

(A German company with a variety of American operations. Siemens U.S. is based in New York City.)

1989 — Supplied $79,000 worth of computers for testing and control of X-ray diffraction systems to Iraq’s Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization (MIMI). Thomas Phillips, a company spokesman, said all of Siemens’ transactions with Iraq were "in full compliance with international rules." Siemens’ work in Iraq primarily included "energy, transport, intelligence and communications," Phillips told the Weekly. But he declined to discuss specifics.

SIP CORP.

(SIP Corp. is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Its U.S. subsidiary, American SIP Corp., is based in Hebron, Kentucky.)

Date uncertain — Manufactured jig-bore equipment (high-precision milling machines) found by U.N. inspectors to have been used in the Iraqi nuclear-weapons program. A company official acknowledged that SIP probably did business with Iraq in the 1980s. "But I think that Geneva probably handled that business, and the company has not sold any machinery to Iraq since sanctions were imposed following the 1991 Gulf War," said Greg Dunkley, of American SIP.

SPECTRAL DATA CORP.

(Formerly based in Champaign, Illinois)

1985 — Provided $27,000 worth of image processing, display-systems and multi-spectral digital equipment to the University of Mosul, a procurement arm for Iraq’s missile-development program. Company may have ceased operations.

SPECTRA PHYSICS

(Mountain View, California)

1987 — Provided $19,000 worth of lasers and laser-related systems to Salah al Din, a military-electronics factory built by the French, which produced three-dimensional early-warning radars, electronic countermeasures and guidance components. The site also produced equipment for making fuel for nuclear weapons, intended to arm warheads.

SPERRY CORP.

(Merged with Burroughs in 1986 to form Unisys Corp, based in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania.)

1985 to 1986 — Supplied $32,000 worth of computers to Saad 21, a weapons facility. Sperry also sold $68,000 worth of compasses, gyroscopes and accelerometers. These components were on the Department of Commerce list of parts used to build ballistic missiles. In addition, Sperry provided $6.2 million worth of computers to the Iraqi National Computer Center and more than $8.7 million worth of computers for a personnel database that was reportedly used for surveillance activities by the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior, which supervised the secret police. Iraq also received a loan of $1,351,000 from BNL (an Italian bank) to buy computer hardware and software from Sperry, according to evidence provided for a 1992 Senate Banking Committee hearing. A Unisys company spokesperson said she had no information concerning Sperry’s exports to Iraq.

SULLAIRE CORP.

(Formerly based in Charlotte, North Carolina)

Dates unknown — U.N. weapons inspectors in the first round of inspections after Gulf War I, found a variety of equipment and machinery supplied by Sullaire for use in Iraq’s chemical-weapons program. Items included power-supply units, air filters for drying chemicals, buffer vessels, pressure and temperature regulators, and a refrigerator for air-drying and air compressors. Company may have ceased operations.

SWISSCO MANAGEMENT GROUP, INC.

(Formerly based in Miami Lakes, Florida. Was part of the now-dissolved Westfield Holdings, Inc., which also was based in Miami Lakes, Florida. Swissco was dissolved in 1991.)

1982 to 1989 — Shipped approximately 130 tons of unlicensed zirconium, which could be used as an incendiary additive in 24,000 cluster bombs, to Iraq. In 1995, a federal court convicted Swissco in absentia for conspiracy to export 130 tons of zirconium without the required U.S. export licenses, according to records from the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security Export Enforcement Division. The court fined Swissco $1,309,230 and suspended the company’s export privileges for 10 years. Swissco allegedly worked in concert with Teledyne Wah Chang (an American company) and Chilean arms dealer Carlos Cardoen to ship the zirconium to Cardoen’s bomb-making plant in Chile. According to a Miami Heraldreport, Cardoen, now on the run from a U.S. federal warrant charging him with illegally exporting munitions, was last seen in 2001, living in Cuba.

TECHNICAL COMMUNICATIONS CORP.

(Concord, Massachusetts)

Date uncertain — Supplied $183,400 worth of equipment and training, including communication security devices to Iraq’s Technical and Scientific Materials Division, a biological-warfare and military-support operation. Deal was financed by a letter of credit from BNL (an Italian bank). Also supplied digital systems and services, costing $198,400 to the State Establishment for Heavy Engineering Equipment, a nuclear-weapons program. This deal also was financed by a BNL loan.