A fascinating Associated Press article published today reports the results of an FOIA request the wire service made for information relating to U.S. exports to Iran. According to the information obtained by the AP, U.S. exports have grown more than ten-fold during the last seven years of the Bush administration, notwithstanding U.S. concerns about nuclear proliferation activities by Iran. The largest export: cigarettes. Almost $158 million dollars worth of cigarettes. That’s a lot of lung cancer and heart disease. (Full disclosure: as a former smoker, I tend to be a rabidly anti-smoking.)

Most surprisingly, the figures given to the AP reveal military exports to Iran, including $106,635 in military rifles and $8,760 in rifle parts and other accessories. Adam Szubin, speaking for the Office of Foreign Assets Control, argued that it was unlikely that these exports actually occurred and cited the possibility that shipping documents listed these codes erroneously or that shippers may have confused Iran and Iraq when filling out these documents. Some support for this can be found in government data saying that the U.S. exported $13,000 in “aircraft launching gear and/or deck arrestors” to Iran. As far as anyone knows Iran doesn’t have any aircraft carriers Still, even if these were mistakes by the shippers, one has to wonder why someone at Customs didn’t catch these mistakes.

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