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Archive for January, 2011

Jan

31

Khartoum Calls for U.S. to End Sanctions

Posted by Clif Burns at 9:13 pm on January 31, 2011

Category: Sudan

Sudan Referendum Yesterday provisional results were announced in the referendum on whether southern Sudan should be allowed to secede from Sudan and become an independent nation. The provisional results indicate that the vote was nearly unanimous in favor of secession, which means, more likely than not, that Southern Sudan will become an independent nation on July 9 of this year.

The current government in Khartoum was quick to make the most of these results and called for the U.S. to lift its sanctions on Sudan, noting that the U.S. had declared the peaceful conduct of the secession referendum as an important priority. The United States, however, declined this invitation noting its lingering concerns about continuing violence in Darfur. Other issues relative to the secession vote also remain to be resolved including the division of oil revenues between the two countries after independence and the ownership of the Abeyi region.

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Jan

26

Wanna Bomb a Taliban? There’s an App for That!

Posted by Clif Burns at 7:16 pm on January 26, 2011

Category: ITAR

Tactical Nav app You may think that the only really military application for your iPhone involves using a slingshot to launch some irritated birds at shelters harboring egg-stealing pigs, but you’d be wrong. Army Captain Jonathan Springer used $26,000 of his own funds to develop Tactical Nav, an iPhone app designed to assist soldiers on the field of battle to determine and relay accurate coordinates to other soldiers, whether for the purpose of accurately targeting a nest of Taliban fighters or in order to send medical aid to wounded U.S. forces.

Explaining Tactical Nav’s functions, Springer said it allows soldiers to map, plot and photograph navigational points on a battleground and coordinate efforts with supporting units. Another feature includes a night mode, which turns the screen to red for easier visibility.

Springer tested each of these features for accuracy, using a combination of military vehicles, remote observation posts and harsh combat conditions.

Pleased with the outcome of his efforts, Springer said, â€œWe took it from paper to what it is now â€¦ we’re very blessed and fortunate that is seems a good asset.â€

Springer expects the app to be in the iTunes store for sale in February.

So here’s the question. Will Apple get a visit from the folks at DDTC if someone who is not a U.S. citizen or permanent resident or who is not in the United States downloads this app? After all, it was specifically designed for battlefield use and was tested with battlefield equipment.

I haven’t fully thought through this issue, but my initial view is that the software may not be an ITAR-controlled item. Obviously, being designed or modified military use is not alone sufficient for an item to be on the United States Munitions List. The item must still be in a category set forth in the USML. Section 120.10 of the ITAR defines “technical data” to include software but only if “directly related to defense articles.” The iPhone itself isn’t a defense article. The only other time I see software called out specifically in the USML is category XIII for military cryptography, also not relevant to this app.

I haven’t fully analyzed this, so I could be wrong. Share your thoughts in the comments section.

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Jan

25

U.S. Implemented India Export Reforms Today

Posted by Clif Burns at 8:28 pm on January 25, 2011

Category: BIS • India

Love Fest A Federal Register notice issued today implemented expected reforms which loosen certain controls on U.S. exports to India. The notice removed some, but not all, Indian companies and organizations on the Entity List, a list maintained by the Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”). All U.S. exports to countries on the Entity List require a license from BIS.

Today’s action removes nine organizations from the Entity List: Bharat Dynamics, Ltd., four subsidiaries of India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (“DRDO”) and four subsidiaries of the Indian Space Research Organization (“ISRO”). The Department of Atomic Energy entities that were on the list remain on the list. The major effect of the removal is that EAR99 items will no longer require licenses to the nine removed entities. Items with ECCNs that would otherwise require licenses to these entities will still require licenses for exports to these companies.

India was also removed from country groups D:2, D:3 and D:4 and added to country group A:2. This will, among other things, make certain license exceptions available for India such as License Exception APR for additional permissive re-exports as well as unaccompanied baggage under License Exception BAG.

Not surprisingly, Pakistan is irritated by all this and threatens to add to its nuclear arsenal to protect itself from a what it sees as a newly emboldened India that will result from these new export rules.

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Jan

24

ICE Trolls eBay, Stings Exporter, Obtains Guilty Plea

Posted by Clif Burns at 8:57 pm on January 24, 2011

Category: General

body armor plate A Tennessee man, Jerome Pendzich, offered body armor for sale on eBay and said in his listings that he shipped “worldwide.” Thereafter some intrepid ICE agents working the eBay beat convinced Pendzich to ship some NIJ Type IV small arms protective inserts to other feds in Bogota. Once Pendzich shipped the packages, which he labeled as gifts and ceramic plates, his home was raided and he confessed that he knew he needed an export license because the manufacturer of the plates had so informed him. Not surprisingly, Pendzich quickly negotiated a plea agreement.

One annoying aspect to the plea agreement is that it refers to the plates as “Level IV.” The United States Munitions List (“USML”), however, uses the same terminology as the National Institute of Justice standard, which is “Type IV.” Using the correct USML terminology might signal that the prosecutor might have looked at the USML at some point during his or her career. (Of course, it’s hard to get too worked up about this because the USML incorrectly refers to NIJ Types 1, 2, 2a, and 3a, instead of I, II, IIa, and IIIa as specified in the NIJ Standard.)

One other thing to note: ICE agents working the eBay beat probably don’t need to wear body armor while doing it.

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Jan

20

OFAC Adds Dead Man To SDN List

Posted by Clif Burns at 8:14 pm on January 20, 2011

Category: OFAC

ABOVE: Qari Hussain

Today the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) added Qari Hussain (a.k.a. Qari Hussain Mehsud) to its list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons. U.S. individuals and companies are prohibited from engaging in any transactions with any person or entity on the SDN list.

Qari Hussain, according to this report, is blamed for organizing the December 2009 suicide attack on the U.S. operating center in Khost, Afghanistan, which killed seven U.S. employees of the CIA. He also recruited Faisal Shahzad, the wannabe Times Square bomber whose bomb fizzled in May 2010 and who is now serving a life sentence without possibility of parole.

It appears, however, that Hussain died on October 4, 2010, when he was blown up by a U.S. drone operating in North Waziristan. Although Hussain has been reported previously to have died in attacks that he in fact survived, this does not appear to be the case here. After his reported death in 2009, he called reporters to prove that he was alive. No such call has been made since the October 4 attack. Additionally, a “senior counter-terrorism official” as well as a high-level leader of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, with which Hussain was associated and which initially denied reports of his death, confirmed to Asia Times Online that Hussain had died in the attack.

Although better late than never is not a particularly good rationale for putting someone on the SDN list, perhaps this is, to give OFAC the benefit of the doubt, a case of better safe than sorry given Hussain’s previous history of near-death experiences.

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