House to Push Ban on F-14 Parts Sale

Thursday, March 8, 2007

By SHARON THEIMER

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — An effort to bar the Pentagon from selling surplus parts for the F-14 fighter jet – a plane now flown only by Iran – will be introduced in the House.

An Arizona Democrat said Thursday she will make it her first proposal as a congresswoman.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, called her bill “a commonsense piece of legislation.”

“I don’t believe most Americans are aware of the fact that the Iranians do have a fleet of F-14s and that we sold them to them,” Giffords said. “I hope that this legislation is just one step in what will be many to be able to keep better control over our equipment and to make sure that we are not helping to militarize the Iranians.”

Giffords’ Tucson-based district includes one of the military’s biggest retirement homes for aircraft. She planned to introduce legislation Friday similar to a Senate bill that would permanently ban the Defense Department from selling surplus F-14 parts. Republican Rep. Steve Pearce of New Mexico signed on Thursday afternoon as a co-sponsor.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., sponsored the “Stop Arming Iran Act” in January after The Associated Press reported that buyers for Iran, China and other countries had taken advantage of weaknesses in Pentagon surplus-sale security to acquire sensitive military equipment, including missile components and parts for F-14 “Tomcats” and other aircraft. Law enforcement officials know of at least one instance in which a surplus purchase made it to Iran.

The U.S. military retired its F-14s last year, leaving Iran the only country still trying to keep the jets airworthy. The United States allowed Iran to buy the Tomcats back in the 1970s when the countries were friendly.

The Pentagon’s surplus division originally planned to sell thousands of spare F-14 parts, but after the AP’s report, it temporarily halted the sales and began conducting a full security review of the jet components.

Investigations continue into Pentagon surplus that may have gone astray. Just this week, federal agents seized four F-14s sold in California.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators say an officer at Point Mugu Naval Air Station authorized the sale of the four retired Tomcats for $2,000 to $4,000 each, none of them demilitarized _ rendered useless for military purposes _ as Navy rules required. The money went to the “VX-9 (Squadron) Morale Welfare and Recreation” fund, a court document shows.

Three were purchased in April 1999 by a scrap dealer and ultimately wound up at air museums in Chino, Calif., in one case with the engine and afterburners intact. The fourth was sold to Paramount Pictures for use in the TV series “JAG” and later resold to the owner of Aviation Warehouse in El Mirage, Calif., according to a customs agent affidavit filed in federal court in Los Angeles last week.

No charges have been filed. “There is no evidence any of the parts on these planes got to enemy hands,” Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Wednesday. “But it certainly poses a security risk.”

Click here to read the article in the Washington Post