German Firms Smuggling Nuclear Technology to IranBy: David Bedein, The Bulletin
07/17/2007
In August 1990, a German human rights organization known as the Society for the Protection of Threatened Peoples (SPTP) issued a scathing report accusing 85 German companies of supplying weapons of mass destruction technology to Iran, Iraq, Syria and Libya through third countries. The report also showed that these transactions were done with the knowledge of the German government. Following the Gulf War in 1991, the same SPTP provided documentation that the scud missile technology used by Iraq against Israel had been supplied by German companies.
Now, 16 years later, Germany has suddenly published an assessment that scores of German companies have indeed been helping Iran's nuclear program.
Fifty German companies are now being investigated by the German government on suspicion of selling dual-use systems and material required for Iran's nuclear project. Berlin has determined that the shipments were being used to complete Iran's nuclear energy plant at Bushehr.
"The equipment was ordered by Russia and diverted to Iran," a German official said.
On Thursday, German state prosecutor Christoph Lange identified one of the companies. Lange said the Berlin-based company Vero was suspected of shipping nuclear material to Moscow via Poland. From there, he said, the material was exported to Iran.
Vero was identified as a supplier to Bushehr since 2000. The company purchased nuclear technology from dozens of companies in Germany for Russian contractors of Bushehr.
These companies have argued that they had merely filled orders from Russian clients. However, Lange said at least a dozen of the German firms knew that Iran was the final destination.
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