New York Times (4.21.10)
Gates Calls for Easing Limits on Exports
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert
M. Gates called on Tuesday for an overhaul of the nation’s export control system
that he said would loosen sales of sensitive technology to American allies
without letting up on restrictions over nations like Iran.
In a speech to military contractors, Mr. Gates said
that the current system, much of which dates from the end of the cold war, undermined the
nation’s defense because it made it so difficult for the United States to
supply weapons and equipment to friendly countries, including those with forces
fighting alongside American troops in Afghanistan. He said his speech, which
echoed one on the subject by President
Obama last summer, was meant to offer “compelling security
arguments” for the overhaul.
“America’s decades-old, bureaucratically labyrinthine
system does not serve our 21st-century security needs or our economic
interests,” Mr. Gates said. “It is clear that our current limitations in this
area undermine America’s ability to work with and through partners to confront
shared threats and challenges, from terrorism to rogue states to rising
powers.”
As an example, Mr. Gates said that many parts and
components of American combat vehicles and aircraft, like the F-16, required
their own export licenses.
“It makes little sense to use the same lengthy process
to control the export of every latch, wire and lug nut for a piece of equipment
like the F-16 when we have already approved the export of the whole aircraft,”
he said.
In another example, Mr. Gates said that not long ago a
British C-17 cargo plane “spent hours disabled on the ground in Australia — not
because the needed part wasn’t available, but because U.S. law required the
Australians to seek U.S. permission before doing the repair.” Mr. Gates added:
“These are two of our very strongest allies, for God’s sake.”
The proposed overhaul, which was embraced by the
military industry, is certain to face skepticism among members of Congress who
are concerned that loosening controls would allow sensitive technology to get
into the wrong hands. Most recent administrations have sought to revise export
control laws, with limited success, in part because the three main agencies
that oversee the controls — the Commerce Department, the State Department and
the Pentagon — could rarely agree on changes.
Military contractors and national security experts
said it was significant that the defense secretary was the one who called for
the overhaul — a reflection, they said, of his years in government.
In his remarks, Mr. Gates recalled that when he became
deputy director for intelligence at the C.I.A. in 1982, one of his responsibilities
included tracking prohibited transfers of United States technology. “It soon
became clear that the length of the list of controlled technologies outstripped
our finite intelligence monitoring capabilities and resources,” he said,
then added, “We were wasting our time and resources tracking technologies you
could buy at RadioShack.”
To overhaul the system, which would be done partly by
executive order but also requires action by Congress, Mr. Gates proposed
creating a single list and a single agency to make clear to American companies
which items required export licenses.
When an audience member asked Mr. Gates if the
proposed new system would make it easier for Iran to obtain components for a nuclear
weapons program, Mr. Gates replied, “The likelihood of the Iranians’
being able to get any of that stuff from us is somewhere south of zero.”
David J. Berteau, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies
and a defense management and acquisition expert, called Mr. Gates’s speech a
“major breakthrough.” The speech recognized, Mr. Berteau said, that countries
in Europe and Asia were developing their own military technology in part to get
around the controls imposed by the United States, and that the United States
could get locked out of that market.