Israel has been violating American law by the unauthorized sale of U.S. weapons and military technology to other nations, and U.S. officials failed to halt the practice, the State Department`s inspector general said Wednesday.
The inspector general, Sherman Funk, said in a report that the department`s political-military affairs bureau ”had received many reports of significant, alleged violations” of restrictions on weapons transfers by ”a major recipient” of U.S. weapons and technology.
”The reports describe a systematic and growing pattern of unauthorized transfers of sensitive U.S. items and technology by the recipient dating back to about 1983,” he said.
While the publicly released version of his report did not name the country, a classified annex included with the report sent to Congress on Wednesday identified the nation as Israel, sources said.
”The violations include sales of sensitive U.S. items and technology to countries prohibited by U.S. law from receiving such items,” the report said. The Wall Street Journal recently cited intelligence reports that Israel has sold American air-to-air missiles to China, anti-tank missiles to South Africa, cluster bombs to Ethiopia and Chile, and sophisticated aircraft radars and jamming devices to unspecified nations.
The allegations are likely to exacerbate already strained relations between the United States and Israel over Israel`s refusal to freeze settlement activity in the occupied territories.
The inspector general recommended disciplinary action against State Department officials responsible for monitoring arms sales, and he urged that the government seek to be repaid any money that Israel made from selling American weapons and technology. Some of the weapons secretly sold to other countries were originally purchased with U.S. foreign aid, according to the report.
Israeli Embassy spokeswoman Ruth Yaron said Wednesday, ”Israel`s policy is to adhere very carefully to the regulation of technology transfer and procurement.” The dispute, she said, ”probably will be dealt with, as it should be, between the two governments in diplomatic channels.”
The report confirms long-rumored laxness in enforcing arms resale restrictions under laws such as the Arms Export Control Act.
The report says that the State Department did not adequately police restricted sales and that despite assurances from the Israeli government, the unathorized sales continued.
The State Department official who was supposed to report the intelligence about alleged violations to top department officials and to Congress failed to do so, the report said. It was only after the inspector general`s office became involved that the department`s political-military affairs bureau acted to curtail the reported transfers, the study said.
But the key official involved, Richard Clarke, assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, said investigations by his office had failed to turn up ”any smoking guns” confirming Israeli violations.
Further, he told Funk in a memorandum, ”the report ignores the fact that this administration inherited a situation of gross non-feasance” in monitoring arms transactions.
The report said that Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger disagreed with the recommendation for disciplinary action and also questioned whether there was a legal basis to seek repayment from Israel.
Wednesday`s report comes on the heels of a separate investigation into intelligence reports that Israel recently violated U.S. law by selling China technology from the American Patriot anti-missile system.
Israel has denied those allegations.
