WARNING! – AT 11:20 A.M. ET: While our attention was elsewhere, Iran was arranging to buy a huge number of aircraft from Boeing. We want our workers to get the jobs, but not at the expense of national security. Republicans, normally very pro-business, are issuing warnings. From Fox:
Top House Republicans are raising red flags about Boeing's potential sale of roughly 100 commercial jets to Iran, warning it could end up benefiting Iran’s military, as well as terror groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
While the talks have not drawn objections from the Obama administration, Reps. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., and Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, fired off a letter Thursday raising concerns about Tehran's history of using commercial planes to support "hostile actors."
“We strongly oppose the potential sale of military-fungible products to terrorism’s central supplier. American companies should not be complicit in weaponizing the Iranian Regime,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter to Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg.
Whether Iran could or would use the aircraft for such purposes is unclear but the letter, obtained by FoxNews.com, seeks more information about the national security implications of the pending deal -- as well as the status of negotiations.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday a tentative agreement had been reached between the American aviation giant and Iran for about 100 jets. Iranian Transport Minister Abbas Akhoundi also said an agreement was close and would be announced “in the coming days.” One source told The Washington Post the deal could be worth more than $17 billion.
If agreed, the deal would be one of the most significant since the easing of trade sanctions on the country in January as part of the Iran nuclear deal signed last year.
But Roskam and Hensarling reminded Boeing in their letter that the State Department recently branded the country “the foremost state sponsor of terrorism.” They note Iran’s commercial aircraft are commonly used for military purposes and to back terrorist groups.
COMMENT: Some of us may recall 9-11, when airliners were used as military weapons. And, of course, airliners during wartime are pressed into service as military transports. Even in "peacetime," airliners and airlines can be used to transport terrorists and terrorist squads.
The problem, of course, is that Iran will get these airliners from some source. If not Boeing, it would be Airbus. If not Airbus, it would be a Russian manufacturer. At least, if Boeing is involved, the United States could control the pipeline of spare parts.
But the idea of so many new planes in the hands of the world's chief sponsor of terrorism should unnerve any rational soul. I said rational. In short supply.
June 17, 2016 |