Despite expressed US opposition to sale of Elta radar systems to China, the Clinton administration has allowed Sun Microsystems to sell two high performance computers to Elta. The supercomputers will aid Elta to outfit Chinese aircraft with its radar systems more cheaply, faster, and better. This was written by Gary Milhollin of the Wisconsin Project for nuclear weapons inspection in an article published yesterday in "The Washington Post".
The Wisconsin Project is an institution dealing in the battle against the spread of weapons of mass destruction. Milhollin, considered one of the leading US experts in this field, reports on Israeli efforts to obtains high-performance computers and various weapons systems, including systems he claims to be non-conventional. He was the first to reveal in 1995 that the US had employed sanctions against Nahum Manbar's companies (although he did not use his name), in retaliation for distributing chemical weapons.
Milhollin wrote, "Israel has begun to outfit Chinese planes with a powerful new radar, one reportedly able to see targets and help direct air battles as far as 250 miles away. The Clinton administration has been trying to stop this deal, but it is facing a formidable barrier: its own desire to promote US exports.
"This means that is the US ever has to defend Taiwan, US pilots could be targeted by radar built with US equipment.
Israeli ambassador to the US David Ivri told "Globes" at the beginning of the month that sale of Israeli weapons to China is not necessarily opposed to US interests.
Milhollin notes that sale of the computers to Elta is nothing but, "a drop in the ocean of computers that the administration is allowing to be exported". President Clinton's decision of January 23 to ease restrictions on high-performance computer exports to countries with nuclear capability, or countries suspected of having such capability, will allow US companies to export high-performance computers for missile development plans or nuclear weapons in countries like Russia, China, and India.
The writer claims that the Weizmann Institute, which "researches high-energy physics and was the birthplace of Israel's nuclear weapons effort", China's Harbin Institute of Technology makes rocket casings and other components for China's long range nuclear missiles, and the Nanjing Public Security Bureau, responsible for tracking political dissidents, will henceforth be able to purchase high-performance computers from Digital Equipment Corp. of the Compaq Computer group.
According to Milhollin, the Weizmann Institute and the two Chinese bodies are seeking to acquire computers capable of executing from 2 billion to 6.5 billion operations per second. Until January 23, Digital was required to request permission from the US administration to sell the equipment to Israel and China. According to the relaxed regulations, Digital can sell the computers to the Weizmann Institute and to Chinese bodies without notifying the administration.
The new regulations allow Sun Microsystems to export not only the two computers to Elta, but a high-performance computer to Rafael, "which played a major role in developing Israel's largest nuclear-tipped missile", Milhollin writes. Until regulations were relaxed, Sun Microsystems had not received permission to sell the computer to Rafael.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on March 13, 2000