Replies to post #166977 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

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Singapore court says four suspects can be extradited to U.S.

From Elizabeth Neisloss, for CNN
updated 2:53 AM EST, Fri February 10, 2012

Singapore (CNN) -- A Singapore court ruled Friday that four people can be extradited to the United States to face charges of conspiracy in which electronic components from a U.S. company were smuggled to Iran and ended up in explosives in Iraq.

The four Singaporeans -- three men and a woman -- were arrested in late October. They had contested the extradition proceedings and now have 15 days to appeal.

The U.S. authorities indicted them, as well as an Iranian citizen, on charges of funneling thousands of radio frequency modules from the United States to Iran. The Iranian citizen, Hossein Larijani, remained at large at the time of the indictment.

The United States alleges that 16 of the radio frequency modules were later found in improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Iraq that had not detonated.

Following the court's decision Friday, two of the Singaporeans -- Wong Yuh Lan and Lim Yong Nam -- will be extradited to be charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States in relation to the radio frequency modules.

The other two -- Lim Kow Seng and Hia Soo Gan Benson -- will be sent to the United States to be charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States regarding the smuggling of dozens of military antennas, like those used on military aircraft and ships, from the United States to Hong Kong.

The U.S. indictment alleges that the Singaporeans conspired to buy 6,000 radio frequency modules from an unidentified company in Minnesota and ship them through Singapore to Larijani in Iran.

The United States has in the past noted that Singapore -- a major global transshipment port -- needs to tighten its export controls, in particular of so-called "dual use" items, which can have both a civilian and military purpose

In this case, the radio frequency modules from the U.S. company have various commercial applications, including wireless local area networks to connect printers and computers in offices.

The United States says that radio frequency modules from the same U.S. company were recovered in 2008 and 2009 by coalition forces in Iraq as part of remote detonation systems for IEDs.

Prosecutors allege that the defendants told the Minnesota company that Singapore was the final destination for the components they were buying and also filed false paperwork with the U.S. government saying the parts would be used in a Singapore telecommunications project.

The Singaporeans have been held without bail since their arrest, except Lim Yong Nam, who was released on bail on medical grounds.

© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/10/world/asia/singapore-iran-extradition/index.html [no comments yet]

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fuagf -- whether the Israeli Likudniks/Jewish neocons were especially/particularly (openly) agitated about doing Iraq, I don't recall, though I don't recall them breaking ranks and opposing doing Iraq either -- but there is no doubt that Iraq (after Afghanistan) was the next step in the PNAC plan which always had Iran as its ultimate objective, or that the Israeli Likudniks/Jewish neocons were central to and in the genesis and later implementation of that PNAC plan