Profits for some, jailtime for others

May 30, 2005 10:22 AM

If you're not Cheney's friend, be careful what you sell overseas- While residing in Poland, British citizen Ali Manzarpour was arrested for the export of a Berkut 360, a small kit plane manufactured in the United States, to Iran. The issues surrounding this application of American law overseas on foreign nationals notwithstanding, the US Department of Justice Attorney's office could not explain what sensitive technologies were in the plane, which could motivate the arrest. Coincidentally, Halliburton's use of a Cayman Islands subsidiary to trade with Iran without restrictions remains unresolved, and, with the help of the Department of State, the United States remains the largest arms dealer in the world.
posted by AlexReynolds (14 comments total)

I can't really put my finger on it but there's something creepy about the tone and style of the WarsawVoice article.
Did anyone else pick up on that?
posted by Jon-o at 10:54 AM on May 30, 2005

this is utterly and completely outrageous. the administration seems to be acting without any sense of justice or rationality. i can't believe no one in america outside the left is talking about this.

par for the course.
posted by es_de_bah at 11:06 AM on May 30, 2005

what a weird looking plane.
posted by delmoi at 11:26 AM on May 30, 2005

I can't really put my finger on it but there's something creepy about the tone and style of the WarsawVoice article.

You're joking, right? The article is written by a non-native speaker of English.

I, for one, am shocked that there is a double standard for Haliburton..; shocked I tell you. Of course I understand that it was a different thing entirely when Cheney and Rumsfeld were selling weapons to Saddam.
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 11:58 AM on May 30, 2005

delmoi writes "what a weird looking plane."

Typical pusher sort of setup.
posted by Mitheral at 1:07 PM on May 30, 2005

Well much as the leadership of this 'ruling' party is concerned its another day in 'do as I say not as i do' land'
posted by MrLint at 1:10 PM on May 30, 2005

The guy's name is Ali, for Christ's sake.

He's an Arab or a Persian or whatever you call a dark-skinned believer in a fake religion. Obviously he's up to no good, and the only way to find out what he's up to is to arrest him and interrogate him in Guantanamo, where we don't have to worry about quaint and archaic rules like the Geneva Conventions or the US Constitution.

America's at war, and you're only helping the terrorists by pretending these people have any "rights".

STFU lib'ruls.
posted by orthogonality at 1:40 PM on May 30, 2005

The wings are at the back of the plane and there's a big canopy! Obviously it's dangerous.
posted by mendel at 1:44 PM on May 30, 2005

Well, I hear tell they've arrested everyone at Arlington National cemetery today for taking pictures of the flag draped coffins.
posted by Davenhill at 2:33 PM on May 30, 2005

corrupticon
posted by a thousand writers drunk at the keyboard at 2:48 PM on May 30, 2005

I am no longer surprised at all. The question is, what to do about it?
posted by the_barbarian at 3:46 PM on May 30, 2005

I am no longer surprised at all. The question is, what to do about it?

Donate, send letters of support, keep discussing the issues with an open mind (flamewar bad). For the few that are actually in a position to do something, what little support the rest of us give could keep them going.

Who to donate to? Who to write to? Do the research, that's the (less glamorous) price of freedom.
posted by Maxson at 4:48 PM on May 30, 2005

So What Can I Do?
posted by MLIS at 4:54 PM on May 30, 2005

I am not quite sure why these two articles go together, except to establish some sort of ironic connection, which I just don't think exists in this case. There is an arms embargo on Iran. The person in Poland (rightly or wrongly) has been accused of providing Iran with technology for military use, and has been arrested. Whether he should be or not seems like a case for the courts.

Haliburton, on the other hand, is accused of getting around the trade embargo using a legal loophole, but not of trading arms with Iran. Haliburton is a sketchy company, with sketchy ties to the Administration, but is not running arms. And your links fail to indicate that the company is currently under many investigations from many jurisdictions about these and other issues.

The man in Poland broke US law, Haliburton did not. The laws should be changed, but arms smuggling and loopholes in embargos are not the same thing.
posted by blahblahblah at 7:40 PM on May 30, 2005