>X-Originating-IP: [152.163.197.54]
>From: "Stephen Banks"
>Subject: Re: Armored Vehicle Import Ban
>Date: Sat, 22 May 1999 01:12:59 PDT
>
>All-
>
>I know that the discussion has moved away a bit from the armored vehicle
issue. Now that Jim has shared with me some more of the background
materials that he had, though, of which I was not previously aware, I've
been able to piece it together with bits of what I know about the subject
from my time in the State and Commerce Departments. There may be a
plausible explanation for this problem which is not rooted in a nefarious
ideological plan to deny military vehicles to innocent civilian collectors.
>
>The authority that has been cited covers, inter alia, transfers of surplus
U.S. government military equipment and weaponry to foreign powers. There
are some elaborate safeguards built into the law and regulations that are
intended to ensure that such transfers don't backfire on us. These are
meant to ensure that weaponry that we transfer to a friendly power doesn't
end up in the hands of an unfriendly power or unscrupulous international
arms brokers at bargain basement prices. A ban on reimportation of this
stuff may be part of a package of measures designed to make it more
difficult for illict secondary dealers to trade in the stuff. There may
also have been some idea of preventing unscrupulous government officials
from declaring valuable and/or dangerous equipment "surplus", transferring
ownership to friends abroad, and then buying it back for resale at a profit
or otherwise diverting it improperly.
>
>I strongly suspect that when the law and regulations were written, nobody
stopped to think about obsolete equipment of historical, but no practical
military, value. Therefore, there is probably no exemption for such
articles, and the artifacts get lumped together in the same category as
modern military equipment. Probably no one in either the executive or
legislative branch has regarded it as a high enough priority to pass a law
to specifically exempt antique equipment.
>
>The State Department is involved in the export licensing process to
determine to whom in the world it is in our national interest to provide
military equipment, and to do the best we can to prevent it from ending up
in the hands of unfriendly powers or terrorist organizations. Thus the
"end-use monitoring" specified in the law.
>Apparently it is on the back end of this that we've gotten entangled in the
reimport restrictions.
>
>I don't know for a fact that the above outlined information is the whole
story. It could indeed be that at some level there is some official
deliberately blocking imports of historical military equipment for some
reason that I can't divine. My guess, however, is that the relevant
officials have a great deal on their plate, and don't regard this problem as
being important enough to devote their limited energies toward correcting.
(Given that, by the way, the State Department budget has been cut 50% in
inflation-adjusted dollars in the last decade. We all stay pretty busy with
just getting the core functions of American foreign policy accomplished.)
>
>The theory that "high-level officials" are deliberately and actively
blocking these imports, in my opinion, gives Clinton administration
officials too much credit for paying attention to the issue at all.
Frankly, I'd be very surprised if any State Department official of Assistant
Secretary rank or above has even heard about the controversy.
>
>My experience suggests that many seemingly stupid government policies, when
traced back a bit, have their source in poorly or incompletely written
legislation, implemented by regulations which failed to consider some aspect
of the issue or anticipate all the implications. Unintended consequences
result, sometimes in ludicrous ways.
>
>That's my two cents worth, to "coin" a phrase.
>
>Steve
>
>
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