Heard This One Before? : Oh, sure, go ahead and sell it to the Syrians and Iranians

It sounds depressingly familiar. Since last fall the U.S. government, at the behest of the Commerce Department, has quietly allowed Syria and Iran to import “dual use” technology, which can have either civilian or military applications. This reversal of longtime policy was accompanied, The Times has learned, by the bland assurance to Congress that “the United States has the ability to enforce . . . controls (over the exports) effectively.” Ah, yes. The last time we heard that was when technology exports to Iraq were made easier in the 1980s. U.N. inspectors have since found that some of the $1.5 billion worth of equipment Saddam Hussein bought went straight into his nuclear and chemical warfare programs.

The fact is that it’s very hard to track a lot of technology once it reaches foreign shores, especially in closed societies like Syria and Iran. There is no way to be sure that a piece of equipment licensed for commercial use won’t in fact be turned to military research or production, or that it won’t be re-exported to a country to which Washington prohibits American exports.

It’s no less a fact that Syria and Iran remain, with good reason, on the State Department’s list of terrorism-supporting countries. Much of that terrorism has been directed against Americans and American interests, including hostage-holding, attacks on embassies and airliner hijackings. The apparent geopolitical rationale behind the change in export policy--the wish to curry favor with two countries that right now are enemies of Iraq--does nothing to alter this contemptible record.

Previous policy wisely assumed that any high-tech equipment Syria and Iran wanted was primarily for military purposes, and thus should be prohibited. Legislation is pending in Congress to toughen export controls by restoring that necessary presumption. It should be quickly enacted.