U.S. Sales to Iran, Syria Criticized : Mideast: $183 million worth of equipment has possible military applications. Democrats say Bush is repeating mistakes the Administration made with Iraq.

The Bush Administration, repeating what Democrats charged was the same mistake it made with Iraq, over the last year has approved the sale to Iran and Syria of $183 million worth of equipment with possible military applications, according to figures released Wednesday by the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The “dual use” technology--equipment meant for civilian use but capable of being converted to military applications--has included sophisticated photographic equipment for the Syrian Atomic Energy Commission and tractors and digital computer equipment for Iran.

“We should not reward terrorist countries such as Iran and Syria with access to sophisticated U.S. technology,” said California Rep. Howard Berman (D-Panorama City).

Calling the Administration’s policy of aiding Iraq before the Persian Gulf War “a catastrophic failure,” Berman noted that Syria and Iran remain on the State Department’s list of nations that support terrorism. It is “inconceivable that the President still believes we can influence their behavior by trying to build a closer economic relationship with them,” he said.

The committee voted, 13 to 2, to release a confidential list of the sales approved by the Commerce Department. It showed that between Aug. 1, 1991, and Feb. 19 of this year, the department approved 48 transfers totaling $180 million worth of dual use technology to Iran and seven transfers valued at $3 million to Syria.

Included were computers, tractors, trucks and communications equipment for Iran and aircraft, navigational equipment and other air safety devices for Syria. Most sales apparently were to the nations’ oil industry interests. The names of the American companies that applied for the export licenses were not released.

James LeMunyon, the top Administration official responsible for approving dual use transfers, took sharp issue with the Democrats’ conclusions and their characterization of the sales as a secret shift in policy toward Syria and Iran.

LeMunyon, acting assistant secretary of commerce for export administration, told the committee that most applications to sell advanced technology to those two countries were still routinely refused and that far fewer sales were authorized in 1991 and 1992 than in 1990.

The Administration approved 28 applications for Syria in 1990, he said, contrasted with 12 such approvals in 1991 and “only five for the first six months of fiscal 1992. That’s not exactly opening the floodgates.”

He said that transfers to Iran fell from more than 130 in 1990 to 88 last year and 41 in the first six months of 1992.

Republicans on the committee dismissed arguments by Democrats that disclosure of the transfers is in the national interest. They accused Berman and Committee Chairman Dante Fascell (D-Fla.) of playing election-year politics by releasing the confidential Commerce Department data to embarrass President Bush.

“This is just another attempt to beat up on George Bush with another issue,” protested Rep. Toby Roth (R-Wis.), who voted against disclosure with fellow Republican Benjamin Gilman of New York.

Berman argued that the Administration’s “disastrous” policy of ignoring Iraqi attempts to build nuclear weapons and of continuing to approve dual use sales to Baghdad up to the moment that it invaded Kuwait underscored the need to have “a public accounting of what our government allows to be sold to Syria and Iran.”