Outsourcing 'Smart Bomb' Technology from Indiana to China!!

[tulip]

Why in heavens is this happening?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=151&topic_id=4512&mesg_id=4515

It was suggested that I cross post this here. This is outrageous.

Here are the two articles I read on the issue. I strongly urge all of you to read the WorldNetDaily article. Counterpunch has a shorter article on the issue for a fast read.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34037
'Smart bomb' technology moving to China
Pentagon brushes aside concerns national security will be threatened

http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair04072006.html
Outsourcing US Missile Technology to China
The Saga of Magnequench

Magnequench's biggest client has been the Pentagon.

The neodymium-iron-boron magnets made by Magnequench are a crucial component in the guidance system of cruise missiles and the Joint Direct Attack Munition or JDAM bomb, which is made by Boeing and had a starring role in the spring bombing of Baghdad. Indeed, Magnequench enjoys a near monopoly on this market niche, supplying 85 percent of the rare-earth magnets that are used in the servo motors of these guided missiles and bombs.

But the Pentagon may soon be sending its orders for these parts to China, instead of Indiana. On September 15, 2004 Magnequench shuttered its last plant in Indiana, fired its 450 workers and began shipping its machine tools to a new plant in China. "We're handing over to the Chinese both our defense technology and our jobs in the midst of a deep recession," says Rep. Peter Visclosky, a Democrat from northern Indiana.

Visclosky and Senator Evan Bayh asked the Bush administration to intervene using the Exon-Florio Amendment to the 1988 Defense Appropriation Act to pry the Chinese money out of the company and force Magnequench to keep its factories in Indiana.

So far the administration has not honored their request!

[joemurphy]

1. Of course not. Repubbies are always pro-bidness!

[tulip]

2. The sale was

in Sept. 2000 during the campaign. It was overlooked just as Dubai was overlooked. Bush hasn't responded to Bayh or Visclosky because he doesn't know anything about it.

[Hubert Flottz]

3. Traitors...

They would sell their own mothers.