The Persian Paradox

Washington Dispatch: Why is so much sensitive US military technology winding up in Iran?

By Laura Rozen

July 9, 2008

On June 12, 2005, acting on a request from US authorities, officials from Mexico's Federal Investigation Agency arrested Arif Ali Durrani as he was leaving the restaurant he ran in a shopping mall in the Mexican border town of Playas de Rosarito, near the San Diego-Tijuana border. Ordered deported back to his native Pakistan, Durrani, then 55, soon found himself on a plane whose intermediate stop was Los Angeles. There at Los Angeles International Airport on June 15, 2005, officials with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau intercepted his plane, arrested Durrani, and took him into custody. The warrant accused him of two counts of violating the Arms Export Control Act for selling fighter-jet parts to Iran.