Recent reports in the New York Times and the Washington Times show
that in 1995 Vice President Al Gore signed a secret arms deal with
Moscow. The deal reportedly allowed Russia to sell weapons to Iran and
included illegal kickbacks, intended to
bribe individual politicians inside Moscow.
However, documents forced from the Clinton administration by the
Freedom of Information Act show that part of the secret 1995 Gore
agreement with Moscow included more than weapons for Iran. One hidden
point inside the vice president’s pact with Moscow sought U.S. access to
advanced Russian weapons technology.
In September 1995 U.S. Vice Admiral W. C. Bowes wrote a letter to
Russian Navy Commander Adm. Felix Gromov, informing Gromov of the U.S.
Navy’s intention to purchase the SS-N-22 Sunburn anti-ship missile. The
letter was written after U.S. defense contractor Vector Microwave toured
the Sunburn missile plant and inspected the deadly weapon at close hand,
all at the invitation of the Russian defense contractor Arsenjev
Aviation.
U.S. Navy admirals do not write Russian admirals with intentions of
buying nuclear-tipped missiles unless someone at the top on both sides
has given the OK. Admirals in both services are not known to take such
risks without orders. The decision to allow Vice Adm. Bowes and Adm.
Gromov to work together on “Missile-Gate” originated with Al Gore and
his 1995 secret pact.
The Clinton-Gore administration changed the joint Russia/U.S.
military program to fill its politically correct needs. In 1995, the
Clinton administration balked at the Sunburn price tag of over a million
dollars a copy. Instead, the administration
selected favored defense contractor McDonnell Douglas, now Boeing, to
purchase a smaller, lower-cost missile from Russia called the Zvezda
MA-31 “Krypton.”
McDonnell Douglas, according to the official U.S. Navy documentation,
proceeded under orders to help Russia improve the Krypton missile. U.S.
Navy and McDonnell Douglas engineers suggested a series of “P3I” or
“pre-planned product improvements” to extend the range of the Krypton,
improve its flight performance, and enable jet fighters to safely fire
the weapon.
“The MA-31 (Krypton) target will need (pre-planned product
improvements) P3I in order to meet the range and ground/surface launch
requirements for the Supersonic Sea Skimming Target program (SSST). The
range of the MA-31 target in its FCT
configuration is approximately 15 nm (nautical miles) at low altitude,”
states the 1995 review document.
According to the 1995 McDonnell Douglas review, one “extended range
option” given to the Russian contractor “adds an auxiliary fuel tank, a
reduced drag nose cone, changes the fuel to JP-10 (which has a higher
specific energy content than the Russian
fuel), and modifies the ramjet nozzle. The extended range modification
is intended to increase range to approximately 42 nm at 10m (meter)
altitude.”
Another more crucial design improvement given to Russia, involved
“Ground Jettison Testing” done by the U.S. defense contractor against
the Russian missile. According to the 1995 program review document, the
Russian built AKY-58M missile launcher for the Krypton was fatally
flawed and could destroy the firing plane.
“Two jettisons were planned; four completed,” states the 1995 review
document. “An anomaly was encountered during testing of the emergency
jettison sequence. The lanyard which, during normal launch, remains
with the launch rail and pulls the
Booster Safe/Arm Plug which arms the booster for ignition, is supposed
to remain with the target during Emergency Jettison. In three emergency
jettison tests, the lanyard stayed with the launch rail instead of with
the target. In all cases the
booster would have been armed, and ignition could have occurred for any
of several reasons.”
“(McDonnell Douglas) MDAC has determined that use of a longer lanyard
and slower separation velocity would allow proper operation of the
emergency jettison sequence. The problem has been turned over to the
Russians for resolution,” states the 1995 review document.
The problem that plagued Krypton project has also been dogged by
allegations of improper financial activity. In 1999 Janes Defense
reported that each MA-31 missile purchase also includes a 28 percent
“fee” given directly to Russian generals.
Navy documents show that each Krypton missile costs $910,000. The 28
percent fee paid directly to the Russian generals amounts to over a
quarter million dollar fee per missile. In addition, the extremely high
price for the Krypton is almost twice the
price of similar U.S. weapons and nearly equal to the original Sunburn
missile offer.
Russia has already benefited from the Krypton deal. In 1999, Russia
negotiated billion dollar arms sales to both India and China for the
newly improved Krypton. In fact, according to the new Russian weapons
pact with Beijing, China will manufacture
and export the improved Krypton under license to the Middle East and
Asia.
There is a more direct link to Russian weapons and Al Gore. That link
centers on a now defunct company named IBP Aerospace run by Judith De
Paul. Ms. De Paul, a known Gore supporter and native of Connecticut,
set up the international arms firm,
basing her operations in London and Washington. Ms. De Paul has refused
to be interviewed.
In 1995 Gore supporter Judith De Paul, and her company IBP
International started doing deals with Moscow at the highest levels.
Despite being a newcomer in aerospace, IBP quickly signed several deals
with Moscow and Washington. In March 1996, IBP successfully lobbied
NASA to lease the “Concordsky” Tu-144 super sonic airliner from Russian
bomber maker Tupolev. NASA, according to the contract, was to use the
Tu-144 for high-speed test flights.
NASA actually published an official photograph of the TU-144 deal.
The photograph of U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Thomas J. Pickering,
addressing a crowd of Tupolev employees and international media, was
taken at the roll out of the newly modified super sonic transport. IBP
Aerospace owner Judith De Paul can be seen on the left next to the
Russian Army officer.
The NASA contract also involved other familiar names in the
Missile-Gate scandal. The nose of the TU-144 can be seen in the
background of the NASA photograph of the 1996 event. The Russian plane
is painted with the U.S. subcontractor logos
selected by the Clinton-Gore administration including IBP Aerospace,
Boeing and McDonnell Douglas.
Another contract Moscow signed with Ms. De Paul involved a critical
part of virtually every Russian jet fighter. IBP Aerospace also became
the prime American representative for the Russian K-36 jet fighter
ejection seat. The K-36 seat equips
virtually all Russian and Chinese fighters such as the SU-27 and MiG-29
Fulcrum.
In 1996, IBP obtained a U.S. Air Force study contract to keep the
former Soviet manufacturer from going out of business, sending millions
of dollars to the Russian seat maker. However, efforts to sell the seat
to the western market were less than
successful.
In 1996, IBP was unable to convince NASA that the huge Russian K-36
ejection seat could fit into the tiny NASA T-38 Astronaut trainer jets.
After failing to sell the K-36 seat to NASA, the IBP lobby effort
continued in 1999 with the members of the
Clinton administration suggesting that the K-36 Russian ejector seat
could be installed in the U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor or the new Joint
Strike Fighter.
According to a 1999 report published in Aviation Week, IBP
International reportedly leased facilities in anticipation of obtaining
the contract to install the Russian K-36 ejection seat in the U.S. Air
Force F-22. Western seat makers, such as U.K. based Martin-Baker,
openly complained the “political” process shut them out even before the
selection has been made.
IBP, according to its website, also offered other interesting items
from Russia with love. IBP jointly offered an interactive CD on the
Soviet Union in World War II in partnership with Turner Entertainment.
Turner also included a two-CD set of the
Russian army men’s choir singing famous songs from the “Great Patriotic
War.”
In December 1999, BF Goodrich acquired exclusive U.S. manufacturing
rights to the Russian K-36 ejection seat and bought IBP. According to
the official BF Goodrich press release, the giant U.S.-based aerospace
company purchased the outstanding stock of The IBP Aerospace Group Inc.,
the prime contractor sponsoring the K-36, closing the company.
The BF Goodrich purchase occurred amid allegations that IBP was then
under investigation by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
The investigations were abruptly ended when IBP closed operations.
The K-36 seat will not enter service inside U.S.A.F. F-22 Raptor but
the Russian seat maker took in just enough American aid money to survive
until foreign sales picked up. Without the K-36 seat, Russian built
fighters all over the world would have
quickly become useless, including most of the Russian and Chinese air
force. Thus, because of Al Gore’s secret Moscow deal, the U.S. Air
Force may now need to buy more F-22s.
Al Gore’s secret deal helped Moscow improve its missiles using U.S.
funding and technical engineering. Al Gore’s secret deal helped the
Russians keep Sukhoi Su-25 strike fighters in the air over Chechnya and
Chinese Su-27 interceptors over the Taiwan Straits. Al Gore’s secret
deal kept the former Soviet war machine alive by allowing Russia to make
and sell arms around the world without penalty.
Al Gore sent U.S. taxpayer money to subsidize Russian arms makers,
helping to improve and develop new weapons that are now being sold to
world powers unfriendly with the United States. As more and more of Al
Gore’s secret pact with Russia becomes public, it appears that Moscow
has a good reason to love the vice president.
WATCH: The New York Times reporting not to expect results on election night
WND Staff