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[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
Venezuela is planning a "buying spree" for military equipment that goes beyond the country's legitimate needs, the State Department said Friday. In recent days, the United States has sought to block proposed sales of military planes and other equipment to Venezuela by Spain and Brazil. . . . The United States has the authority to block the sale because some of the planes' technology is American-made.

It's not clear to me whether the State Dept. position is that they have a problem with Venezuela getting their hands on the particular type(s) of aircraft, or whether they would be OK with them getting one or two, but think twelve is excessive.

The justifications given by the State Dept. spokesman sound to me like the actual reason is the latter, but it seems like the authority we have to block the sale(s) would be premised on the former -- that when the US gov't allows a type of technology to be exported and sold to a foreign government, one of the terms of sale is that they can't sell it (even after incorporation into another product) to a third party without our approval, because we don't want killing machine high technology to get into the wrong hands. But that's an on/off switch, not a rheostat.

Heh. I am such the electrician.

If this is to be believed, the Administration is trying to deny Venezuela access to commuter aircraft.