BTW, the gentleman whose name is similar to mine (Walter Anders) was placed on the list because he sold and attempted to ship a fair bit of carbon fiber to someone in the Philippines. Again, don’t see how carbon fiber is a threat to national security (the only legitimate reason the government has to prevent commerce). You can obtain carbon fiber from many places outside the US.
Only 7 tons of US-made and presumably high quality carbon fiber.
controlled for nuclear proliferation reasons
Hmm. Not sure about this reasoning. Probably politic-speak for “because we say so”. I mean, it’s definitely a component of weapons (like aircraft, which can and do deliver nuclear weapons).
US Constitution, Article I, Section 8:
The Congress shall have Power To … regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
Apparently, “because we say so” is a good enough reason. The only reason it wouldn’t be is if it were politically unpopular. It isn’t in this case, so there you are.
If other countries want to sell their stuff that’s their business. The US isn’t required to help others build weapons systems simply because others can.
And in this case:
Terand/Anders’ involvement in the transactions began soon after Performance Engineered Nonwovens, of Middletown, NY, was informed by BIS that its license to export T300 carbon fiber to Singapore was revoked based on concerns regarding the recipients of the items. Performance Engineered Nonwovens thereafter sought to camouflage its involvement in unlicensed exports of the carbon fiber to Singapore. Within weeks of the license revocation, Terand/Anders had agreed—following discussions between Anders, Terand’s president and sole employee, and Performance Engineered Nonwovens’ president, Peter Gromacki—that Terand would falsely act as the U.S. exporter of record for exports of the items to Singapore in return for a $1,400 commission for each successful export on Performance Engineered Nonwovens’ behalf.
I mean, doing that is a pretty legit reason to be on a list in my opinion.
Carbon fiber can be used in the construction of centrifuges for uranium enrichment. But the whole thing is more than a little obscure.
Probably in some handbook that was published at some point 
There is no reason to believe, beyond patriotism that American carbon fiber is any better then and other industrialized nation’s carbon fiber. But more to the point Carbon Fiber is hardly a national security concern.
Yes, the feds have the authority to regulate international commerce, but that doesn’t allow them to arbitrarily do so. For instance, they can’t ban the export of Company A’s product and allow Company B’s product (if they are the same product). The vast majority of these bans are based upon a factually false claim that it harms our national security. It was that law (the regulation of Commerce) that was passed and is used by the bureaucrats to enact these bans.
So you believe that exporting carbon fiber was a danger to our national security and should have allowed the government to prevent this gentleman from purchasing a couple of DIP mounted relays?
So can steel, aluminum, copper, and a host of other materials. The reality is that just about any material or component you name can and has been used in the production of a weapon. All but a few (a VERY few) of these components have other non-weapon uses.
No need to build, when Obama willingly sends weapons as in Fast and Furious…
edit
Argh!! They got me Walter, they got me. You’ll have to carry on alone ol pard, they got three flags in me, I’m a goner…
It should be at LEAST Six Flags …this IS Texas after all.
3 Likes
That isn’t Mouser’s questionnaire. That’s a government questionnaire. I’ve seen it before. That’s why I was commenting about the absurdity of it - because it isn’t going to stop anything but honest people.
Actually, the issue is that the militarily-critical technology list (DoDI 3020.46) is vast and out of date (last updated in 2008). It takes a huge amount of effort to update it, and then some bureaucrat (who likely can’t even spell technology) has to approve it.
1 Like
The purpose of that list is to ostensibly protect National security, but most of the items on it have never been a matter of national security. Case in point are my relays or the carbon fiber the guy who has a similar name got busted for. The relays are just stupid to be on the list. And carbon fiber may have once been an economic secret,vthe gubmint has no authority to use National Security to protect industrial secrets.
Buuuuut…
Many of the things on this list are included because “they” could use them, as you are, for unrestricted communication as part of an ad-hoc radio network (never mind that “they” already have smart phones and all the apps “they” can consume) . There seem to be all kinds of weird restrictions on equipment under this purported purpose. I suspect this is the reason for this one.
I suspect carbon fibre is on the list due to the world-wide shortages which are always in effect. The gubmint wants to make sure they have enough to build their stuff, so they restrict export.
I have zero proof of either of these theories…
1 Like
I’m sure that exploding bridgewires or the complects to make them are also restricted…
HELLO TO ALL MY FRIENDS IN THE NSA
1 Like
Weird. Are you sure it’s not a government standard sort of form provided to companies for their use? I don’t know a lot about EAR / ITAR, but what I do know tells me it makes more sense for this to be something Mouser asks, not the gov’t.
Mouser asks the questions, and in fact the form I received had their logo on it, but the government provided the questions that were asked, either directly or from case law. It would be unusual for a private company to choose to use their own language for such things, since the gubmint can decide the questions phrasing wasn’t sufficient to verify whatever. So companies tend to use what the government provides.
That would be why @John_Marlow has seen the same question from multiple companies.
But…it’s ok for:
Clinton, as Sec.St., to approve sale of 20% of our uranium to Russia, through a Clinton Foundation board member (Canadian - Guistra) who gave tens of millions to the Foundation… For Kerry to negotiate allowing Iran to process uranium… For Obama to give Iran $400 million cash, on a secret plane on a pallet, to buy the uranium with…and ok for D?m*krat$ to vote under dead folks’ names to elect them. But naughty hobbyists are dangerous! Unless they build a clock…