Julie Salcido, a supervising agent with the Bureau of Industry and Security, said one of the men purchased the cameras, assuring the seller repeatedly that they were only for domestic use.
"He repeatedly said he wouldn't export," she said.
I have to ask. If they can't be taken out of the country, why in the &%$* can someone just walk up and purchase one, or ten?
Yong Guo Zhi, a Chinese national, and Tah Wei Chao, a naturalized U.S. citizen, were arrested for investigation of trying to take thermal imaging cameras with potential military use to China without the proper export licenses, Weir said.
If you don't have to have a license to purchase, an "export license" is useless. They may have caught these two, but what about the next three hundred or so? Why didn't the buyers just take them down to Long Beach and put them abroad a freighter bound for China?? They probably will next time.
This is akin to searching 70 year old grandmothers and letting 25 year old Muslim males walk through airport security. The results are not security but nonsense to make us feel good.
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