Word: raab
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...than 75 Cuban and Soviet-bloc front companies apparently using Panama to circumvent restrictions on the export of American high technology. Every month, they say, tens of millions of dollars worth of restricted U.S. technology goes to Panama, far beyond that nation's modest needs. Customs Commissioner William von Raab says he believes Noriega "is a beneficiary of the activities of these ((front)) companies." Major Florentino Aspillaga, a senior Cuban intelligence officer who defected to the West this summer, has charged that Noriega received about $3 million for allowing Cuba and the Soviet Union to acquire U.S. technology...
...Customs Service formally accepted two E- 2C Hawkeye radar planes from the U.S. Navy in San Diego. The ceremony was designed to showcase the high-tech weapons the Reagan Administration has committed to its war on illegal drugs. Making a similar pitch in Houston, Customs Commissioner William von Raab invited some 65 Texas lawmen to inspect a sophisticated new communications center for coordinating surveillance against smugglers. Alive with radar screens, computers and scrambled-speech telephones, the Blue Fire command post will eventually anchor a "radar picket line" along the porous 2,000-mile. border with Mexico, the passageway...
Commissioner Von Raab insists these complaints are premature. "We're pouring in millions," he declares, while predicting that the new gear and personnel will soon be visible. Von Raab says that "hundreds" of secure "voice-privacy" radios are being shipped to the Southwest and that 400 new Customs employees -- a 40% increase -- will be on the job within four months. Despite the cumbersome process of awarding contracts, he promised that radar planes and balloons will be in operation by next year...
...Raab's rosy predictions may yet come true, but only if Congress insists on providing money for Operation Alliance that the Administration does not want to spend. The President was widely criticized when his budget for the coming fiscal year called for a $150 million slash in drug education and other cutbacks. Very quietly, the Administration has also asked Congress for permission to "postpone" the spending of $32 million designated for Customs to use this year. This would mean that Customs would have to restrict flights of the Hawkeye radar planes it has just received with such a splash from...
...harden missile silos. Since 1981 the Customs Service's Operation Exodus has stopped at the docks some 4,000 illegal shipments abroad, including crates destined for the Soviet Union full of C-130 transport aircraft parts and satellite scanners. "The Russians are sweating," declares Customs Service Commissioner William von Raab. "They used to be able to carry off all our technology by the truckload. Now we're making them pay more and take longer...