http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/business/global/23telecom.html By David Barboza The New York Times August 22, 2010 SHANGHAI -- Warning about a potential threat to national security, eight Republican lawmakers have asked the Obama administration to scrutinize a bid by one of the biggest corporations in China to supply telecommunications equipment to Sprint Nextel in the United States. In a letter sent last week to top administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and the director of national intelligence, Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper Jr., the senators expressed concern over claims that the company had sold equipment to the regime of Saddam Hussein and had a close business relationship with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard in Iran. The senators also said the company, Huawei Inc., had close ties to the People’s Liberation Army in China. “Sprint Nextel supplies important equipment to the U.S. military and law enforcement agencies, and it offers a broad array of devices, systems, software and services to the private sector,” wrote the group of senators, including Jon Kyl of Arizona, Christopher S. Bond of Missouri and Susan Collins of Maine. “We are concerned that Huawei’s position as a supplier of Sprint Nextel could create substantial risk for U.S. companies and possibly undermine U.S. national security.” A campaign to block Huawei’s bid to sell equipment in the United States would almost certainly aggravate American-Chinese trade relations and intensify a longstanding debate over whether big Chinese companies will be allowed to invest in sensitive industries in the United States. [...] _______________________________________________________ Subscribe to InfoSec News - www.infosecnews.org http://www.infosecnews.org/mailman/listinfo/isnReceived on Tue Aug 24 2010 - 00:53:31 PDT
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