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Led by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), a group of senators wants Washington to look into Huawei-Sprint deal.  (Source: AP)
Senators outline Huawei's links to Saddam, the Taliban, and the Iranian military

The Washington Times reports that eight Republican U.S. Senators, led by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), have written to top Obama Administration officials, expressly stating their concern over the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei's proposed bid to sell equipment to Sprint-Nextel.

"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," they stated in the letters, which were sent to the likes of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper, and others.

The group of senators -- Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.), Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), Richard M. Burr (R-N.C.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Kyl -- link Huawei's past sales to Saddam Hussein and the Taliban, while highlighting its current dealings with Iran. Huawei's relationship with the Iranian military should prohibit it from doing business with the U.S., they argue, because of the imposed sanctions on that country.

"Most troubling," though, are Huawei's "direct ties" to the Chinese military, the senators wrote. "At worst, Huawei's becoming a major supplier of Sprint Nextel could present a case of a company, acting at the direction of and funded by the Chinese military, taking a critical place in the supply chain of the U.S. military, law enforcement and private sector," the senators wrote.

Huawei is bidding to sell equipment to Sprint in an effort by the nation's third-largest wireless carrier to expand its wireless broadband network, Reuters reports. The senators are concerned about the U.S. military and law enforcement agencies using Sprint services. According to Reuters, the Huawei-Sprint deal would require at least an "unofficial nod" from the U.S. government to go forward. The senators' inquiry appears to be a major stumbling block for the deal.

Chinese Embassy spokesman Wang Baodong told The Times that he hoped "the U.S. will take a rational approach toward these normal commercial activities rather than do anything to stand in the way by abusing 'national security' concern."

In 2008, the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment blocked a $2.2 billion merger between Huawei and U.S. telecommunications company 3 Com over national security concerns,Reuters reports.

Many will be watching how the Sprint-Huawei bid plays out, and the Obama Administration's reaction to the senators' inquiry. If the deal were to go through, it would mark a major breakthrough for the Shenzhen-based company, whose U.S. growth has been hampered by Washington's skepticism -- skepticism fueled by a fear of Chinese economic espionage.

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Valid concern
By FITCamaro on 8/20/2010 8:50:43 AM , Rating: 5
The military has already found flash drives made in China with code in them that sends data back to China. Was part of why the DOD banned all flash drives and other USB devices on DOD computers.




RE: Valid concern
By Spacecomber on 8/20/2010 9:17:25 AM , Rating: 2
I don't recall hearing about flash drives manufactured with malware built in, do you recall a reference for that story? I'd be interested in knowing the details.

Generally speaking, I think that the horse has already left the barn on this issue. I mean, the question seems to be what computer components are not manufactured in mainland China, now? I'm guessing that a large majority of all computer motherboards are assembled in mainland China facilities, now, for example. Certainly, we all know where Apple's phones are being made.

I guess, the story doesn't draw out where at this point do you start drawing the line about what can and cannot be made in China for use in our technology sector. What's the carve out suppose to be, and who is responsible for this and how will it be determined?


RE: Valid concern
RE: Valid concern
By Spacecomber on 8/20/2010 5:46:59 PM , Rating: 1
Thanks for the link re: flash devices with malware implanted in it, though it sounds like this was a targeted espionage effort and not a wholesale effort to put backdoors or other malware into a line of products. The point being, it doesn't look like the manufacturer was doing this, but rather China's intelligence agency. I wouldn't be surprised if Western intelligence agents do something similar when the opportunity presents itself.


RE: Valid concern
By gamerk2 on 8/20/10, Rating: -1
RE: Valid concern
By amanojaku on 8/20/2010 9:42:03 AM , Rating: 5
Not if we lower taxes on local companies so that they bring back manufacturing jobs. Human rights abuse, poorly built products, toxic chemicals... That's what you get when you buy cheap. And we're already running ourselves out of business. Our economy is faltering and China's, India's, and a few others' are still growing. Bring back the jobs.


RE: Valid concern
By mcnabney on 8/20/2010 11:43:57 AM , Rating: 2
The cause of offshoring is related to the tax code far more so than tax rates.

A business can get the same tax break for building a factory in China as building one in Saginaw, MI. The difference is that profits generated in China will never pay taxes, while profits at the factory in Michigan will.
Also, American employers are roped into paying for health insurance while most other nations finance health care through the government.

So Republicans should be screaming to get socialized medicine here as soon as possible. Oh, no they don't. They prefer to fear-monger and accept millions from the Health Insurance and Pharmaceutical industries.


RE: Valid concern
By Spuke on 8/20/2010 12:01:39 PM , Rating: 5
quote:
They prefer to fear-monger and accept millions from the Health Insurance and Pharmaceutical industries.
Some of you fail to see reality. While you're getting caught up in the irrelevant political blame games, ALL politicians are doing exactly what you state only one side is doing. You guys need to pull your head out of your asses and realize that this is an election year and these idiots want your vote. And they're willing to polarize an entire country do get it. STOP THE LUNACY!!! Vote ALL incumbents out of office. Send a message to these people!!!

But nooooooo you won't do that. You'll continue the insanity of voting Retardican and Spendocrat. And continue to point fingers at the other party and complain how no one is listening to you. You set yourselves up for failure.


RE: Valid concern
By mcnabney on 8/20/2010 12:13:40 PM , Rating: 2
You do understand that the system is working EXACTLY as it was designed to function?

Our representative government was built from the ground-up as a zero-sum adversarial system. Things are no different now than when they were a hundred years ago. The crap printed about Obama now isn't that much different from what the press distributed about Lincoln, or Grant, or Roosevelt (both of them). In politics, if the other side loses - you win. If you don't like that, scrap the system and build a parliament.

The Democrats are completely undisciplined and will make sacrifices and cut deals to get things done. If you have been paying attention you would have heard the Left whine and whine about almost everything Obama has done. When Bush was in office plenty of Democrats would cross the aisle in order to negotiate a slightly more beneficial bill for their party. The government wasn't paralyzed despite the chronic whining of the Left about how Bush was worse than Hitler.

Now the tables are turned and every damn little thing is a fight. This is exactly how the system was designed to work and yes it does indeed suck.


RE: Valid concern
By Spuke on 8/20/2010 1:00:05 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
You do understand that the system is working EXACTLY as it was designed to function?
So you're saying that our government was designed to not function nor was it designed to not do the will of the people?


RE: Valid concern
By ClownPuncher on 8/20/2010 1:08:13 PM , Rating: 2
The will of the people? Like a direct democracy? No, this country never was a direct democracy. We vote on representatives in this Republic. Always have. The problem is that most of these representatives will lie and cheat to get elected, then never follow up on their campaign promises. Stop voting for the lobby bought.


RE: Valid concern
By Spuke on 8/20/2010 3:22:30 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
The will of the people? Like a direct democracy? No, this country never was a direct democracy.
Not talking about that AT ALL. We vote for people to do what we ask PERIOD. If they do NOTHING of what we ask or blatantly go against our will, they are not doing our will. The reason why they don't do what we ask is that we vote in the same type of people each and every time. Repubs or Dems, they're all the same. STOP voting for the same damn people! Get it now?


RE: Valid concern
By knutjb on 8/20/2010 8:54:10 PM , Rating: 2
That is what John Locke called rebellion. Rebellion is where the ELECTED OFFICIALS fail to follow the will of the electorate who put them there and REBELLED against their PUBLIC OBLIGATION for whatever the reason.

They must be voted out of office. Contrary to popular belief that the people can't fix the "problem" in DC, when enough people take a little time and THINK before they vote THEY can stop the bulk of the problem, Carter one term or Prop 13 in California and so on... As to Pelosi, I don't think they will ever replace her because they really do think that way in her district.


RE: Valid concern
By atlmann10 on 8/21/2010 1:13:13 AM , Rating: 2
Rofl all this crap is really hilarious. We choose one of two in any election. That is the same thing you do when you play Russian roulette. I would wager that almost any halfway intelligent individual could run this country better than it is currently being run.

Hard drugs being illegal is a valid point, but soft drugs like Marijuana being illegal are stupid. If legalized it could be taxed, and it also does at the least no more damage than tobacco and alcohol. If we made every person in this country have a social security number and therefore be taxed we would also gain billions of dollars as a country yearly. So three things legalize pot grow it and tax it(and regulate it), Flat tax (national sales rather than work based tax)with this everyone in the country pays taxes period, and everyone who lives in this country has a SS so illegals are taken care of.


RE: Valid concern
By Kurz on 8/21/2010 11:46:08 AM , Rating: 2
Just saying Hard drugs, Soft Drugs, Prescriptions, should be free for consumption. No laws other than to prevent tampering.

You can not fight against human nature.
You can make human nature work for themselves and for society as a whole.


RE: Valid concern
By Solandri on 8/20/2010 1:59:52 PM , Rating: 3
quote:
The Democrats are completely undisciplined and will make sacrifices and cut deals to get things done. When Bush was in office plenty of Democrats would cross the aisle in order to negotiate a slightly more beneficial bill for their party. The government wasn't paralyzed despite the chronic whining of the Left about how Bush was worse than Hitler.

Now the tables are turned and every damn little thing is a fight.

Whoa there. The Washington Post has a nice site on voting records which makes it easy to refute claims like this. While it's true that during the early Bush years when Republicans held solid majorities in both branches, Democrats were slightly more likely to cross the aisle and vote against their party than Republicans. But during the 109th and 110th Congress (2005-2008) when Democrats held the House and the Senate was split, Republicans were far more likely to vote against their party than Democrats.
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/110/se...
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/110/se...
(Change the 110 to 109, 108, etc to see previous sessions.)

In the current 111th Congress, again, it's Republicans who are more likely to vote against their party than Democrats.
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/111/se...
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/111/ho...
(For some reason the site lists the 111th as 2007-2008, when it's actually 2009-2010)

So the facts are, in the last 6 years, Republicans have been more willing to "sacrifice and cut deals to get things done" than Democrats. The whole "Republicans are blocking everything!" claim is manufactured by the Democratic leadership to try to shift blame away from themselves. The data simply doesn't support their claims. The facts are, when the Democrat-drafted legislation is reasonably balanced politically, Republicans will vote against their party to support it. But the major pieces of Democraft-drafted legislation have been tilted so far-left that not only are Republicans voting against it, so are a great many moderate Democrats, causing it to fail.


RE: Valid concern
By Ammohunt on 8/20/2010 1:50:25 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
So Republicans should be screaming to get socialized medicine here as soon as possible. Oh, no they don't. They prefer to fear-monger and accept millions from the Health Insurance and Pharmaceutical industries.


Hmm taxes to go to fund Government Healthcare vs. paying for health care through private companies...makes the costs of what we have now seem like a great deal!


RE: Valid concern
By FITCamaro on 8/20/2010 2:36:35 PM , Rating: 2
Socialized medicine will do nothing but drive taxes up so any savings in health care for employers will be more than offset by the higher taxes corporations will be forced to pay.


RE: Valid concern
By superPC on 8/20/2010 9:58:36 AM , Rating: 2
There is a huge difference between manufacturing goods for private use and public use. cell tower is definitely public use. if foxcon add a snooping chip inside an iphone that would effect only the iphone user. but imagine if huawei add a snooping chip inside a cell tower. that could effect all people living in the area of that cell tower.

Although if they are concern about security, just do a proper check on everything bought from huawei. no need to block huawei entirely in my opinion.


RE: Valid concern
By phxfreddy on 8/24/2010 5:09:16 PM , Rating: 3
but alot of the electronics is DESIGNED in the USA. Its hard to intro malware onto a pentium that is already designed and in chip form. (impossible? even )

Whereas Cisco replacement routers have already been found to be setup with back doors by the Chinese. Designed from scratch chinese stuff is going to have this without a doubt.


RE: Valid concern
By FaaR on 8/20/10, Rating: 0
RE: Valid concern
By TheDoc9 on 8/20/2010 10:39:32 AM , Rating: 2
A fool would believe another country wouldn't want to spy on this one.

Fear is among the most powerful emotions in human experience. It's kept our species alive long enough to become the dominant on this planet. Ignore it at your own peril.


RE: Valid concern
By Jaybus on 8/20/2010 11:02:03 AM , Rating: 4
It is true that a major corp would balk at deliberate espionage, due to the fact that if they are ever caught red handed, it will dramatically hurt their business worldwide. However, in this case, Huawei only operates at all if the Chinese government allows them too. The Chinese government, and hence the Chinese military, have a far easier time forcing such an act, even though the company balks at the risk. This is a big socioeconomic difference between China and the US, UK, etc. that can't be overlooked.

And lest we forget, MI5 has already caught Chinese companies in the act in the UK. It is not xenophobia, by any stretch of the imagination, when there is already evidence of past transgressions. Neither, for the same reason, is it extremism. It is simply a lack of trust, and a fairly justified lack of trust.


RE: Valid concern
By Spuke on 8/20/2010 11:11:15 AM , Rating: 3
This is just plain politics. Why are only the Republicans raising these questions? Surely other politicians would be concerned too if something was really going on.


RE: Valid concern
By FITCamaro on 8/20/2010 2:38:44 PM , Rating: 2
Because Democrats don't care about selling our nations secrets to the Chinese. Or them being stolen.

Much of the reason China is as far as they are today militarily is because of the secrets Bill Clinton gave them in exchange for campaign dollars.


RE: Valid concern
By Spuke on 8/20/2010 3:59:27 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Because Democrats don't care about selling our nations secrets to the Chinese. Or them being stolen. Much of the reason China is as far as they are today militarily is because of the secrets Bill Clinton gave them in exchange for campaign dollars.
Do you actually believe that? Dems and Repubs are people, some care, others do not. That has to do with character, not political affiliation. Also, Bill Clinton has sh!t do with China. The Chinese have been spying on us for decades. And they're damn good at it!!! They need no help from us. LOL!


RE: Valid concern
By FITCamaro on 8/20/2010 4:18:55 PM , Rating: 2
Fine let me clarify. Those in the Democrat Party leadership do not care.


RE: Valid concern
By fteoath64 on 8/20/2010 12:30:30 PM , Rating: 2
If DOD is stupid enough to use an OS like Windows then they deserve all the security risks it brings. A military hardened Linux should be used, no other commercial OS should be permitted. Period.

Now on Huawei's telecom equipment supply to Sprint. Why should a US company buy China technology which is pretty much a cheap knock-off of Cisco/Ericsson/Nokia/Lucent ?. The validity of Chinese IPR is questionable.

Just to give you an example, both Ericsson (Swedish) and Motorola are doing very well in China in the telecom business. Why ?. These are top-notch companies and China loved to copy these. They buy, study, dupe/copy/emulate, then sell later.... it is a fact.

I am not against cheap good products but not ones with questionable origins especially blatant copying of others.


RE: Valid concern
By FITCamaro on 8/20/2010 1:08:10 PM , Rating: 2
The military does use versions of Linux. But the cost of developing a military specific operating system does not make sense.


RE: Valid concern
By HostileEffect on 8/20/2010 2:13:31 PM , Rating: 2
A military OS makes excellent sense when compared to spending money on illegal invaders or government funded health insurance.


RE: Valid concern
By FITCamaro on 8/20/2010 4:19:49 PM , Rating: 2
We'll agree there.


RE: Valid concern
By Spuke on 8/20/2010 4:09:38 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
The military does use versions of Linux. But the cost of developing a military specific operating system does not make sense.
Makes perfect sense! Wouldn't be cheap though but it pays for itself when an idiot with a virus on his USB stick plugs it into a military network and the virus can't do anything. Not using MS Office keeps people from taking classified sh!t home to work on it cause it's not compatible with anything on their computers. DOD networks should ONLY run DOD developed sh!t!!

That's built-in security right there. And you get the side benefit of hiring IT people with a clue!!


RE: Valid concern
By FITCamaro on 8/20/2010 4:22:46 PM , Rating: 2
No because unless the military wrote an operating system from the ground up, and made it different and inoperable with other operating systems, then there would still be compatibility.

Even if the military did come up with an OS it would likely be based off Linux. But it would still use a Linux kernel, Linux file formats, etc.

It would take them a decade to build an operating system from the ground up at a cost of billions to get it running and tested.

It is far easier to just disable USB ports on DOD computers even if it inconvenient. Which is exactly what they've done.


RE: Valid concern
By wpaforex on 8/20/2010 11:13:53 PM , Rating: 3
The military already has an operating system so they don't need to write another one; and it would NEVER be linux.

In case you don't know, the military's secure OS of choice is Sun/Oracle Solaris 10 with Trusted Extensions.

Adding Trusted Extensions onto Solaris 10 creates labeled security zones, ie, Secret, Top Secret, SCI, etc in a multi layer security environment and the OS prevents the movement of data/information between the labeled zones. It's quite cool technology.

Wiki has a decent summary of the full feature set here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_Trusted_Exten... and Oracle maintains the docs collection here: http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/coll/175.12


RE: Valid concern
By pablo906 on 8/23/2010 10:54:31 AM , Rating: 2
You're simply ignorant of the reasons why they have to use certain technologies. You likely don't know what all DoD computing encompasses. I've worked with the guys, certain sections are hardened Linux, and others aren't. They know more about security than you will ever hope to learn. Saying stupid things like "if DOD is stupid enough to use an OS like Windows then they deserve all the security risks it brings" simply illustrates how ignorant of real-world Enterprise IT you really are.

DOD covers medical, logistical, financial, and many other types of computing. In medical alone you are almost forced to use legacy Windows versions and must do strict testing when doing things like applying service packs. Many types of Operating Systems have serious holes and sometimes you're forced to deal with the devil in large scale IT.


By AMDMaddness on 8/20/2010 10:24:52 AM , Rating: 2
A few companies out there (4g companies) are using Huawei equipment.. such as Clear Talk and Open Range Comm. I don't see why they ding the Sprint deal but not anyone else?




By kattanna on 8/20/2010 11:12:13 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
I don't see why they ding the Sprint deal but not anyone else?


im pretty sure they couldnt give 2 shiats about the deal, but they DO care about the upcoming elections and need to create an issue to help rally the voters


come on
By swizeus on 8/20/2010 1:05:54 PM , Rating: 2
Look at your own laptop or computer at hand, yes, the one that you use to browse....

if any of them made in china then... the might have been snooping and spying on you....

come on... this is suck... the only thing happen here that government has something in hand for sprin and when huawei got in, there is some disturbance with their plan.. That's all, security is just one conspiracy theory




RE: come on
By Micronite on 8/20/2010 1:39:06 PM , Rating: 2
There's a big difference between a device manufactured in China and a device designed in China.


By wpaforex on 8/20/2010 11:04:09 PM , Rating: 3
The ire that has been raised in the intelligence community in regards to the POSSIBILITY of Huawei being a supplier to Sprint reinforces what I was saying back in the day a couple years ago when there was all the hype about Sprint going out of business. The simple answer is that the US government would NEVER let Sprint go out of business because Sprint is a national security asset.

All the Sprint haters may laugh but it's true. Here's why:

SprintLink, is perhaps the most valuable of the Tier 1 Internet Backbone carriers as they maintain the TransAtlantic Telephone cable system. Also, SprintLink manages and forms the backbone for the FBI's DCSnet which allows the near instantaneous wiretapping of any communications device in the US and some other parts of the world. Thirdly, Sprint is the number one provider of cellular communications to the Department of Defense. A lot of people don't know that. But it's also true. That's why when you go to certain military bases in the country, there are SPRINT wireless booster systems in the buildings and you can get 5/6 bars pretty much everywhere and everyone carries a Sprint phone and data card.

So it's clear that the intelligence community's concern of chinese military based Huawei providing infrastructure hardware to Sprint is perfectly valid.




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