' APPROVED FOR RELEASE DATE:5
title:
condor II accounting
3
SUMMARY:
Despite significant progress made by Argentina in accounting for missing Condor ZI-ralated components in the days before President Menem's visit to Washington, there areitems listedon-paper presented to Argentina, and agreed to by the KTCR partners in March, that have not been accounted for, destroyed or moved aa required. The MTCr partners voted to make Argentine membership in the MTCR effective when these issues are resolved. While Buenos Aires is making unprecedented strides in locating or accounting for all of the Condor II components, there are ongoing bilateral discussions with Washington on whatatisfactory resolution. For example, Argentine officials continue to press for retention of and alternate use of some Condor II missile related equipment and production equipment that was acquired specifically for the Condor XI program. i j
Tha followingetailed discussion of the issues related to this topic using information available as of More information will be needed, and Buenos Aires has promised to provide detailed information which may help resolve this issue.
BACKGROUND:
1. Duringrgentina shipped to Spain and the OS numerous Condor II components. An evaluation of tha shipped components against known holdings revealed that the Argentine Air Force fFAA) still held--at that time--key components and technology that it could try to use to either restart the Condor II program in Argentina or sell elsewhere.
ha US presented to Buenosnon-paper listing the remaining key Condor IIproduction equipment, and productionhad to ba destroyed or otherwise accounted for in order
to gain US support for Argentina laembership in the MTCR.
President Menem ordered that this task be accomplished.
MTCR partners voted during the MTCRor irembership in the MTCR However, memberahip would become effectiveBuenos Aires satisfactorily resolved the issuesthe non-paper (sent to all MTCR partners An KTCR Quad-team was to assist inprocess, f
4. Since Che plenary. President Menem has pushed hard to comply with the conditions of the non-paper. Ke has recently purged high-ranking Air Force officers, including the Chief of Staff, who were obstructing the full dismantlement of the Condor XI program. By late June, the Ministry of Defense was able to recover or account for many of the missing parts listed in the non-paper, apparentlyesult of an extensive inventory of Air Force components. Additionally, Buenos Aires officially declassified the Condor II missile project onune, in an effort to ensure that all measures to terminate the project be carried out in the open and to remove the pretext most often used by Condor II supporters to avoid disclosing additional information.
5. Onhe US Science Counselor in Buenos Aires was able to inspect some of th* previously missing Condor II equipment at an air base near Buenos Aires. uly, he inspected additional equipment at two facilities near Cordoba. Moat of the inspected equipment is listed in the non-paper, however, some is not listed and may not be Condor II related. Somo of the components require further analysis to determine if they are related to the Condor II or other systems such as Alacran or Condor I. in spite of significant progress in finding components, primarily still outstanding is the resolution of the issues related to the production equipment and production related documents.
6. The followingetailed discussion of the status of the Condor II related equipment
Original document.
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