Washington defense group calls for sanctioning EADS CASA

The Center for Security Policy, a Washington-based education and action group, argues in a Venezuela policy paper that EADS CASA be shut out of Pentagon procurement contracts.

The reason, according to the Center's Decision Brief, is that EADS CASA is teaming up with Russia to modernize Hugo Chavez's air power. [Note, February 2007: The link goes to a Google cache of the Decision Brief, as the Center has not incorporated its database into its new Website.]

As it normally does in its tersely worded but reportedly influential papers, the Center is to the point. Congress and the White House should remove "the EADS CASA C-295 from consideration in the JCA program and [remove] funding for purchase of the aircraft by the Coast Guard Deepwater program."

The Center for Security Policy is the first group in Washington institutionally to call for sanctions against EADS CASA. This could spell problems for the C-295 program in the US, as the Center is highly influential with senior Pentagon officials, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.