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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/02/washington/02UAE.html
Some U.S. Exports Veer Off Course from Dubai to Iran
[New York Times] Eric Lipton - Roadside bombings of American troops in Iraq were occurring with unnerving regularity when military investigators made a disturbing discovery: American-made computer circuits sold to a trading company in the United Arab Emirates had turned up in the bomb detonators. Last year the Bush administration cited the diversion of the computer circuits to Iran, and eventually Iraq, as proof that the UAE was failing to prevent American technology from slipping into the wrong hands, and it is unclear that much has changed. Administration officials said aircraft parts, specialized metals and gas detectors that have a potential military use had also moved through Dubai, one of the emirates, to Iran, Syria or Pakistan. As many as 400,000 Iranians live in the emirates, many of them traders who track down goods in the sprawling consumer bazaar of Dubai and then re-export them to Iran, at times ignoring UN trade sanctions related to Iran's nuclear program and a broader U.S. embargo. "This was a huge sieve," said Lisa A. Prager, a former top Commerce export control official. "Almost nothing that said it was going to UAE was staying in UAE."