[TWIAR] CNN - Classified communication parts sold on eBay

[Greg Williams]

Air Force investigates sale on Internet
June 2, 2002 Posted: 12:37 PM EDT (1637 GMT)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Air Force investigators are trying to determine how a
shipment of sensitive aircraft communications parts wound up on an Internet
auction site last week, Newsweek reported Sunday.

An antiques dealer put the parts, which are used in the SR-71 spy plane, the
F-16 fighter, KC-10 aerial tankers and C-5 Galaxy giant cargo jets, up for
sale on the eBay auction site after buying them for $244 in an
unclaimed-property sale from a shipping company, the magazine said.

The dealer, Norb Novocin, said he discovered after buying the crate-load of
parts in Florida that 11 of the 18 items were coded "D," which demands total
destruction and does not permit public ownership in a condition other than
scrap metal.

The parts had lain in a storage warehouse for 12 years after getting lost
while being shipped from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to a supply depot
in Georgia.

Novocin informed the depot, where officials said they did not want the parts
and suggested he sell them on eBay, Novocin said.

During a seven-day auction on eBay that ended May 29, Novocin says he sold
four items, including an X-Band Weather Radar Modulator for $500 and a
high-frequency radio circuit card for $32. Air Force officials were not
aware that the items were being sold before being contacted by Newsweek, the
magazine said.

"This is now under active investigation by the OSI (Office of Special
Investigations)," Lt. Col. Mike Caldwell, the Air Force public affairs chief
at the Pentagon, told Newsweek.

The magazine pointed out that rogue nations such as Iran routinely seek
replacement parts for their U.S.-manufactured military planes.

Novocin is cooperating with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations,
which asked him to return the materials to the government.