US senator Robert Kasten says he will try to block the pending sale of an IBM mainframe fitted with Vector Facilities to Brazil – a major food-for-oil trading partner with Iraq – because he believes that Saddam Hussein could use the computer in his nuclear weapons development programme: the sale is opposed by the Defense Department and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency; according to United Press International, Brazil has reportedly already sold rocket components to Iraq and the senator reckons that Brazil is helping Iraq to develop aerospace technology and that it is also converting rockets into missiles which are large enough to deliver nuclear weapons.
