By Brian Krebs.
Newsbytes,26 December 2000.
Widespread media reports that Iraq has been importing the scarce and highly sought-after Playstation 2 video consoles for their military potential are unsubstantiated and groundless, a Sony spokesperson said today.
In the days leading up to December 25, several media outlets, including NBC, cited an unidentified US Customs officer as saying the popular PlayStation 2 units were being diverted from toy shops around Detroit to factions affiliated with the Iraqi military.
The stories note that the coveted video game units are being sought by the Iraqi government due to their hefty processing power, which when hooked together en masse could conceivably offer computing speeds similar to that of low-grade supercomputers, devices seen as necessary for the development and testing of weapons of mass destruction.
But Sony spokesperson Molly Smith said if Saddam Hussein wanted to get hold of a stash of Playstations, he'd have to get in line behind millions of other consumers.
"Right now, with our current inventory situation, it's likely that anyone - Saddam Hussein or otherwise - claiming to have a substantial number of Playstation 2 units is probably pulling your leg at this point," Smith said.
"This completely unsubstantiated story has been lingering for weeks and it's time to put it to rest."
The US government controls exports of processors based on their processing speed, measured in MTOPs (millions of theoretical operations per second.) Currently, exports of processors which measure 28,000 MTOPs or below have been decontrolled for export to nearly all countries of the world with the exception of nations labeled terrorist sponsors, including Iraq, Iran and Libya. For those nations, the processor speed limit is a mere 6 MTOPs.
Robert Majak, assistant secretary for export administration at the Commerce Departments Bureau of Export Administration (BXA) said while the Playstation
2 devices almost assuredly clock more than 6 MTOPs, there are more efficient and more commercially-available devices - desktop PCs that measure speeds of up to 6,500 MTOPs, for example - than this holiday's scarcest gift.
"I would assume that if Iran were determined to obtain such devices illegally, it would presumably go after something much more powerful than a chip in a toy of some sort," Majak said.
Citation: Brian Krebs. "Saddam Couldn't Get Playstations If He Tried - Sony," Newsbytes,26 December 2000.
Original URL: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NEW/is_2000_Dec_26/ai_68501911