EXTRANCHECK: POST-SHIPMENT VERIFICATION: SUPERCOMPUTER

UNCLAS NEW DELHI 001338 SIPDIS USDOC FOR 532/OEA/M. NICKSON-D/JAY HATFIELD USDOC FOR 3131/USFCS/OIO/ANESA/KREISSL USDOC FOR 4530/MAC/ANESA/OSA ICE HQ FOR STRATEGIC INVESTIGATIONS STATE FOR EB/ESP E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: BEXP ETRD ETTC IN SUBJECT: EXTRANCHECK: POST-SHIPMENT VERIFICATION: SUPERCOMPUTER RESEARCH AND EDUCATION CENTER, INDIA INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE, BANGALORE, INDIA. REF: USDOC 10499 ¶1. Unauthorized disclosure of the information provided below is prohibited by Section 12(c) of the Export Administration Act. ¶2. On May 7, 2008, Export Control Officer (ECO) Paul Cushman and BIS FSN Shailendra Srivastava conducted a Post-Shipment Verification (PSV) at the Super Computer Research and Education Centre (SCREC), Bangalore. ¶3. BIS requested a PSV at SCREC located at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. SCREC was listed as the ultimate consignee for an IBM BLUE GENE High Performance Computer. Export License: D371696. ECCN: 4A003. ¶3. ECO and FSN Srivastava met with Professor Govindarajan Ramaswamy, Chairman, Dr. R. Krishna Murthy, Principal Research Scientist, and Mr. Harish, Purchasing Officer, SCREC. Mr. Randhir Jaiswal, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, arranged and was present at the meeting. ¶4. SCREC representatives were familiar with BIS regulations. This was the second visit by BIS officials to SCREC. ECO Michael Rufe visited the facility in April 2005 and conducted PSVs for licenses D308728 and D326052. Chairman Ramaswamy provided copies of documents pertaining to this transaction including IBM Commercial Invoice, IBM Proforma Invoice, SCREC Purchase Order, Air Waybill and Delivery Challan confirming receipt of the IBM BLUE GENE High Performance Computer. ¶5. Chairman Ramaswamy stated that the computer was delivered to the facility on September 26, 2007 from IBM. Engineers from IBM USA and IBM UK completed the installation in October 2007. Chairman Ramaswamy confirmed the stated end-use. The computer is being used by IIS students and faculty for research in the areas of atmospheric science, molecular biology, computational chemistry, and computational fluid dynamics. 99% of this research ends up in published academic works. ¶6. GOI Central Industrial Security Force personnel control access to the SCREC building. The computer is installed in a secured interior room within SCREC. Only authorized personnel can enter this room. Access to the room is controlled through an electronic badging system. In order to use the computer, IIS personnel are required to submit a formal request in which a demonstrated need must be established. In conjunction with the request, applicants must sign a declaration agreeing not to use the computer for any activities prohibited in the license conditions. Once the request has been approved by Chairman Ramaswamy, an account is established and the researcher can log into the computer from anywhere on the IIS campus. It is not possible to log into the computer from outside the campus. ¶7. After the meeting, the BIS team was given a tour of the SCREC facility where ECO verified the IBM BLUE GENE High Performance Computer serial numbers as 010014EA, 010014FA, 0100151A and 0100150A. ¶8. SCREC falls under Indian Institute of Science within the Ministry of Human Resource Development. It was founded in 1990 to provide state-of-the-art computing capacity to the faculty and students of IIS. ¶9. Recommendation: At the time of this visit, Super Computer Research and Education Centre appeared to be a reliable recipient of this controlled technology. The item on check was physically verified and was being used in a manner consistent with the license conditions and the Export Administration Regulations. MULFORD