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Captain charged in arms-export conspiracy

SEATTLE — An Army captain who recently served as an intelligence liaison to the Japanese military has been charged with conspiring to ship holographic, night-vision-compatible firearm sights to Japan.

In a two-paragraph charging document filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, prosecutors wrote that Tomoaki Iishiba bought 60 of the EoTech 553 sights from a Northbrook, Ill., company called OpticsPlanet, then mailed them to coconspirators in Japan without obtaining an export license. The company’s Web site lists the sights at $639 apiece.

He also sought to export scopes and other firearms parts, the document said, including “upper receivers modified for Airsoft,” typically a BB-type weapon.

He faces one count of conspiracy to smuggle goods from the U.S. and is scheduled to enter a guilty plea at the end of the month, Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg said Friday. Greenberg said he could not comment further.

The name of Iishiba’s lawyer was not listed on the court’s docket, and Iishiba, 34, did not return a call to his home in DuPont, south of Tacoma near Fort Lewis. OpticsPlanet Inc. did not return an e-mail from The Associated Press.

“The command here is aware of the charges that were filed today in this Capt. Iishiba case,” Fort Lewis spokesman Joseph Piek said. “His command has been aware of the investigation as it’s been ongoing, and Fort Lewis has cooperated fully with civilian law enforcement.”

Iishiba has been reassigned from intelligence duty as a result of the investigation and is working as an assistant operations officer, Fort Lewis spokeswoman Catherine Caruso added.

The New Tribune newspaper of Tacoma published a profile of Iishiba last December, describing him as the son of a Tokyo policeman who moved to the United States in 1993 to serve in the American military. He became a citizen, graduated from Northern Michigan University, and served with the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan in 2003. He wrote a book about it titled “A Japanese Lieutenant from the 82nd Airborne.”

At the time of the article, Iishiba was working as an I Corps intelligence liaison to Japan’s Northeastern Army at Yama Sakura. He earned the position after working with visiting Japanese troops who were training at Fort Lewis and Yakima, the newspaper reported, and he was quoted as saying he believed the Japanese are “too soft” and need to shed some military limitations adopted after World War II.

“It’s a different world now,” Iishiba said. “You’ve got to stand strong, but they’re not ready yet.”

He has also written a manual for the M4 rifle, has endorsed a line of knives and is credited as a technical adviser in the making of the video game Metal Gear Solid.