The real battle over Iran's nuclear weapons program takes place in courts, intelligence centers

U.S. technology, and have become more proficient at forging documents and falsifying export licenses, Settles said.

The U.S. effort also has gotten a lot more aggressive, said David Albright, the president of the private Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) and the author of a new book on illicit nuclear trade. “I think it’s hurting them. You can see in some cases, they get pretty desperate,” Albright said.

Iran is dependent on foreign technology to expand its uranium enrichment efforts, which U.S. and European intelligence agencies say is aimed at acquiring enough fissile material to make a nuclear weapon. “They want to get 20,000 centrifuges” for enrichment, Albright said. “They’re constantly needing to go out and buy things…. You hurt them on the build-up.”

Strobel quotes law enforcement officials and analysts to say that Iran is using U.S. technology for non-nuclear applications, as well to harm Americans. Sophisticated roadside bombs, thought to have been assembled in Iran, have been discovered in Iraq and Afghanistan containing electronics whose serial numbers trace them back to the United States, they say.

At ISIS’ Washington offices, Albright pointed to a picture of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad touring one of Iran’s nuclear sites. Also in the photograph is a pressure transducer, which can be used to measure pressure inside a centrifuge that is enriching uranium — almost certainly of U.S. origin.

Steven Pelak, a senior Justice Department official said recently that there was a more than 30 percent increase in criminal defendants between late 2006 and late 2007. Most cases are focused on Iran and China, said Pelak, who coordinates an inter-agency export enforcement task force. He said there are more than a dozen open investigations into illegal proliferation networks.

Despite a near-total U.S. ban on trade with Iran and significant restrictions in Europe, a lot apparently gets through. “Cases lead to other cases. Every time we’ve taken down one of these networks, we literally found hundreds of leads,” said Settles, the ICE special agent.

The United States last year acquired an extensive “electronic Rolodex” as part of a plea bargain with the owner of a Dutch aviation services firm, who with his son was charged with transshipping U.S. goods to Iran. Robert Kraaipoel and his son came voluntarily to the United States, because after charges against them were made public, no Western banks would hold their money, throttling business.

U.S. customs agents also have lured Iranian front men to third countries that have extradition treaties with the United States., and later brought them to U.S. jails.

Pelak disputed that the U.S. government is trying to enforce its laws overseas. He said suspects are using U.S. financial institutions, buying American technology, and often causing U.S. companies to file false export certificates, unwittingly he said.

Strobel writes that Kakavand was supposed to be a case in point. Documents filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California charge that he and his associates set up a firm, Evertop Services, in Malaysia, and used it to buy at least 30 shipments of U.S.-made electronics worth more than $1 million. Once in Malaysia, they were shipped to Iran via Iran Air, the state-controlled airline.

E-mails from Evertop show the company’s customers included Iran Electronics Industry and Iran Communications Industries, entities that supply Iran’s military.

Kakavand’s attorney in Paris, Diane Francois, told McClatchy Newspapers that the Iranian dealt with “no arms or dual-use (items), period.” Because he did not break French law, he should not be extradited, she said.

A federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing, told Strobel the real issue is that the two Iranian entities were designated for their involvement in Iran’s nuclear missile programs by the United States and one, IEI, by the European Union. “These facilities don’t make toys,” he said.

The case helped prompt Malaysia, long seen as transit point for goods to Iran, to adopt an export control law in time for President Barack Obama’s nuclear security summit last week.

A ruling on Kakavand’s extradition is expected 5 May.