On 2015-06-25 13:31, Liam Proven wrote:
On 24 June 2015 at 14:19, Johnny Billquist <b...@update.uu.se> wrote:
Oh, I know. I'm from Sweden. We had a very big scandal where 5 containers
with a VAX-11/782 and peripherials or something like that was found under
strange circumstances. When the whole thing started to be investigated
suddenly no one seemed to know or own those containers. The system was
unclaimed for years, and it became a question of what to do with it, since
no one seemed to claim it. I think it was eventually decided that since DEC
made it, it was returned to them. The original shipping destination was of
course somewhere in Soviet Union. This was in the early 80s... I'm sure
someone can find the full story online somewhere.
It's mentioned in the Datasaab article on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datasaab
Hmm. Some interesting information on that page. But anyway, no, the
smuggling story in that article is not the one I was referring to. That
story is about some Swedish computers for ATC (also usable for military
purposes obviously) which contained some American components, for which
Sweden did not have an export license, so they somehow got to the SU
without permission, which was later revealed, and was not a nice story,
since the Swedish government was involved.
Search for "containeraffären" in Google (unfortunately I only manage to
find Swedish texts about it, but Google translate is your friend). In
short, a private businessman in Sweden was involved a the shipping of a
VAX-11/782 and peripherials via South Africa and Sweden (maybe
Switzerland was also involved). It was caught by the Swedish customs,
and the stuff never reached the SU. I guess that sortof repaired the
damage of the previous "Saab-affären" story in the eyes of the USA...
Johnny
