200,000 Kalashnikov Machine Guns "Gone Missing"?

Wow man, that's enough guns to raise an army with, literally.
Wasn't there a thread here on ATS a while back that mentioned they weren't able to purchase that type of Ammo because Uncle Sam was stockpiling it?
Is selling Iraqis 200,000 Ak47's a good idea with oversight like this?


We sure know how to hire em...

Source
A complex web of private firms, arms brokers and freight firms, was behind the transfer of the guns, as well as millions of rounds of ammunition, to Iraq at "bargain basement prices", according to Hugh Griffiths, Amnesty's investigator.

The Moldovan air firm which flew the cargo out of a US air base at Tuzla, north-east Bosnia, was flying without a licence. The firm, Aerocom, named in a 2003 UN investigation of the diamonds-for-guns trade in Liberia and Sierra Leone, is now defunct, but its assets and aircraft are registered with another Moldovan firm, Jet Line International.

Some of the firms used in the Pentagon sponsored deals were also engaged in illegal arms shipments from Serbia and Bosnia to Liberia and to Saddam Hussein four years ago.

"The sale, purchase, transportation and storage of the [Bosnian] weapons has been handled entirely by a complex network of private arms brokers, freight forwarders and air cargo companies operating at times illegally and subject to little or no governmental regulation," says the report.

Check this out. Guess who was flying those weapons? Anyone here seen the movie Lord of War?

TYR: 99 Tonnes of Guns

May 12, 2006


it's not impossible that someone just turned up with lorries, men in uniforms and vaguely official documents and drove off with a load of guns

With these sort of deals, front companies and iffy paper trails, it's likely the arms may not even be in Iraq at all. After all, if the US wanted to arm the new Iraqi armed forces then why not go through official channels and supply arms direct from the manufacturer?
Heads should roll and prison sentences should be handed down to those involved with such a shady procurement process.

More then likely this disappearance occured after it was paid for too I'll bet. If the weapons even ever existed. Amazing how Explosives and tens of millions in cash are just vanishing into thin air in this war.

When will people realize "Peace keeping" and "liberation" are just bumper stickers?
America is the greatest armsdealer of all time. The reason why we are in this dilemma is because we gave all our weapons of mass destruction to every known sociopath on this world. And we have the receipts to prove it. Now it's karma time for the U.S.

Hellmutt, exactly! Lord Of War was what I read this story.

200,000 rifles and millions of rounds of ammo is enough to literally strat an army, it still just drops my jaw to think that an Army's worth of Rifles and Ammo just vanishes like that. I think this was a really nasty arms deal that leaked a little into the media, but I wonder where they ended up, if it was in Iraq our boys could be in for a long hard war.

They could have ended up anywhere...

Wikipedia: Viktor Bout


In May 2006, when 200,000 AK-47 assault rifle went missing in transit from Bosnia to Iraq, one of Bout's airlines was the carrier.

Check out his customers.

NAh the guns are right where our govt wants them..in the hands of the enemy!

this , to me, is just another example of the govt. funded WOT. After all we are the biggest enablers.

Out of curiosity why in the world would we send the iraqis Russian arms? why would we not arm them with our own guns? and do it through official channels?
The only reason I can think of is the one I gave above. We are fueling the WOT.. Not a suprise to me, since our govt did 911 IMHO. Its like everyday there is something else screwed up that this govt has done...again and again and again.
Another day, another screw up, another lie to cover it. When the hell are the people of this great nation going to stand up and say enough is enough?

The article opens a can of worms. Private firms will sell the arms to the highest bidder its how they make money. The lack of a paper trail would suggest that the arms are being sold to the insurgents with a thin disguise for the Pentagon benfit.
Why would the Pentagon and US leaders allow this to happen ?
The only logical answer is that members of the current admin and the Pentagon have some kind of connection with the private firms and the arms dealers.

[edit on 24-7-2006 by xpert11]

Originally posted by xpert11

The only logical answer is that members of the current admin and the Pentagon have some kind of connection with the private firms and the arms dealers.

Take a look at this. I bolded one of his customers. Maybe that's why Bout has been allowed to fly on for so long? Maybe the weapons are in Somalia?

Wikipedia: Viktor Bout


Arms Dealings

Some of Bout's customers include:

* Northern Alliance (Afghanistan)
* Taliban (Afghanistan)
* Abu Sayyaf (Philippines)
* UNITA (Angola)
* US Military (United States)
* RUF (Sierra Leone)
* Charles Taylor (Liberia)

Hellmutt if the arms are being shipped to Somalia why is the US government using Bout as there means of delivery ?
I can understand why the US government would want to aid the weak government of Somalia but dosnt the lack of accountablity start to ring alarm bells ?
Surely supplying arms should be more of a hit and miss affair ?
Why not send US made arms to Somalia ?
And if the US really wanted to tip the balance in the Somalian governments favour wouldnt air power be the way to go ?

I wasnt clear in my first post on this thread which is my fault I should have siad that if US leaders and military personal are connected to a private firm that is supplying weapons to the insurgents in Iraq they should be thrown into jail and the key thrown away.

[edit on 24-7-2006 by xpert11]

Or the weapons could be in Syria. You see, Bout often delivers weapons to both sides in a conflict.

Originally posted by xpert11

Hellmutt if the arms are being shipped to Somalia why is the US government using Bout as there means of delivery ?

I never said the US were sending the weapons there. These weapons might still have been hijacked.

Viktor Bout was flying these Kalashnikovs and he was also flying loads of weapons for the Islamists in Mogadishu. I would say there is a possibility those 200,000 Kalashnikovs ended up in Somalia after all...

Douglas Farah: What is Russia's Real Game?

Aug 28 2006


Bout’s recent exploits in Somalia-flying in at last two IL-76 loads of weapons for the most radical, Taliban-like regime in the world-could not take place without the explicit blessing of senior Russian military intelligence officials, using allies to do the actual deals.

[---]

Russian (and Chinese) weapons sales to Iran do not happen by accident. They occur with the full knowledge that these weapons would end up with either a rogue Islamist regime or a proxy army of that regime.

The same can be said for the weapons deliveries to Somalia. Aircraft filled with tens of tons of weapons do not miraculously fall from the sky to Islamist militants bent on expanding and consolidating their regime. More such weapons are on their way, intelligence sources say. It might be time to ask who is supplying the weapons and why.

I have to agree with TONE23, this is the smoking gun of us fueling the WOT. These guns reached their desination - the "enemy". So glad I have seen this thread.

There was a thread I just read that got me to wondering if perhaps the Taliban ended up with these, or if they went to Georgia. Hellmutt has dug further into this than I have, but it does make one wonder with the all the US and Israeli weapons caches they found in Georgia, and the Taliban suddenly having the umph to launch offensive strikes.

Originally posted by twitchy
There was a thread I just read that got me to wondering if perhaps the Taliban ended up with these, or if they went to Georgia. Hellmutt has dug further into this than I have, but it does make one wonder with the all the US and Israeli weapons caches they found in Georgia, and the Taliban suddenly having the umph to launch offensive strikes.

And no mass media is touching this subject as usual.

But then again, people dont seem to question why there is constant wars. They have just accepted it as normal behavior. All while the corporations profits greatly from the suffering.

If you hear anything about the wars, its about how the fighting is going on. There is never any analysis of why, how the weapons got there, who benefits or anything. Lets keep it simple. Taliban baaaad, US gooood. Fight! Like a baseball game. Perfectly easy to get for overworked people.


[edit on 18-10-2009 by Copernicus]

Is it possible these were headed to ISIS all along? How do you go about tracing them, they (Russians) had no trouble identifying our weapons caches in Tbilisi Georgia, any of these turning up in Syria?

Hellmutt if you're still following this thread, I'd like to know what you think about the possibility of these getting into Isis hands. Does the US military trace serial numbers of fallen or captured enemy combatants?

The shipments have been 2004-2005.

Just by 'coincidence' the years that AQI (alqaida in iraq) started to grow.
AQI turned into Daesh, aka ISIL/ISIS.

Nothing to see here. Just coincidences. /sarcasm off