Fast and Furious Afghanistan: More Illegal Weapons in The Hands of The Enemy?

reply to post by Zarniwoop


Originally posted by Zarniwoop Pg 6

Mr Timmins could in fact be a bit of a serial employment extortionist. Albeit not a very good one.

Its all well sitting back and passing comments on something you don’t know about so I will correct you with some facts not speculation.

Timmons was bound by a High Court injunction which meant he was not allowed to speak to anyone about what occurred even in defence and was actually threatened with imprisonment by a High Court judge.

The USDA did send a top investigator to him and was shocked at what was going on but Timmons was unable to speak to him further, however the Chinees government also visited and rejected 7 out of 11 factories for the same reasons Timmons outlined as major health concerns so I hope you take this fact onboard that Timmons was doing his job and had valid concerns and the Chinees Govt verified it.

Nov 2007 some 7 years latter, Timmons while in Iraq working for DoS, was then sent a Discontinuance of the High court injunction meaning he was left unable to speak out or defend himself for seven years from comments and speculators such as your self.
Timmons did not extort anything but lost his job by doing his job by the book which was validated independently and without bias.

In regards to Afghanistan, which is where and how this thread started and should remain focused, the company admitted fault, in writing and verbally where all Timmins requested was his wages and written apologies from those involved in his kidnapping and assault and a thorough investigation into the senior manages involvement with the illegal activities where the company agreed then went silent realising they were in very deep doodaa..

Too many people look the other way these days and to call someone an extortionist for standing up and doing what’s right or what they are meant to do is not right..

As for your comment” threats are to be immediately reported to security personnel”
Timmons immediately on finding the first lot of RPG’s actually leaving the compound and Bulk Fuel Installation in one of the escorts guard vehicles, reported the finding firstly to the long standing compliance office, (Ex Australian Police officer) who was standing next to him, then Timmins wrote a quick note on the compliance sheets he was holding regarding the date time, events etc. (a short SITREP), then Timmons wrote and intelligence report, then contacted his top manager all within the hour while all of these other senior staff did nothing except the senior manager who insisted Timmons not to do anything about it, but Timmons did!

Your comment “Something is amiss here something does not add up to me”.

Me too, this # should not have occurred and to have a company flatly deny events then admits events is something the Authorities need to look at and I believe that’s why this tread is started.

Having our gals and guys shafted and even killed for profit or by gross negligence stinks!!

FYI.
The company even changed its name a few times to try to get away from its original name Compass as in the US Armed Services Report but the same people are there, left unaccountable for what happened..

Blatant fraud is one thing, but Employing, harbouring and Arming the enemy and even transporting and the re-issuing them with heavy illegal arms, the same arms used at Bastion killing military, is no laughing matter!!

Re your comment “Could you post a link to this letter, or even an excerpt” perhaps?
Yes I could but wont..
You get a senator to look into this or contact me and yes you can get a copy along with other classified docs and recordings.
My opinion there seems to be too much info that has been disclosed already and may prejudice and compromise any future inquiry as these discussions also prepares the company and as we say Fore Warned is Fore Armed..

I think you are getting your quotes and members mixed up, but I'll chalk that up to you being a new member. No worries

I must admit that I started out as a skeptic of Mr. Timmin's story, but then moved to focus on the bigger picture as there is nothing to verify his story.

Re your comment “Could you post a link to this letter, or even an excerpt” perhaps?
Yes I could but wont..

That's really too bad, because you could potentially change the mind of a lot of folks on this thread about this Timmons, Timmins, or however you spell his name.

EDIT to add: I don't intend to contact you or any Senator. The incomplete story was brought to ATS for review. It is entirely your decision to keep it incomplete if you so choose. We should just move on and ignore the story as told, and focus on the bigger issues.

Don't disclose anything you are not comfortable with.

Anyone seen the single page FOIA report?

Load of hogwash with censored information and all it was about were the events at ECP5, the kidnapping and assault where in a nut shell four CID Special Agents say it didn’t happen.

Strange this because the company now say it Did happen exactly as in the INTERPOL Police report and there are now witnesses willing to testify to these facts but the DOJ, because of the stuffed up CID report, wont even talk to these witnesses..

I could name the CID SA in charge and had who oversight and think his head should roll first because he knows now there is new evidence that proves beyond doubt his findings in the report were wrong but still wont do anything because he would be made out to be a klutz and I suspect with the seriousness of what’s involved he would be sacked.

I don’t know what the four SA’s were smoking that day, probably confiscated hash and seems like another too hard basket for them.

I know a few things but how do you make the DOJ get off their ass and do their job?

No one of substance was spoken to about anything not even the Guard Timmons called out to and Hell there is No mention of the RPG’s!

Seems we wasted our taxpayer dollar on their wages especially when they are not interested is doing their job and learning the truth which affects the lives of servicemen and women.

Originally posted by Brotherman
reply to post by LadyGreenEyes

 

He wasnt in the military, I think that he didnt get the attention any where else for almost every reason I have talked about on this thread, I personally think he is a fraud. Maybe you can change my mind

As I stated...

Originally posted by LadyGreenEyes
Bastion was attacked, so there was a problem somewhere. If there were guards, motion sensors, etc., and no one spotted the attackers, that seems to indicate an inside job. it's not impossible for military to be involved, either. Remember the Ft. Hood case? That was a military officer, and he killed a lot of people. Why would anyone assume there could not be others like him in the military?

The Ft. Hood shooter was in the military. That's who I meant, not this Timmons fellow. Just realized what you had posted before regarding that. I used that example to show that just because someone is military, it doesn't automatically mean they could not be set against the country. That shooter was, and some that Timmons encountered could have been as well. It's not common, but it happens.

Originally posted by Jblake
reply to post by Brotherman

 

LadyGreeneyes,
With respect, here you go again, wishy washy, say Timmons is a fraud now the company leies, so which is it?
Who has most to gain?
Who admits fault?
Who has independent witnesses that no one has spoken to?
Who has documents supporting the military ballsed it up?
The company in question has a long extensive and documented history of the things Timmons reports.
The US Armed Services report, that I suggest you read, also supports Timmons accounts.

For you to suggest Timmons was at fault and he should be tried makes me wonder what are you drinking these days?

When did I suggest any such thing? I have defended his position, and stated that he seems to have a good case. I said it is POSSIBLE that he is lying, but I don't see that as likely. I have even stated that, if he were lying, you would think he'd have been prosecuted for slander by now, which seems to not have happened, further supporting his position. I will consider all points of view, until (if that happens) there is a proper investigation, but that doesn't mean I don't support his position. I am not sure how you got that impression from my posts.

reply to post by Springer


I was there. Your source Ben is possibly correct about the inital observation that started all this, but who really cares?
Nobody, that's why this has got so far down the track that it's landed here. The RPG is a man-portable weapon manufactured in vast numbers and freely available in AFG. They are no big deal. They are illegal not to stop them getting into the hands of insurgents, but because they are not seen by PC armchair commentators as self-defensive weapons. Guards are only allowed small arms for self defence. But if you were getting rockets fired at you daily, and if you could get them from the local 7/11, why wouldn't you? The TB certainly does not need to go to all the trouble described in this thread to get their hands on them.
There are a few more skeptical people on this thread who ask a number of questions that are astute, like "why all the bother". Indeed, why would the big bad company go to so much trouble to restrain him over a minor compliance issue? Why did the guards at the checkpoint take no action to protect someone who claimed to be kidnapped? Why do people keep saying "it didn't happen"?
Because he is, quite simply, nuts. It may have happened, but his perspective is skewed and at the end of the day, unless you have been there, you can't possibly understand that this is the wild west. Usual rules don't apply. These are real people fighting with real guns, and silly little rules like which guns they can use, don't matter one bit. That's why nobody cares, because in the big picture, it doesn't matter. The problem for the company wasn't covering up a couple of RPGs. It was purely a response to the unprofessional way Ben went about disclosure, and his bizarre and concerning actions afterwards.
The fact is that this is a storm in a teacup. The guy is a sensationalist attention-seeker with delusions of grandeur and an indignantly self-righteous attitude. He has a David v Goliath complex and as previously stated by others, has done the exact same thing to another employer at home in New Zealand, and then tried to cover it up by applying for name suppression when it became embarassing. You can google it. His name is spelled Timmins. By his own admission he was a medicated depressive and he almost certainly lied about that in order to get work in security companies, as that would have excluded him.
This is an unbalanced person. Maybe correct, but unbalanced.
I know some people will disagree, but you have to understand the situation and know this guy before you take sides.

reply to post by Squirrelly


Additionally, in reading through some of the unbelieveably naive posts previously, I would like to rhetorically ask, how exactly is Timmin's situation linked to the attack on Camp Bastion? Answer: It isn't. Even to suggest it is hyperbolic.
Also, for those who would like to know, ANYONE can buy ACUs, flag patches, unit patches, even rank at uscavalry.com or hundreds of other military gear dealers. Come on, grow up and get into the real world people.

reply to post by Zarniwoop


Also all pers reading this thread should be aware that a "certain person" has a habit of creating multiple aliases and then posting comments verifying or lending credibility to his own story. Right, Mr Blake?

Came across this post by pure chance, but was intrigued due to the fact that I was employed by compass at the time at HRDC and seeing the name Timmons meant that I just had to read on. I barely knew the bloke, but do remember he was strange. having said that let me be clear and say I have no ulterior motives in writing this other than to put forward what I believe to be the truth. Firstly, what he says happened may or may not have happened. All I can say is that it was company policy to confiscate any RPG's that we found and this did happen.
As for the rest of the story it just sounds pure made up. I noticed there is nothing in the story which notes the fact that he threatened to shoot members of staff. indeed, I was interested to note that he says his room was ransacked for information he had filed away. I know he had to have his side arm forcibly taken from him after he had made threats to shoot staff.

I don't remember him being locked in his room at HRDC, I seem to recall seeing him walking around freely, and don't recall the day he left. However, when reading his account of his time at Kandahar I was doubtful of his version of events. At no point is it possible to drive "through the back streets of Kandahar" as the town of Kandahar is no-where near any of the places he would have stayed. The compass staff there certainly wouldn't be out and about after dark if they didn't need to be because the place was dangerous and the compass camp had been hit a few times previously. As for wether he was held against his will I cannot comment. But I don't believe an American guard would have stood by and done nothing had he been shouting I've been kidnapped and was then forcibly put back into the vehicle, that doesn't stand to reason.

I'm not going to say anymore because I cannot comment on what I didn't witness, but this story stinks to me, based on my experiences in exactly the same places with the same company at the same time it seems there are certainly parts that do not make sense. What has happened to Timmons after he left compass I have no idea, seems he's been on some sort of one man crusade from what I read on here. I'm sure people out there will read this and try to make me out to be some sort of "lackie", but I'm not. I just thought that all this conjecture needed cutting through. You don't need to believe me, but I was there and that gives me a damn sight more knowledge on this than anyone else who has posted.

What about announced sale to Lebannon of arty and and ammo?
HOW is THAT a good IDEA?
The only thing I can't figure out is will Hezbola or HAMAS get it first.
We did arm the Northern alliance and Karsai's regime so maybe this was from it.

Anybody who has worked the circuit or done private military work can tell you there are firms out there who aren't exactly legitimate in their actions (not all anyway). Some will acquire weapons such as RPGs and dushkas where possible because they need the extra firepower when the # hits the fan. Obviously it's not something they want to advertise. Some of them will happily hire people that are cheap and up for a scrap. There is every chance some of the local men hired were Taliban. So were half the police and army. Half the country were Taliban one day then policemen the next. The Afghan people will swap sides to suit their own interests in a heartbeat. I'm not saying the company in question are guilty of anything however because I don't know that for any kind of fact. He sounds like the sort of guy who is too much of a straight bloke for his own good. It's not uncommon for firms to acquire some extra firepower that's all I'm saying. It was also common for people to take a few back handers around bastion to look the other way.

Security around camp bastion was a bit of a joke the time of the attack. I was there that night. People were walking around for about two hours after the attack had been initiated and didn't even realise what was going on. They called different coded messages over the loudspeakers and nobody seemed to know what they meant. The Sangers were half manned. It didn't help that people were falling asleep and rolling over on guard, accidently shooting themselves with their own weapons for example (one of a few).

The attackers worked out timings and blind spots. An intelligence report we got claimed that they had received training in Iran and were using British tactics against us. The hunt for 3 more suspected teams started soon after. (Apparently one attacked an american FOB, got caught in their form up and were welcomed with a few 500lb bombs. Problem solved).They had set up OPs around bastion and went undetected. The uniforms can be explained quite easily. Soldiers in Afghanistan were in the habit of selling to, or swapping, uniforms for trinkets to take home. Other uniforms were stolen out of FOBs and CPs by local 'security forces'. Some were actually going missing in the Dhobis (launderettes) that were operated by local nationals who had jobs in the base. A lot of whom, incidentally, came to work actually carrying their issued safety equipment that morning. Good guess eh? After the attack a man was found dead and they weren't even certain if it was one of the attackers who did it, mingling with the locals. Weapons, fake ids etc were being found buried within the perimeter before and after the attack. The locals would often sell their IDs. During the attack (I'll call them part of a force protection group) two blokes got caught on the PGSS taking off and shooting their own body armour so they could later claim they had taken rounds. This was the state of security at the time of the attack. My point is, this particular firm may have had illegal weapons and blokes of questionable background on the books, but they certainly weren't the cause of the attack and if they were guilty of anything, it would be being a small part of a huge problem.