Italian Cops Bust Huge Iraq Arms Deal

Operation Parabellum Finds Shipment Of 100,000 Automatic Weapons

(AP)  In a hidden corner of Rome's busy Fiumicino Airport, police dug quietly through a traveler's checked baggage, looking for smuggled drugs. What they found instead was a catalog of weapons, a clue to something bigger.

Their discovery led anti-Mafia investigators down a months-long trail of telephone and e-mail intercepts, into the midst of a huge black-market transaction, as Iraqi and Italian partners haggled over shipping more than 100,000 Russian-made automatic weapons into the bloodbath of Iraq.

As the secretive, $40 million deal neared completion, Italian authorities moved in, making arrests and breaking it up. But key questions remain unanswered.

For one thing, The Associated Press has learned that Iraqi government officials were involved in the deal, apparently without the knowledge of the U.S. Baghdad command — a departure from the usual pattern of U.S.-overseen arms purchases.

Why these officials resorted to "black" channels and where the weapons were headed is unclear.

The purchase would merely have been the most spectacular example of how Iraq has become a magnet for arms traffickers and a place of vanishing weapons stockpiles and uncontrolled gun markets since the 2003 U.S. invasion and the onset of civil war.

Some guns the U.S. bought for Iraq's police and army are unaccounted for, possibly fallen into the hands of insurgents or sectarian militias. Meanwhile, the planned replacement of the army's AK-47s with U.S.-made M-16s may throw more assault rifles onto the black market. And the weapons free-for-all apparently is spilling over borders: Turkey and Iran complain U.S.-supplied guns are flowing from Iraq to anti-government militants on their soil.

Iraqi middlemen in the Italian deal, in intercepted e-mails, claimed the arrangement had official American approval. A U.S. spokesman in Baghdad denied that.

"Iraqi officials did not make MNSTC-I aware that they were making purchases," Lt. Col. Daniel Williams of the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq (MNSTC-I), which oversees arming and training of the Iraqi police and army, told the AP.

Operation Parabellum, the investigation led by Dario Razzi, anti-Mafia prosecutor in this central Italian city, began in 2005 as a routine investigation into drug trafficking by organized-crime figures, branched out into an inquiry into arms dealing with Libya, and then widened to Iraq.

Court documents obtained by the AP show that Razzi's break came early last year when police monitoring one of the drug suspects covertly opened his luggage as he left on a flight to Libya. Instead of the expected drugs, they found helmets, bulletproof vests and the weapons catalog.

Tapping telephones, monitoring e-mails, Razzi's investigators followed the trail to a group of Italian businessmen, otherwise unrelated to the drug probe, who were working to sell arms to Libya and, by late 2006, to Iraq as well, through offshore companies they set up in Malta and Cyprus.

Four Italians have been arrested and are awaiting court indictment for allegedly creating a criminal association and alleged arms trafficking — trading in weapons without a government license. A fifth Italian is being sought in Africa. In addition, 13 other Italians were arrested on drug charges.

[wolf563]

ITALIANS SHIPPING RUSSIAN GUNS . OH MY GOD ! G.B. YOU BETTER ATTACK RUSSIA AND ITALY CAUSE THERE HELPING THE TERRORISTS IN IRAQ .

[ramos937]

The way I understand it, (1) We provide the weapons and/or cash to buy weapons for Iraq security forces, (2) The weapons are sold to whoever, (3) our cash is used to buy weapons and then resold to a 3rd party, (4) No one knows where the cash and weapons wind up whether in the hands of Al Queda, mafia, whoever, we just do not know, (5) the Iraq businessman claims to have written authorization from the US Army and (6) the cycle repeats itself. At least now that we know of this affair, the cycle will be broken and the bad guys will go to jail??? Ya - and I am really Clark Kent. Right?

[navyretired2]

"Iraqi middlemen in the Italian deal, in intercepted e-mails, claimed the arrangement had official American approval."

Let's see some names AP!! Do some digging/"reporting."

Hopefully it will come out in the wash soon enough, then again, Bush will probably pardon them anyway.

[prinzowhales]

Looks like even the Quisling Regime hates the Occupation enough to deal behind its back. Some 'soverign Iraq'...with its arms purchases overseen by the US...I wonder what benchmark this little episode will meet...Just another sorry episode in the Stupid Peoples' War, brought to you by the Washington Regime...

If the Americans were any friend of the Iraqi Army they wouldn't replace the AK-47 with the M-16...unless they needed the M-16s to pound into the sand to secure tarps.

[grazinggoat]

-My deepest wishes are to this inquiry to go deep enough to catch the real dirty traffickers and their (kick-Back) linkers to the AIPAC-Repukons.

-by the way wolf563, your comment is sharply appropriate. No hold on! this is not a good advice. Walking-Liar may hit the Vatican Authority... And the next repukon candidate may require the sh*t-stirring of muslim-hatred so well orchestrated by the racoon-pope Benedict-VXI. This is not a good idea.

'ITALIANS SHIPPING RUSSIAN GUNS . OH MY GOD ! G.B. YOU BETTER ATTACK RUSSIA AND ITALY CAUSE THERE HELPING THE TERRORISTS IN IRAQ .
Posted by wolf563 at 09:20 AM : Aug 12, 2007'

[cantshutup]

wow...that's enough weaponry to ambush and slaughter our troops in iraq...so if they manage to slaughter all our troops then they can come into the American "borders" and kill all of us...fits right into bushes plan to destroy America. guess we ought to take our 2nd amendment right seriously enough to arm every citizen for the slaughter about to come...how can i get me an ak47? i'm waitin for a chance to kill me some muslims and mexicans!

[cantshutup]

you got some explaining to do mr.2stolen-elections president, you worthless piece of sh*t!

[prairiefox1]

HOW DOES A PRESIDENT EXPLAIN THIS WHEN HE HAS FULL CONTROL OF CONGRESS?
HE IGNORES IT!

[prairiefox1]

GRAZINGGOAT?
ARE YOU TALABAN OR ALQUADA?

[j-whitman]

How about that ?? Itialians, one of Bush's intelligence sources for war..... Guess who ran the operation that armed our enemy's in Iraq ??? General Petreaus,,

One of Petraeus's subordinates, Col. Theodore Westhusing, had taken leave from his position as a professor of ethics at West Point to serve a six-month tour as commander of the unit training counterterrorism and Special Operations Forces. By the spring of 2005, Westhusing had grown increasingly concerned about the corruption he thought he saw in the program. He was especially upset after receiving an anonymous letter on May 19, 2005, which claimed there was outright fraud by government contractors. Among the alleged problems: failure to account for almost 200 guns.

"I cannot support a [mission] that leads to corruption, human rights abuses and liars," he wrote in a note found near his body. "Death before being dishonored any more. Trust is essential%u2014I don't know who to trust anymore."
He killed himself with his own pistol...

[navyretired2]

"Posted by j-whitman at 02:16 PM : Aug 12, 2007"

Wouldn't have a link or two for that would ya?

[navyretired2]

Nevermind...I found some stuff. Thanks.

[j-whitman]

NavyRetired2,,,, Yep,,,, Newsweek says a lot on the subject of Iraq's Arms Bazaar

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20226447/site/newsweek/

[bobnjersey]

[As the secretive, $40 million deal neared completion ... a huge black-market transaction ... Iraqi and Italian partners haggled over shipping more than 100,000 Russian-made automatic weapons ... ]

haggling over shipping?

shipping should have been free ... how much ya gotta spend to get free shipping?

[stanleyrice]

The looming truth I see it is, by my count in all press articles, over 500,000 weapons have been given to or purchased for (100,000 attempted in this case) a total in Iraq of 161,000 men. If you know this, and I know this, are you naive enough to think the top U.S. officials are not aware of this? The U.S. accounting even admits to more than 100,000 missing rifles! So where are the guns going? And if the top officials are aware, they must also know where they are going. Looks to me like the Americans not only started this war for their own benefit, but also are prolonging it by arming insurgents ie:Shiite Malitia to ensure a Shiite victory in the civil war the U.S. started. Who did the U.S. put in as the "elected government in Iraq, but the Shiite. The war has served the interest of the Neocons for four long years and with the continued arming of the factions, they may be able to milk it for another five or six years. Open your eyes America and the truth is right there for your to see. So the plan unfolds and continues......you ain't seen nothin yet!

[wogerwabbit]

My advice would be to support gun control... arm yourselves and learn how to use your weapon effectively. We may need it to wrest control of our country from the neocon traitors. We know only a small fraction of what's going on in their evil minds. My motto is hope for the best and prepare for the worst, but I see little hope for the sheep against these wolves. I'm sure you've seen the reports of the military asking our troops if ordered, would they fire upon American citizens (if not google "fire upon American citizens" in quotation marks... will pull up the exact quote)... that should certainly give one pause to think what the hell is going on around here.

j-whitman wrote:

"One of Petraeus's subordinates, Col. Theodore Westhusing, had taken leave from his position as a professor of ethics at West Point to serve a six-month tour as commander of the unit training counterterrorism and Special Operations Forces. By the spring of 2005, Westhusing had grown increasingly concerned about the corruption he thought he saw in the program. He was especially upset after receiving an anonymous letter on May 19, 2005, which claimed there was outright fraud by government contractors. Among the alleged problems: failure to account for almost 200 guns.

"I cannot support a [mission] that leads to corruption, human rights abuses and liars," he wrote in a note found near his body. "Death before being dishonored any more. Trust is essential%u2014I don't know who to trust anymore."
He killed himself with his own pistol..."

From what I have read about Westhusing, he sounded like a man of honor.

Something that appears to be lacking in Petraeus.

prairiefox1 wrote:

"GRAZINGGOAT?
ARE YOU TALABAN OR ALQUADA?"

Are you a Republicanazi or a right wing extremist?

mokenman wrote:

"The looming truth I see it is, by my count in all press articles, over 500,000 weapons have been given to or purchased for (100,000 attempted in this case) a total in Iraq of 161,000 men. If you know this, and I know this, are you naive enough to think the top U.S. officials are not aware of this? The U.S. accounting even admits to more than 100,000 missing rifles!... Who did the U.S. put in as the "elected government in Iraq, but the Shiite. The war has served the interest of the Neocons for four long years and with the continued arming of the factions, they may be able to milk it for another five or six years. Open your eyes America and the truth is right there for your to see. So the plan unfolds and continues......you ain't seen nothin yet!"

Petraeus, responsible for the "surge", was once in charge of training the "new" Iraqi Army and Security Forces.

In an article for the Washington Post in 2004, he praised the new Iraqi Army and Security Forces for their "considerable progress".

This year he stated that we may be fighting the insurgents for 10 years.

So, where is the "considerable progress" made by Iraqi troops?

Why are still there?

Easy.

As long as the insurgency continues, we will continue to remain in Iraq, and we will continue to have control over Iraqi oil.

And what's a few thousand American soldiers deaths worth compared to the worth of Iraqi oil?

Nothing - when you're a Republican.

[cfin5]

So this is what, "vacation time" for the Iraqi officials?.......I want to thank the Italian police for a job well done.

[brianbwb-2009]

This is like the US DEA, they make a high profile bust of cocaine or heroin to show they're doing their jobs, but for every one unit of whatever they bust, ten units are allowed to pass through.

The corruption of the Italian police is well documented and almost legendary, bested by few states, such as Indonesia and Russia. After the rumors last week of the arms sales going through Italy, they had to make a token bust to show the press they were not total jerks. US arms dealers are in it also, buying and reselling Russian arms to cover the US influence.

The "missing" 100,000 US guns weren't stolen, they were deliberately sold, then claimed stolen. I challenge anyone to attempt to steal 100,000 guns from the US military, unless you're on the inside, it just is not possible.

[meboard]

Yet another shining example of "w" mismanagement in action...well done ms. president.

[hamiltongrad]

What does this all mean ? The ARAB MIND ....

We are all learning about the Arab mind. Even our "friends" whom we have place in high places, saved from torture, are they our "friends?" If so for how long ? And to what extent. As we have a Judeo Christian balance and expectation we are here dealing with a pre monotheistic culture, in many ways, leading to an awaking of their power, and at the same time, a death of wishful thinking in the West.
When did the UK make secret arms deals with the enemy during WWII ? Never.

[prinzowhales]

The last time the Washington Regime made a big show of trying to prove that Iran was supplying weapons to the insurgents, it turned out the weapons came from eastern Europe. Now we have another pot load of weapons from the same source...and eastern Europe's goofy leaders have been well-paid stalwart supporters of the Stupid Peoples' War...the backbone of the 'Coalition of the Swilling', former(?) commies who sup at the US taxpayer's trough and send a few dozen yuk-yuks with guns to pull light duty and try to stay out of harm's way or provide safe havens for the CIA's flying rendition circus.

[j-whitman]

Hamiltongrad,,, Please explane what you mean by " a Judeo Christian balance" ---- Christians persecuted Jews for 2,000 years... I remember the persecution continued in America up until the 1980's.

[j-whitman]

Hamiltongrad,,,, The man you call Jesus (Yeshua bar Yahosef bar Yaqub,, as he would wish to be called his God given name) said,,, "You can't know me if you arent' born Jewish"
, So I believe your " Judeo Christian balance" is a bit Helter Skelter..