Posted on 01/16/2007 3:44:23 AM PST by sure_fine
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military has sold forbidden equipment at least a half-dozen times to middlemen for countries — including Iran and China — who exploited security flaws in the Defense Department's surplus auctions. The sales include fighter jet parts and missile components. In one case, federal investigators said, the contraband made it to Iran, a country President George W. Bush branded part of an "axis of evil." In that instance, a Pakistani arms broker convicted of exporting U.S. missile parts to Iran resumed business after his release from prison. He purchased Chinook helicopter engine parts for Iran from a U.S. company that had bought them in a Pentagon surplus sale. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, speaking on condition of anonymity, say those parts made it to Iran. The surplus sales can operate like a supermarket for arms dealers. "Right Item, Right Time, Right Place, Right Price, Every Time. Best Value Solutions for America's Warfighters," the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service says on its Web site, calling itself "the place to obtain original U.S. Government surplus property."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
We just need to get out of the surplus business for military supplies, period. These arms dealers have the system by the balls and know how to exploit loopholes.
Well, arms dealers, western or otherwise, are not known for their ethics...this is hardly a surprise.
Related
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1768308/posts
Iran Gets Army Gear in Pentagon Sale
We may as well just cut out the middle man.
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