Posted on 11/11/2007 1:45:32 PM PST by Dubya
This article was reported by Eric Schmitt, Ginger Thompson, Margot Williams and James Glanz, and was written by Mr. Schmitt and Ms. Thompson.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 — As the insurgency in Iraq escalated in the spring of 2004, American officials entrusted an Iraqi businessman with issuing weapons to Iraqi police cadets training to help quell the violence.
By all accounts, the businessman, Kassim al-Saffar, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war, did well at distributing the Pentagon-supplied weapons from the Baghdad Police Academy armory he managed for a military contractor. But, co-workers say, he also turned the armory into his own private arms bazaar with the seeming approval of some American officials and executives, selling AK-47 assault rifles, Glock pistols and heavy machine guns to anyone with cash in hand — Iraqi militias, South African security guards and even American contractors.
“This was the craziest thing in the world,” said John Tisdale, a retired Air Force master sergeant who managed an adjacent warehouse. “They were taking weapons away by the truckload.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I have an idea. Let’s send four high-paid reporters around with nothing to do but dig up dirt on Pinch Sulzberger. I’ll bet they could come up with a few scandalous tales.
Not that “crazy”. Crates of misplaced and misrouted weapons from WW2 are still popping up with some regularity. More to do with govt bungling than corruption, but the MSM would never blame a big, stupid, govt.
I heard a story recently about a guy who purchased some land on an abandonded air force base, including a couple of hangers he intended to use for storage barns. Inspecting the hangers, he found several crates of brand-new rifles, pistols, and carbines, probably originally intended for the base security troops. Being more honest than I would probably be faced with that temptation, he turned them over to the feds.
A few years ago a Kansas farmer bought a hanger on an abandoned Army air field. It was kinda sorta locked, and distant from towns, and chock full of “junk”. Upon getting into it and cleaning the junk out for a couple days, they discovered a fully functioning 20mm anti aircraft gun mounted on a 4 wheel trailer, along with multiple cases of good ammo. They towed it down to a nearby NG Armory and surrendered it to the shock of the Sergeant that ran the joint.
This story smells. I recall the duster had a 40 mm set.
Of course this was dealine news in the TV dominant media.
While surfing i landed on NBC and surprise, THEIR Iraq
story began with a roadside bomb and then the gun runner
story.
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