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Lion of Babylon -> RE: I'm ashamed to call myself an Iraqi. These people are animals!! (8/15/2007 9:18:11 AM)
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Dudes, our Ministry of Interior is serving the Iraqi public with murder and profiteering. Put the lot of them against a wall and shoot um!!
Interior Ministry's Backdoor Arms Deal Busted
Italy Exposes Iraq's Secret Deal for 105,000 Russian-Made Weapons
In a development that should cloud further discussions over what country's government has been supplying weapons to Shiite militias, Italian anti-mafia investigators have busted up an arms deal negotiated through an intermediary for Iraq's interior ministry. Most intriguing, the US military apparently had no knowledge of the pending $40 million sale that would have supplied 105,000 Russian-made weapons to the ministry.
"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.
According to AP's reporting:
Investigators say the prospect of an Iraq deal was raised last November, when an Iraqi-owned trading firm e-mailed Massimo Bettinotti, 39, owner of the Malta-based MIR Ltd., about whether MIR could supply 100,000 AK-47 assault rifles and 10,000 machine guns "to the Iraqi Interior Ministry," adding that "this deal is approved by America and Iraq."
The go-between - the Al-Handal General Trading Co. in Dubai - apparently had communicated with Bettinotti earlier about buying night visors and had been told MIR could also procure weapons. Al-Handal has figured in questionable dealings before, having been identified by U.S. investigators three years ago as a "front company" in Iraq's Oil-for-Food scandal.
Al-Handal denied any impropriety in the Italian arms deal, as did an anonymous interior ministry official, who explained the unconventional back channel purchase by explaining that the government "doesn't ask the supplier how these weapons are obtained."
The official contended that "most" of the weapons were ordered for police in Anbar province, though the Pentagon records indicate it has already issued almost 170,000 AK-47s to the ministry for the 161,000-strong police force across the country.
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