Saturday, March 2, 2013

Bribery Case Spotlights DoD’s Covert Effort To Obtain Foreign Weapons

Russian air-to-air missiles - an AA-11 Archer and an AA-8 Aphid - are displayed for then-Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force James A. Roy at the National Air and Space Intelligence Center in Ohio, home of the Foreign Material Exploitation Lab. (Air Force)

Buying un-American: Bribery Case Spotlights DoD’s Covert Effort To Obtain Foreign Weapons -- Defense News

In the high-end suburb of University Park, 15 minutes east of downtown Sarasota, Fla., there’s a three-bedroom, single-story home within walking distance of the local country club. Attached three-car garage. Screened-in porch. Assessed value: $618,772.

Not the sort of place you’d go to buy a Soviet anti-aircraft system with four automatic 23mm cannons. But records indicate that a ZSU-23, a Russian-built air-defense system deployed by dozens of countries from Armenia to Zimbabwe, was indeed brokered for sale by a company registered at the home. The company is a small defense contracting firm named Atlas International Trading.

The customer in the transaction? That might come as the biggest surprise of all. It was the U.S. government.

Read more ....

My Comment: And Victor Bout is in jail !?!?!?!

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