WASHINGTON — The State Department is preparing to slap a multi-million dollar fine on private military contractor Blackwater USA for shipping hundreds of automatic weapons to Iraq without the necessary permits. Some of the weapons are believed to have ended up on the country’s black market, department officials told McClatchy, but no criminal charges have been filed in the case. The expected fine is the result of a long-running federal investigation into whether employees of the firm shipped weapons hidden in shrink-wrapped pallets from its Moyock, N.C. headquarters to Iraq, where Blackwater is the State Department’s largest personal security contractor.
Since the arms shipment allegations first became public 14 months ago, Blackwater, which has received $1.2 billion in federal contracts, according to the Web site fedspending.org, has consistently denied involvement in illicit arms trafficking. However, the State Department found that Blackwater shipped 900 weapons to Iraq without the paperwork required by arms export control regulations, one department official said. Of that number, 119 were “particularly … erroneous,” he said. He and the other officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the decision hasn’t been announced. Federal laws require obtaining a license before exporting military hardware, including automatic weapons, overseas. Iraq has a brisk black market for weapons. Pentagon probes have found that Defense Department-supplied weapons intended for Iraq’s security forces were diverted. The Turkish government has complained that some ended up in the hands of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which Washington and Ankara consider a terrorist group.
What became of the weapons may never be known.
Arming our enemies remains a long-standing tradition for the US, Blackwater is just taking advantage of that tradition. So whats the problem?
“Arming our enemies remains a long-standing tradition for the US, Blackwater is just taking advantage of that tradition. So whats the problem? ”
The gov’t got cheated of its “filing fees”. That’s all.
BlackWater – Bush State Dept – NO “HONOR” AMONGST CROOKS !!! Dumbya Bush and Prick Cheney CONTINUE TO GIVE AMERICA THE FINGER !!!
Well when you make a billion dollars or more on chaos, war, etc. You certainly dont want the party to end. Probably doesnt hurt to keep the “opposition” armed so they can still keep shooting.
Ive always told friends etc that this whole thing is the biggest con there is. That this is all a intentionally self perpetuating conflict. None of the business interests involved want this to end, so I have no doubt that there is a whole lot of “enabling” going on behind the scenes.
The Iraqi government could send them packing with a memo.
4..
NOPE, they cant.
WE WANT SOMETHING, and WE WONT LEAVE..
Even while we are being shot at, by MOREthen 1 side/group/Faction…WE WONT LEAVE.
Israel was getting PISSY to the USA..
So, we jumped in and TOOK 2 more countries..
We can run them like the OLD SOUTH..NO RIGHTS to ANYONE.
Its the OLD cold war ideas, COMING to fruition..
We have wanted a HARD presence in the Middle east for DECADES..NOW we have it and WE AINT GIVING IT BACK..
This is just an extension of the Reagan doctrine of secretly selling weapons to Iran.
Of course, if a Democrat had been caught doing so, they would be branded a terrorist enemy of the state for all eternity. Reagan, on the other hand, is a hero!
# 6 Wretched Gnu said, “Of course, if a Democrat had been caught doing so, they would be branded a terrorist enemy of the state for all eternity.”
True. Instead of doing this he should have carpet bombed Iran’s major population centers until they released the hostages…
Cool!
In a country with hundreds of thousands of weapons from the pre-war period still un-accounted for, 900 is not enough to get worked up about. There are bigger reasons to go after Blackwater, but this is not it. Looks more like a “slap on the wrist”, and a diversion to keep the anti-war/anti-bush nutjobs occupied.
Paddy-O: Well, I assume you’re under the age of 15 or so, because Reagan’s Iran-Contra deal was an entirely different event than the hostage crisis…
Full auto or selective fire weapons require large amounts of paperwork at the manufacturers level, Blackwater would have had to conform to these just to acquire the firearms.
What it sounds like is that the export paperwork was found to be incorrectly filed.
If blackwaters paperwork was in error then why did it take “900” of these infractions for the government to take notice?
It should have only taken “one” if it wasn’t just a paperwork snafu, reinterpretation of the process.
Also remember that WE PAID for it, and it WASNT WHOLE SALE…
With all the AK-47s we took why do they need to ship in guns? We must have captured hundreds of thousands of the things.
“The gov’t got cheated of its “filing fees”. That’s all.”
Nope, now the gov´t cashes in. You could call that money laundrying (since nobody’s going to jail for transporting and selling those weapons).
Easy to fix. Tell blackwater to leave the USA. Shut down its terrorist training camp in North Carolina and tell its folks to go somewhere they are wanted, like Zimbabwe.
where could i find the the full article
i am doing a historical investigation about illegal arms