Supplier Under Scrutiny on Aging Arms for Afghans

[nhboy]

" Since 2006, when the insurgency in Afghanistan sharply intensified, the Afghan government has been dependent on American logistics and military support in the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

But to arm the Afghan forces that it hopes will lead this fight, the American military has relied since early last year on a fledgling company led by a 22-year-old man whose vice president was a licensed masseur.

With the award last January of a federal contract worth as much as nearly $300 million, the company, AEY Inc., which operates out of an unmarked office in Miami Beach, became the main supplier of munitions to Afghanistan’s army and police forces.

Since then, the company has provided ammunition that is more than 40 years old and in decomposing packaging, according to an examination of the munitions by The New York Times and interviews with American and Afghan officials. Much of the ammunition comes from the aging stockpiles of the old Communist bloc, including stockpiles that the State Department and NATO have determined to be unreliable and obsolete, and have spent millions of dollars to have destroyed.

In purchasing munitions, the contractor has also worked with middlemen and a shell company on a federal list of entities suspected of illegal arms trafficking."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/world/asia/27ammo.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

 

[RadioPatrol]

I saw a lot of usable cartridges in that BOX ..........

 

[Mateo]

I saw a lot of usable cartridges in that BOX ..........

Seems a good number of trusting Americans have forgotten the unaccounted Stingers that were never returned following the Soviet Exit from Afghanistan...wonder how many of these were copied and being used against us now.
Not to mention considerable weapons stocks abandoned in Nam or sold to the Shah and now in use by present and future foes.
The mind boggles....

 

[RadioPatrol]

Not to mention considerable weapons stocks abandoned in Nam or sold to the Shah and now in use by present and future foes.
The mind boggles....

F 14 Tomcats have been grounded for years because the Iranians cannot get parts .... a

 

[Mateo]

F 14 Tomcats have been grounded for years because the Iranians cannot get parts .... a

That is what we hear, but do you remember the underground storehouses that were said to be virtually impossible to get into, where hoards of spare parts, etc were housed ?
Apparently, the computer codes were compromised and hence , the cornucopia opened'.
Granted that some if not most of the equipment is obsolete, it is still viable and the Persians are if anything ,inventive and able to improve on what they have.
Don't also forget that the right amount of gold and silver will open doors even to the most restrictive of corporations and individuals.

 

[huntr1]

" Since 2006, when the insurgency in Afghanistan sharply intensified, the Afghan government has been dependent on American logistics and military support in the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

But to arm the Afghan forces that it hopes will lead this fight, the American military has relied since early last year on a fledgling company led by a 22-year-old man whose vice president was a licensed masseur.

With the award last January of a federal contract worth as much as nearly $300 million, the company, AEY Inc., which operates out of an unmarked office in Miami Beach, became the main supplier of munitions to Afghanistan’s army and police forces.

Since then, the company has provided ammunition that is more than 40 years old and in decomposing packaging, according to an examination of the munitions by The New York Times and interviews with American and Afghan officials. Much of the ammunition comes from the aging stockpiles of the old Communist bloc, including stockpiles that the State Department and NATO have determined to be unreliable and obsolete, and have spent millions of dollars to have destroyed.

In purchasing munitions, the contractor has also worked with middlemen and a shell company on a federal list of entities suspected of illegal arms trafficking."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/world/asia/27ammo.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Makes sense to me that they'd be given comblock weapons and munitions since that is what they are familiar with. The choice of contractors does not, but when you are buying 40 year old supplies, you can way underbid contractors supplying new munitions, so that could have something to do with it. If the contract did not specify a maximum age for munitions, then the problem is with the contract, not the contractor.

 

[nhboy]

Another article.....

Arms dealer's dad wanted 'nice' doctor son

"What he got instead is a 22-year-old international arms dealer who faces a congressional inquiry for allegedly selling old Chinese ammunition to the U.S. military to equip allies in Afghanistan.

Diveroli is president of AEY Inc., a South Florida company which, according to U.S. government documents, has done more than $10 million of business with the U.S. government since 2004.

The papers also reveal the company struck it big in 2007 with contracts totaling more than $200 million to supply ammunition, assault rifles and other weapons to the Afghan National Army and police. The company's contract said it would get the ammunition from Hungary.

But Army investigators found what the Afghan military got included corroded ammunition made in China as long as 46 years ago."

Arms dealer's dad wanted 'nice' doctor son - CNN.com