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DoD Could Have Gotten Old Ammo For Free
One question left unanswered by the officials summoned to Capitol Hill yesterday to talk about arms dealer AEY was this: Why did U.S. taxpayers end up spending $300 million for Cold War-era ammunition rounds which it easily could have gotten it for free?
Eastern Europe is full of old Soviet-era ammunition. And many countries have been offering to give it away for years. Countries like Bosnia, Bulgaria and Hungary.
In fact, the Albanian Defense Minister himself offered to give the U.S. virtually the same ammo that AEY ended up providing under contract.
The House oversight committee report said:
The Committee has been informed that on December 23, 2007, the Albanian President and Defense Minister traveled to Iraq to meet with General David Petraeus, the commander of Multi-National Force-Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq. According to Major Larry Harrison, the Chief of the Office of Defense Cooperation, he personally accompanied the Albanian officials on this trip and attended the meeting. Major Harrison informed Committee staff that the Albanian officials offered to donate the country's surplus ammunition to Afghanistan and Iraq. According to Major Harrison, General Petraeus rejected this offer because Albania was known to possess large quantities of Chinese munitions, which cannot be received under United States law.
That's the same Albanian defense minister, Fatmir Mediu, who a few months later reportedly called a late night meeting with U.S. Ambassador John Withers in Tirana and talked about how to conceal the Chinese origins of an AEY shipment. The ammunition was purchased by AEY to supply the Afghan Army.
Mediu had made his offer of free ammo very publicly.
Incidentally, Mediu resigned from his post a few months ago after a massive explosion at a weapons depot in Albania killed 26 people. It was a major disaster for such a small country, and underscored Albania's massive weapons stockpiles. AFP reported:
The Socialist-led opposition accused the government of corruption in dealing with the disposal of obsolete weapons, and called on Prime Minister Berisha to resign.
Gee, now our hero General David Petraeus knows the DFAR’s. Maybe a contracting type can answer for sure, but from my reading, “acquisition” means per the FAR’s, along with a host of definitions, a requirement for funding and payment. If the Chinese ammo in Albania were gifted, it might avoid the prohibition against “buying Chinese ammunitions, of course then $300,000,000 couldn’t be wasted on a busted procurement.
June 25, 2008 4:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Had the ammo been of reasonable quality, a way might have been found around the Chinese problem-maybe. As I recall, the recipients complained that it was so old, corroded, and unstable, as to be virtually unusable. I suspect the explosion at the weapons depot may have been directly linked to the condition of this stored ammo. Petraeus is a soldier first and he'd know bad stuff when he saw it. Diveroli looks as he might have the same degree of expertise regarding that recreational white stuff that is prized in some circles.
June 25, 2008 4:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Remember that he said on his Myspace that he had ADD, so it may very well have been a legal prescription... used for recreational purposes.
June 25, 2008 8:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Diveroli looks as he might have the same degree of expertise regarding that recreational white stuff that is prized in some circles."
I'd stake my life on it.
Now, ITMFA.
June 25, 2008 5:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
The real question left hanging is how AEY got the contract in the first place. There must be a GOP connection - what is it? No reason for the American ambassador in Iirana to go out on a limb for a nobody; ambassadors don't do that.
June 25, 2008 10:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
OK. I suspected that the "Profit" margin was already extremely high. "Buying" ammunition that could be gotten for free makes it even more so. So where did the money go?
This was a scam to rip the government off, but it was orchestrated by someone inside the U.S. government. There is NO WAY the US Embassy in Albania could have coordinated giving the contract to a 22-year-old through the Pentagon, yet this happened. It is especially suspicious that Diveroli has been on the State Department Watch list since 2005.
This is spook-stuff, coordinated at a very high level in the U.S. government. Diveroli's arms-dealing family is a group already known to the spooks, so they were available for a percentage share. Diveroli himself is the family screwup/druggie. He's been offered a chance to redeem himself as the goat in this story. All he has to do is shut up and take his punishment while covering up for the real culprits (who he probably doesn't even know anyway - would you trust the family screwup/druggie with that kind of information?) After it's over he gets his reward. One percent of the $300 million would be more than enough to by his time and silence. Two days after he leaves federal prison he will be somewhere outside the U.S. If they're cheap, he'll be dead.
But for the core of the issue, where has the $300 million gone?
This has the earmarks of an Iran-Contra type spook operation. And yes, it is a GOP type operation. But where is the money? Funding MEK attacks on Iran? Seed money used to transport Afghani Heroin so as to fund larger operations (the kind of thing the CIA was infamous for in Southeast Asia and Central America?) Or something similar?
Where's the real money? That'll tell us who set this up or at least why. And how many other similar scams have not surfaced?
June 26, 2008 12:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think Albania should melt down those weapons and ammunition and use or sell the metals. Why would they leave large amounts of deadly weapons lying around, except for the almighty lek, their currency. A whole lotta lekë just hanging around, waiting to kill someone. I hope they wise up.
June 26, 2008 12:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
If you lived as close to Serbia as the Albanians do, you'd be quite careful before getting rid of extra weapons and ammunition.
June 26, 2008 10:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Couple of maybes re Ralph G. Merrill:
Merrill Arms Corporation was registered in Utah in 1973 and the reg lapsed in 1978. The only officer listed is Orrin G. Hatch, assistant secretary. Ralph Merrill is 65 so it is feasible that he could be the Merrill in Merrill Arms.
Merrill Aviation LLC of Bountiful Utah was registered in 1999 and the reg lapsed in 2003.
South Africa's big arms company, Denel, had a subsidiary named Vektor that manufacutured small arms and munitions. Vektor is often spellled Vector as in its Vector CR21 rifle, an AK-27 knockoff.
June 26, 2008 8:28 AM | Reply | Permalink