red states rule
08-13-2007, 04:28 AM
Italy halts Iraq-bound weapons
By Charles J. Hanley
August 13, 2007
PERUGIA, Italy (AP) — A chance discovery at Rome's busy Fiumicino Airport led anti-Mafia investigators to a huge black-market transaction in which Iraqi and Italian partners haggled over shipping more than 100,000 Russian-made automatic weapons into Iraq.
As the secretive, $40 million deal neared completion, Italian authorities moved in, making arrests and breaking it up. But key questions remain unanswered.
For one thing, the Associated Press has learned that Iraqi government officials were involved in the deal, apparently without the knowledge of the U.S. Baghdad command — a departure from the usual pattern of U.S.-overseen arms purchases.
Why these officials resorted to "black" channels and where the weapons were headed is not clear.
Iraqi middlemen in the Italian deal, in intercepted e-mails, said the arrangement had official U.S. approval. A U.S. spokesman in Baghdad denied that.
"Iraqi officials did not make [the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq] aware that they were making purchases," said Lt. Col. Daniel Williams of the transition command, which oversees arming and training of the Iraqi police and army.
Operation Parabellum, the investigation led by Dario Razzi, anti-Mafia prosecutor in this central Italian city, began in 2005 as a routine investigation into drug trafficking.
Court documents obtained by AP show that Mr. Razzi's break came early last year when police monitoring one of the drug suspects covertly opened his luggage as he left on a flight to Libya. Instead of the expected drugs, they found helmets, bulletproof vests and the weapons catalog.
http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070813/FOREIGN/108130055/1001
By Charles J. Hanley
August 13, 2007
PERUGIA, Italy (AP) — A chance discovery at Rome's busy Fiumicino Airport led anti-Mafia investigators to a huge black-market transaction in which Iraqi and Italian partners haggled over shipping more than 100,000 Russian-made automatic weapons into Iraq.
As the secretive, $40 million deal neared completion, Italian authorities moved in, making arrests and breaking it up. But key questions remain unanswered.
For one thing, the Associated Press has learned that Iraqi government officials were involved in the deal, apparently without the knowledge of the U.S. Baghdad command — a departure from the usual pattern of U.S.-overseen arms purchases.
Why these officials resorted to "black" channels and where the weapons were headed is not clear.
Iraqi middlemen in the Italian deal, in intercepted e-mails, said the arrangement had official U.S. approval. A U.S. spokesman in Baghdad denied that.
"Iraqi officials did not make [the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq] aware that they were making purchases," said Lt. Col. Daniel Williams of the transition command, which oversees arming and training of the Iraqi police and army.
Operation Parabellum, the investigation led by Dario Razzi, anti-Mafia prosecutor in this central Italian city, began in 2005 as a routine investigation into drug trafficking.
Court documents obtained by AP show that Mr. Razzi's break came early last year when police monitoring one of the drug suspects covertly opened his luggage as he left on a flight to Libya. Instead of the expected drugs, they found helmets, bulletproof vests and the weapons catalog.
http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070813/FOREIGN/108130055/1001