Power structures of the world's leading democracies are involved in dirty deals in the arms market
In the spring of 2008, a number of publications appeared in the authoritative American newspaper The New York Times, which led to a very unsightly corruption scandal related to the supply of arms and ammunition to Afghanistan. The fact that these publications became public, apparently indicates that the people and companies involved in the scandal acted so brazenly and cynically that no one considered it possible to cover them up. However, this scandal is just the tip of the iceberg called the arms market, which in the last two decades has become one of the most corrupt spheres of foreign trade.
In the summer of 2008, The New York Times published an article about the results of an investigation into the US Ambassador to Albania, John Withers, who was accused of covering up a deal for the illegal supply of ammunition to Afghanistan.
OPERATION ALBANETS
A reporter from The New York Times had information that a contractor purchasing ammunition in Albania was playing a foul game and asked for permission to inspect the warehouses where the cartridges prepared for shipment to Kabul were stored. He was not denied this, but the Minister of Defense of Albania Fatmir Mediu, with the consent of John Withers, ordered to remove the markings from the packages indicating that the cartridges were made in China. According to the testimony of the military attaché at the US diplomatic mission in Tirana, the US ambassador personally met with Fatmir Mediu several hours before the journalist's visit. During the meeting, the head of the Albanian military department asked John Withers for assistance, fearing accusations of taking bribes in the conclusion of arms deals. At the same time, he naturally said that he was acting exclusively in the interests of the United States as a close ally and was counting on reciprocal steps from the American side. In the end, the cartridges were repackaged and sent to Kabul. Without a doubt, both Fatmir Mediu and John Withers warmed their hands quite well in deliveries to Afghanistan. And the reason for the concern of the US ambassador and the Albanian defense minister is that US law prohibits the sale of any military materials manufactured in the PRC.
AEY Inc., registered in Miami, was engaged in the supply of Chinese cartridges stored in Albanian military warehouses since the reign of Enver Hoxha (here it is worth recalling that for a number of reasons, all relations between Albania and the PRC were interrupted in 1978). This "office", headed by 22-year-old Efraim Diveroli, won a tender in January 2007 and was awarded the right to execute a federal contract worth about $ 300 million to supply ammunition and weapons to the Afghan national army and police. AEY Inc. acquired ammunition and assault rifles from warehouses of Eastern European states, in particular, in the already mentioned Albania, the Czech Republic and Hungary, and also worked with an offshore company, which the FBI suspects of illegal arms trade.
However, the fact that the official counterparty of the US Army is playing a dishonest game and directly violating US law turned out to be only part of the problem. By far the worst surprise for the US military was the fact that ammunition with markings similar to that of AEY Inc.supplied the Afghan army and police, as well as AMD-65 assault rifles (a Hungarian variation on the AKMS theme), also purchased for the Kabul regime by the Diveroli company, began to be found on the killed Taliban. It should be noted that as long as AEY Inc. did not take up the supply of the Afghan security forces, Hungarian clones of the Kalashnikov assault rifle were almost never found in Afghanistan, but now they can be found on sale even at the arms bazaars of Pakistan.
According to the assurances of American officials, the main source of replenishment of the arsenals of the Taliban movement with the same ammunition and machine guns that were supplied to the Afghan army and police, are precisely these power structures. Afghans who find a job in the armed formations of the Kabul regime of Hamid Karzai share arms and ammunition with the Afghans fighting against this very government for both commercial and ideological reasons, in other words, they sympathize with the mujahideen. No wonder. Our soldiers and officers have been well aware of the fact that local Sarboz and Tsarandoevites are extremely unreliable allies since the Soviet-Afghan war.
However, it may well be that an enterprising young man from Miami, as it seems, not burdened with special moral principles, successfully worked on two fronts, that is, supplied weapons and ammunition not only to the official Kabul, but also to the Taliban. Anyway, back in 2006, the US State Department introduced AEY Inc. to the list of unreliable companies, possibly engaged in the illegal supply of weapons. However, this did not stop the US Army less than a year later from concluding a number of contracts with Ephraim Diveroli to supply the Afghan national security forces. The shortsightedness is more than strange. And the matter here obviously did not go without a solid "kickback" to the officials who authorized the conclusion of a contract with AEY Inc. John Withers, by the way, continues to serve as the head of the US diplomatic mission in Albania.
VICTOR BOOTH AND UNCLE SAM
Ephraim Diveroli "rose" in the wake of the "privatization" of campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan launched by Bush Jr. in 2003. Then an increasing role in the main US hot spots began to be played by private companies working in the field of security (in other words, private armies), as well as civilian contractors, who happily sucked on the nourishing budget feeders and were ready to supply anything they wanted to anyone, just the pay would be decent. Their turnover grew rapidly, but Uncle Sam's contractors were hardly able to achieve the level of profitability with which the "discoverers" of the vast army warehouses in Eastern Europe, Ukraine and Russia, unexpectedly became easily accessible after the collapse of the USSR, worked. We are talking about the first wave of "arms barons", such people as Booth, Minin (before the change of surname before going abroad - Bluvshtein), Dudarev-Andersen, Gaidamak, Garber, Rabinovich, Mogilevich and Orlov.
At first, the main point of application of the efforts of businessmen of the new wave was always at war in Africa. However, then they began deliveries to Afghanistan. It was according to this scheme that Viktor Bout's activities developed.
He began his work in Africa as an air carrier. Initially, he chartered planes from various Russian airlines or organizations that have their own aircraft (it was reported, for example, that in the early 90s, an An-12, leased by Bout from the Zlatoust Machine-Building Plant, crashed in Africa). In 1996, Viktor Bout established his own airline Air Cess, which changed its registration place more than once and acquired subsidiaries. UN observers accuse Bout of supplying arms to anti-government groups in Angola, Sierra Leone and the Charles Taylor regime in Liberia. The turnover of illegal arms supplies was very high. It is known, in particular, that only from Bulgaria and only the Angolan anti-government group UNITA Viktor Bout supplied military materials for $ 15 million.
It must be said that Viktor Bout denies any involvement in the black arms market, but the United States has dug up extensive dirt on him and accused him of inciting a civil war in the Congo. America's efforts to counter Bout's activities are known to have been crowned with success - in March 2008, he was arrested in Bangkok on a US warrant. However, it is not yet clear how the prosecution of this person will end.
In parallel with the African one, the Afghan vector was also unfolding. Initially, Viktor Bout supplied weapons to the Northern Alliance, but then supplies to the Taliban began. For the time being, this was of little interest to the United States, but after the events of September 11, the situation changed. In 2002, the United States put Victor Bout on the international wanted list. However, this did not have much impact on his activities. He continued to work and did not particularly hide from anyone. Moreover, after 2002, the airlines created by Viktor Bout took an active part in supplying the US Iraqi group. In particular, the media reported that Bout's planes flew to Iraq under contracts with KBR, a logistics firm for the US Army. KBR is a subsidiary of the notorious Halliburton holding, which from 1995 to 2000. directed by Dick Cheney.
The explanation for this "phenomenon", as in the case of Efraim Diveroli's contracts, suggests itself: with the "correct" distribution of financial flows, both government agencies and private corporations do not care at all about the declared unreliability of this or that contractor. Comparison of different layers of information can lead to more interesting conclusions. In particular, with an impartial look, it seems quite likely that Booth did not work at his own peril and risk, but under the clear leadership of the American special services. However, such an assumption does not at all negate the corruption component of his activities.
HAYDAMAK AND THE FIFTH REPUBLIC
Torn apart by bloody tribal conflicts, Africa has been, and indeed remains such a large market that there is enough space for other dealers in the shadow arms market. Apart from Viktor But, one of the biggest players here for a long time was Arkady Gaydamak. And if Bout's connection with US government agencies has not been proven, although it is very likely, then in the case of this immigrant from the former USSR, everything is much more certain.
Unlike his colleagues, Gaydamak found himself abroad back in 1972 - then he left the USSR for Israel. Later he moved to France, where he founded a technical translation company. In the late 1980s, he started trading with the USSR, then ended up in Angola, where he initially supplied oil equipment. However, the president of this country, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, also needed weapons, because the civil war continued in Angola. As a result, Gaidamak became an intermediary between dos Santos and French businessman Pierre-Joseph Falcone, whose Slovakian-registered firms ZTZ and Brenco International arranged the supply of weapons, ammunition and military equipment to Africa from the countries of the former Warsaw Pact. However, the activities of Gaydamak and Falcone in supplying Angola with military materials, as usual, were not just the initiative of resourceful businessmen. They worked under the auspices of the official Paris, interested in access to Angolan oil. After all, poor, belligerent Angola had nothing to pay for weapons, except for its own natural resources.
The situation was complicated by the fact that France could not officially supply arms to the government of dos Santos, since the UN imposed an embargo on the supply of this country with military materials. However, the Elysee Palace apparently turned a blind eye to the work of Gaidamak and Falcone. The activities of the merchants were covered by Jean-Christophe Mitterrand (the eldest son of François Mitterrand), in 1986-1992.who worked in the government of his father as an adviser on African affairs, Carl Pasqua, who served as minister of the interior in the same government, and other officials.
In 2000, a criminal case was opened against Arkady Gaidamak and his partners in France. According to the materials of the investigation, in 1993-2000. Gaidamak and Falcone delivered 420 tanks, 12 helicopters, six warships, 170,000 antipersonnel mines, 150,000 grenades and a huge amount of ammunition to Angola. The total proceeds from these transactions amounted to about $ 791 million, of which about $ 185 million was received by Gaydamak himself. The "salary" of Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, according to the investigation, amounted to $ 1.8 million.
Without waiting for the development of the trial (which, however, has not yet been completed), Arkady Gaydamak left Paris for Israel in December 2000. Naturally, his extradition to France did not take place. True, in early October 2009 in Israel, Gaydamak was charged with money laundering, but he was charged in absentia. Arkady Aleksandrovich is in Moscow, and, as reported by the Israeli media, in February of the same year he asked to be granted Russian citizenship.
ROYAL ROLLBACK
The "pranks" of Diveroli, Bout, Gaydamak in Africa and Central Asia, however, cannot be compared with the corruption scandal that erupted in Great Britain in 2007. Then the media spread the sensational news that BAE Systems is one of the largest in the world of companies working in the field of arms production, over 22 years paid more than $ 2 billion in bribes to Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the head of Saudi Arabia's national security service. The corruption schemes involved people from the cabinet of ministers Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Tony Blair.
The case was investigated by the UK Government's Major Financial Fraud Investigation Department (SFO). However, the efforts of his staff were in vain: in December 2006, the UK Attorney General Lord Goldsmith ordered the investigation to be closed as it posed a threat to the country's national security.
The materials of the investigation, which nevertheless managed to become public, shed light on an extensive network of shell firms and offshore companies, with the help of which corrupt statesmen received kickbacks due to them.
And this story began in 1985, when the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, worried about the ongoing Iran-Iraqi war, decided to strengthen its own air force. Initially, the Saudis approached the Reagan administration with a request to purchase F-15 fighters. However, in the United States, this deal was blocked. Then Prince Bandar bin Sultanu, who at that time was the ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United States, went to London, where he managed to quickly negotiate a contract for the purchase of 48 Tornado fighters and 30 Hawk Mk.1 combat trainers. It was not difficult to achieve this agreement, since the British themselves offered these machines to Saudi Arabia. Deliveries under a contract called "Al-Yamama" began in March 1986, then new agreements were concluded, as a result, until 1998, the Kingdom's Air Force received 96 Tornado in the version of a multifunctional fighter and another 24 such machines in the version of an air defense interceptor.
It should be noted that only part of this deal was paid by the Saudis with "real" money. Basically, payments for fighters were carried out on a barter basis - in exchange for aircraft, Riyadh supplied the UK with oil, which was sold at market prices. According to experts, the total catalog value of aircraft and services for its maintenance for the kingdom was about $ 80 billion, while the British sold oil for about $ 130 billion. For Saudi Arabia, the cost of those oil supplies that they paid for British aircraft amounted to about $ 25 billion. dollars. Such super profits have never dreamed of any of the private players in the arms market! Experts who have examined in detail the details of this case, believe that the money received from the Al-Yamama contract was used to secretly finance many of the most important secret military and special operations of the past three decades. In particular, it is believed that this money was used to finance the mujahideen during the Soviet-Afghan war. It also cannot be ruled out that part of the Saudi kickbacks for Al-Yamama was "mastered" in preparation for the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. However, these are already such subtle matters that it is virtually pointless for a mere mortal to understand them.
THE INVISIBLE HAND OF THE MARKET
One thing is certain. On the example of the situation on the black market for weapons (although it makes sense to divide it into “black” and “white” - corruption permeates it through and through), the policy of double standards and double morality of the Atlantic civilization is most clearly reflected. Enthusiastically placing other states in the world ranking of corruption, the United States and Europe easily declare billions of dollars in state secrets.
The media more than once reported that the already mentioned Halliburton company and its subsidiaries (recall once again that Dick Cheney, who headed Halliburton, was the US Secretary of Defense under Bush Sr. and Vice President under Bush Jr.) during the second Iraqi campaign "Heated" the Pentagon for hundreds of millions of dollars. But this is just such a successful business - in the United States, as we all know perfectly well, there is no corruption. After all, the average American can't think of bribing a police officer, can he?
