A Trail of Bullet Casings Leads From Africa’s Wars to Iran

New York Times ^ | January 11, 2013 | By C. J. CHIVERS

[Brad from Tennessee]

The first clues appeared in Kenya, Uganda and what is now South Sudan. A British arms researcher surveying ammunition used by government forces and civilian militias in 2006 found Kalashnikov rifle cartridges he had not seen before. The ammunition bore no factory code, suggesting that its manufacturer hoped to avoid detection.

Within two years other researchers were finding identical cartridges circulating through the ethnic violence in Darfur. Similar ammunition then turned up in 2009 in a stadium in Conakry, Guinea, where soldiers had fired on antigovernment protesters, killing more than 150.

For six years, a group of independent arms-trafficking researchers worked to pin down the source of the mystery cartridges. Exchanging information from four continents, they concluded that someone had been quietly funneling rifle and machine-gun ammunition into regions of protracted conflict, and had managed to elude exposure for years. Their only goal was to solve the mystery, not implicate any specific nation. . .

[GOPJ]

This can’t be a surprise, right?

[WellyP]

Are they being shipped directly to Africa from Iran or through Venezuela?

[alancarp]

How’s the NYT doing in tracking down those pesky American weapons in Mexico?

[Disambiguator]

Bullet casings?

[riverrunner]

If they are not going to implicate a nation or manufacture.

Why does matter where they came from(or they didn't come from the USA so It doesn't matter)

[Boogieman]

I think they meant that they didn’t set out to identify a specific nation, but that they ended up doing just that.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Back in the early 1970s it was reported that the US government was making 7.62X39 unmarked ammo for someone.

The report claimed that it was still tracable to the US because they were loaded with Boxer primers when most of the world used Berden primers.

[Brad from Tennessee]

[Back in the early 1970s it was reported that the US government was making 7.62X39 unmarked ammo for someone.]

That was a period of global upheaval. Aside from the Cold War the U.S., the Soviets and the Chinese fought proxy wars with each other for control of the Third World. For plausible deniability the U.S. might disguise its support for an insurgency or counterinsurgency by supplying Eastern Bloc arms to its clients. This wouldn't fool anybody for long except for the news media. After Sadat broke away from the Soviets and allied with the U.S. Egypt delivered various Russian small arms to the U.S. These found there way to the mujaheddin fighting the Russians in Afghanistan. After Sadat's assassination there was a theory that the KGB plotted his death in retaliation.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Brad from Tennessee. In before the jihad deniers (I hope).

[SunkenCiv]

• Obama: "I want to make sure we end before the call to prayer"
• Are We Facing an Iranian Missile Crisis? The Dereliction of our Media
• 'Die Welt': Iran building rocket bases in Venezuela
• REPEAT OF 1962? (Missile Threat from Venezuela)
• Iran Moving Ahead on Venezuelan Missile Bases that Bring Miami Well Within Range
• 'Die Welt': Iran building rocket bases in Venezuela

• Report: Israeli Spy Satellites Spot Iranian Ship Being Loaded With Rockets For Gaza
• Iran Deploys Troops, Ballistic Missiles To Eritrea [2008]
• Israelis warn of Eritrea flashpoint [2009]
• Secret aid for al-Qa'ida in Somalia [2007]
• Eritrea warns of "consequences" for U.S. in Somalia [2007]
• U.N. says Somalia arms embargo violated
  (Hezbollah's dirty hands in Somalia and Iran's Mahdi army ) [2006]

[SunkenCiv]

Mali: France pointed against al-Qaeda

[SunkenCiv]

A map of the Sahel region showing where Al Qaeda operates (AFP/Graphic)