Germans Using Danes to Ship US Missiles to China On British Vessel Crewed By Ukrainians Caught By Fi

Human Events ^ | 12/22/2011 | John Hayward

[neverdem]

Germans Using Danes to Ship US Missiles to China On British Vessel Crewed By Ukrainians Caught By Finns

It's quite unusual.

A cargo ship called the MS Thor Liberty, owned by a shipping company based in Denmark, was docked at the Finnish port of Kotka when alert dock workers noticed some funny-looking containers marked “fireworks.”  This naturally made the hackles rise on the Finns, because the Thor Liberty was bound for China, and everybody knows the Chinese invented fireworks.  Why would they be importing them?

Finnish authorities opened up those fireworks crates, and found them to contain 69 American-made Patriot anti-missile missiles, which are not terribly useful during fireworks displays, unless you get your kicks by shooting down your neighbor’s fireworks on the Fourth of July.  They would, however, be of some interest to the Chinese military.  Many of China's R&D (Ripoff & Duplicate) engineers probably had Patriot missiles written on their Christmas lists, which they promptly swallowed, to avoid being persecuted for unacceptable quasi-religious activities.

The shipping company, Thorco, says it has no idea how those missiles got aboard the Thor Liberty, to say nothing of the 160 tons of improperly packed nitroguanidine, which the BBC helpfully explains is “a low-sensitivity explosive with a high detonation speed.”  Fortunately, China is right next to Finland, so there wouldn’t be much risk of that stuff blowing up while the ship wallowed through rough seas.

Finnish authorities pronounced the whole situation “quite unusual,” which I think is equivalent to DEFCON 3 in that marvelously understated land.  To add to the international confusion, the Thor Liberty sailed out of Germany under a British flag and has a Ukrainian crew, which ended up spending a good deal of time answering questions from stern officials with lots of vowels in their names.

German news source The Local quotes an Oldenburg customs official saying, “I can’t speak for Finnish customs, but as far as Germany is concerned, the shipment was legal,” despite the ship’s apparent lack of a license to carry weapons.  There are theories this was all a silly paperwork snafu, and the Patriots should have been destined for South Korea, which often buys such missiles, and also enjoys receiving shipments of improperly packed explosives.  Lucky thing the Finns caught these MacMissiles before the situation got even stranger.

 

---

John Hayward is a staff writer for HUMAN EVENTS, and author of the recently published Doctor Zero: Year One. Follow him on Twitter: Doc_0. Contact him by email at jhayward@eaglepub.com.

[Right Wing Assault]

Return address:
Dick Obama
Washington, D.C.

Note enclosed:
Merry Christmas, China! Since Iran is so happy with the drone I sent them, I thought you would enjoy these ‘fireworks.’ Sending them through Germany so no one will know they are from me! Have fun!
Your buddy,
Dick Obama

[Las Vegas Ron]

The poster didn’t change anything, it’s in the story and the title at Huaman Events

[wolfcreek]

“unless you get your kicks by shooting down your neighbor’s fireworks on the Fourth of July.”

That would be SOOO cool!

[Carry_Okie]

That's not catch...

It's hot potato!

[Elsie]

To add to the international confusion, the Thor Liberty sailed out of Germany under a British flag and has a Ukrainian crew, which ended up spending a good deal of time answering questions from stern officials with lots of vowels in their names.

And what the bow officials proceded to do is now the subject of a United Nation inquiry.

[X-spurt]

Right you are. My apologies to neverdem.

Maybe should be, but am not familiar with Human Events of whom their John Hayward seems a bit wayward with the “loosely editorializing with fiction rather than facts”.

[rdcbn]

Yesterday it was said that they were being shipped to South Korea?!

---

They were supposed to be going to South Korea according to the Germans, but they were on a ship headed to China.

There’s gotta be an interesting back story to that one.

Glad the Finns caught the “error” before it was too late.

[combat_boots]

“they were being shipped to South Korea”

Fast work on that cover story, huh.

[lentulusgracchus]

More better living through chemistry!

Yeah, only don't click your teeth.

[Tainan]

we did the "alligator" at an Alpha Cappa dance....it wasn't me...no no no it wasn't me...musta been some otha brotha no no no it wasn't me.

[Tainan]

A post script to the story is that the missiles were being sent to South Korea as a legitimate arms deal from the German gov't.

I like John Hayward, and I think he's a darn good writer, but this story has more to it than might first be apparent.

[rmlew]

Tell me this is a joke about globalism or free trade, and I missed the punch line.

[rmlew]

Tell me this is a joke about globalism or free trade, and I missed the punch line.

[Brass Lamp]

I guess that the technology transfers which occurred under Clinton were not convenient enough for the Chinese, who want their Christmas gifts delivered preassembled this year. Our President obeys the will of his masters. Thankfully the Finns are always confounding the plans of communists

This IS treason.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

>> How did these get out of our inventory in the first place?

NATO Operators
Germany
Luftwaffe Flugabwehrraketengeschwader 1
Flugabwehrraketengeschwader 2
Flugabwehrraketengeschwader 5

Poland[30]
Polish Air Force

Greece
Hellenic Air Force 350 Guided Missiles Wing

Netherlands
Royal Netherlands Air Force 802 Squadron
803 Squadron

Spain
Spanish Army Regimiento de Artillería antiaérea 74

United States
United States Army[31]

The US Army operates a total of 1106 Patriot launchers.
32d Army Air & Missile Defense Command, FORSCOM 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade 1st Battalion, 43d Air Defense Artillery Regiment
2d Battalion, 43d Air Defense Artillery Regiment
3d Battalion, 43d Air Defense Artillery Regiment
5th Battalion, 52d Air Defense Artillery Regiment

31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade 3d Battalion, 2d Air Defense Artillery Regiment
4th Battalion, 3d Air Defense Artillery Regiment

69th Air Defense Artillery Brigade 4th Battalion, 5th Air Defense Artillery Regiment
1st Battalion, 44th Air Defense Artillery Regiment

108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade 1st Battalion, 7th Air Defense Artillery Regiment 3d Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment

94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, USARPAC 1st Battalion, 1st Air Defense Artillery Regiment

35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, Eighth Army 2d Battalion, 1st Air Defense Artillery Regiment
6th Battalion, 52d Air Defense Artillery Regiment

357th Air & Missile Defense Detachment, V Corps 5th Battalion 7th Air Defense Artillery Regiment

6th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, TRADOC 3d Battalion, 6th Air Defense Artillery Regiment

Other Operators [32]
Bahrain
Royal Bahraini Air Force

Egypt
Egyptian Air Defense Command

Israel
Israeli Air Force (GEM+[33])

Japan
Japan Air Self-Defense Force

Jordan
Royal Jordanian Air Force

Kuwait
Kuwait Air Force
In August 2010, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced that Kuwait had formally requested to buy 209 MIM-104E missiles.[34]
Republic of China (Taiwan)
Republic of China Air Force

Republic of Korea (South Korea)
Republic of Korea Air Force 1st Air Defense Artillery Brigade
2nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade

Saudi Arabia
Royal Saudi Air Defense

[DoughtyOne]

LOL< remind me not to ask for answers to questions, I’d rather not see.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Post Cold War, the Germans sold a lot of their assets to Poland and Taiwan, with complete U.S. Government approval.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks for the mention.

[King Moonracer]

South Korea makes more sense, the Chinese have already downloaded multiple terabytes of data from the US government, DOD, Raytheon, and all the other defense contractors. The last secret kept by our Government is BO’s birth certificate.