Posted on 12/22/2011 11:16:00 AM PST by 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.
Yesterday it was said that they were being shipped to South Korea?!
I met a German girl from England who went school in France and we danced the Mississippi at a Alpa Cappa dance.
I wasn’t me.
The o had directed they be shipped to China so Customs could find out where they eventually were headed. ATF had advocated sending them directly to the drug cartel in Mexico but were overruled.
And the beat goes on...
How did these get out of our inventory in the first place?
Sounds like a regular fun day at the UN.....................None dare call it treason.......................
What did Obama know,and when did he stop knowing it...
This story just doesn’t make any sense.
A shipping container doesn’t have a description of what’s inside of it on the outside.
Obviously, the shipping company knows who the shipper, consingee and notify party is. Vessels aren’t just loaded with unknown containers and then discharge them wherever.
The author’s fascination with the vessel’s flag, crew, owner, and ports of lading and unlading indicates to me that he’s not very familiar with maritime cargo.
Under normal circumstances, I’d think that was a fringe comment. These days..., not so much.
Ya just never know.
I tend to doubt it, but I sure wouldn’t talk about it in absolutes.
Oh my peepers!
More better living through chemistry!
It's all about "sharing." It's good to "share," isn't it?
Had only the crew been Kosavar. They could have redistributed the vowels, just to be fair...
This story keeps changing.
South Korea is not China.
Which is it?
That's a great line. Someone should suggest this to the talk radio hosts and GOP candidates.
... but I still blame the French.
Thanks for the laugh.
The real question is WHO sold these missiles to China?
Merry Kwanza from Mordor-on-the-Potomac!
The “real” story ain’t changing, the party posting thread changed it to China. Also the original story said nothing about shipment being labeled “fireworks”.
The German military said they legally sold them to South Korea. Its the Finns and neverdem that are all fussed up over nothing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.