Posted on 11/10/2002 6:50:55 AM PST by knighthawk
MUNICH: Police in the western German cities of Mannheim and Cologne have opened inquiries into a German-Russian businessman suspected of masterminding the illegal supply of weapons to Iraq, weekly news magazine Focus says in its edition due out on Monday.
The businessman, named as Mark V., specialises in selling weapons from former Soviet bloc countries to the Middle East and German investigators suspect him of illegally channelling weapons to Iraq via Jordan, it said.
The United Nations slapped an embargo on sales of weapons to Iraq after Baghdad invaded neighbouring Kuwait in 1990.
Mark V., who owns a dental equipment company in the northern city of Hamburg and lives most of the time in South Africa, is already known to the German secret services for having supplied arms to South Africa during the apartheid era, when such sales were banned by the United Nations, Focus said.
The latest police investigation into Mark V's affairs was triggered after they arrested Canadian businessman Arthur Andersen in Pforzheim, western Germany, in August, the weekly said.
Andersen, a Russian who acquired Canadian citizenship, is suspected of breaking the law on weapons sales when he supplied European weapons to Jordan, it added.
The two men were once business partners and early this year supplied Russian missiles worth 60 million dollars (euros) to Jordan. But they then became rivals, Focus said.
If people want on or off this list, please let me know.
Translation: We must do damage control for when the US finds out we sold Iraq weapons.
I reported my suspicions directly to the FBI in Los Angeles. Wrote a two page letter to them with all the details.
My suspicion was that the spa was an ideal meeting place for Russians, Germans and other agents engaged in covert actvities. Six months after I reported my suspicions the Spa burned to the ground.
Rumor was it was "struck by Jewish lightning."
Covert activities by Russkies posing as German software engineers is typical of the sort of problems of "penetration by spies" that arose during Clinton's administration. He looked the other way and ordered the FBI, CIA, NSA and other agencies to "stand down."
Clinton is a traitor ... He ought to be arrested and prosecuted. Throw him in prison and throw away the key.
Started bragging about their software pojects. I was amazed they felt free to talk about working for a German company with offices in the U.S. One guy told me he was a chemical engineer (think about the implications of that admission).
After they were really loaded, they started practicing martial arts ..... they became reckless, arrogant and rude. Clearly they believe in the Russkie myth of Russian superiority.
The Germans are actually really good about policing themselves when it comes to arms control.
They are NO bottom feeders like France is. France will sell nearly anything to anybody for a Euro. China, Iraq, India (After others stopped because of the nuclear tests)....even in the Falklands it became very apparent who sold Argentina Exocet missiles that sank a UK warship......
They are within NATO hands down the worst country. In fact, neutral countries and fence sitters scare away from going as far as France does! Sweden, Switzerland......others would never dare do some of the things they do.
Germany acted AGAINST it's own best security interest in Iraq! Don't think it was the oil for food, Arms sales or anything else. It was PURELY a reelection game that once played out in 2002 Schroeder could not go back on. A chancellor rules with a coalition which was formed with the Greens in 2002. Even his coalition with the Greens would had fractured had he reversed his position later. Basically in 2002 he won the elections by going against something that is ugly and unpopular (but sometimes necessary) and committed himself to a course of action he could no longer change. Germany did NOT benefit from his stupid mouth in any economic or security manner. In fact, he damaged NATO, it caused cracks within the EU, undermined the UN and made them even more into a joke with the games they played. Did Germany help the US relationship? What did Germany do to its economic future within Iraq “after” the war and they had been an ankle biter of the coalition? Germany’s actions reference Iraq 2003 were despicable. But to say it was for some economic gain and that they are an arms proliferator to tin pot regimes is just not accurate.
The Germans are squeaky clean in such matters. They truly do police themselves where the French government looks away and tries to politically even pave the way to make it legal to sell arms to dubious states. China is a good example!
Even in the US you will find some creep who would sell arms to the enemy! The Germans having “transparency” and policing this matter is a good sign. You probably would not see the French government going after unscrupulous businessmen or firms who make such deals there. Do we have Americans who join the Taliban? Who support AQ? Yes. And Germany also has people that lack ethics and engage in illegal activities. But the national government of Germany never condoned such activities and prosecutes those who do. As a state, Germany did not go against the Iraq war because they somehow benefited from this, rather it was a political election game maneuver of a particular individual who placed HIS interests above those of his nations.
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