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News from Cuba, several subjects.

This is Nukes for sale in Miami:

http://www.warriorsfortruth.com/news-miami-nuclear-smuggling.html

It began when an ethnic Russian from Lithuania, with known links to the Russian
mafia, offered to ship luxury vehicles stolen in Florida back to former Soviet bloc
countries. Unknown to him, he was talking to an undercover cop posing as a member
of a Colombian drug cartel.

To the surprise of the agents who were secretly taping the conversations, the
Lithuanian, Alexandr Pogrebevskij, soon upped the ante. He offered to procure
Soviet-made military weapons and brought in his partner, Alexander Darichev, who
had the contacts in Russia who could broker a deal for arms. Darichev, a veteran of
the Lithuanian military and also an ethnic Russian, opened a briefcase filled with
shiny brochures from a company in Bulgaria called Armimex which was licensed to
manufacture Soviet weapons. It had everything from automatic rifles to
shoulder-to-air missiles that could shoot down jet planes. The undercover U.S.agents
said they would go for the missiles.

Then came the bombshell. If that missile deal went through, asked the Lithuanians,
was there interest in small nuclear devices? The undercover cops said they would be
very interested. They nicknamed this new deal "Project 2" and agreed to put it off
until the missile deal was concluded.

US Customs set up a front company called Phoenix International and proceeded with
a plan to buy 40 "Stinger-type" Russian missiles. By now, the meetings were
frequent and the negotiations sophisticated. From the beginning, the Lithuanians
emphasized that the deal had to look legitimate. So they set up super secret
accounts in off-shore companies to handle the money -- they had a document from a
company called OCRA on the Isle of Mann rumored by confidential sources to have
connections to international arms dealers.

Then they managed to get an authentic end-user certificate from the Lithuanian
minister of defense saying that the missiles were intended for the military forces of
the Republic of Lithuania.The arms company Armimex could only sell these kinds of
weapons to a government. (But of course, the undercover cops' story was that the
real end user in this sting operation was to be a Colombian cartel that wanted the
missiles to shoot down U.S. DEA helicopters.)

All this made U.S. Customs suspicious that the two Lithuanians had contacts
reaching into high government offices (read the interview with U.S. Customs official
Michael Turner). In a meeting in London, wiretapped by Scotland Yard, Darichev
made calls to a man named Valerii Donitzovich at a mysterious scientific institute in
St. Petersburg. Donitzovich said he had contacts with then Russian defense minister
Pavel Grachev. Grachev was described to FRONTLINE by one top U.S. law
enforcement official as being "bigtime corrupt."

"Jupiter Z" -- as the institute was called -- was part of the Russian Academy of
Natural Sciences, Section of Geopolitics and Security, and is known for its ties to
former military and KGB officials. This scientific technical center was suspected by
U.S. Customs to be the shadow broker for the missiles and the nukes.

From the beginning of this two year odyssey, the undercover cops and the
Lithuanians were suspicious of each other. Could the Lithuanians really deliver the
weapons? Were the agents working for a drug cartel? Fears heightened when the
customs agents intercepted a letter from Jupiter Z to Darichev warning Darichev that
the men he was dealing with might be FBI or CIA agents. But the two sides
continued to deal, and a $50,000 downpayment was made.

In the meantime, for more than a year this case was the subject of high-level
meetings in Washington involving all the agencies concerned with a possible nuclear
smuggling incident -- the FBI, the CIA, NSC, State, DOD and DOE. With the support
of their bosses at Treasury, U.S. Customs in Miami wanted to continue the
investigation to find out who in Russia was really involved (read the interview with
agent Keith Praeger.) But there was substantial skepticism from some quarters and
resistance to expanding the investigation. U.S. agents are not permitted to go
undercover overseas without the signoff of other intelligence agencies. And if they
notified the Russian or Lithuanian governments, possible co-conspirators in the
Russian or Lithuanaian military would just cover their tracks.

Even more important, according to confidential sources, is the fact that U.S. national
security policy prohibits any sting operation that might bring nuclear devices or
material onto American soil. So, in the end, Washington pressured Miami to wrap up
their case.

After one final video-taped undercover meeting in 1997 at the Hampton Inn in
Miami, agents arrested and indicted Pogrebevskij and Darichev. The U.S. District
Court indictment also named "Jupiter Z" and the Russian Academy of Natural
Sciences for "conspiring to locate and negotiate the source of weapons of mass
destruction."

After the arrest, Darichev cooperated with the U.S. Attorney and made monitored
calls to Armimex confirming that 40 shoulder-to-air missiles were indeed waiting to
be shipped to Phoenix Arms International. The Justice Department also determined
that the Lithuanian end-user certificate actually had been signed by a former
minister of defense who has since stepped down.

Alexander Darichev and Alexandr Pogrebevskij were convicted on charges of
smuggling, money laundering and conspiracy. They are each serving 48 months in a
federal penitentiary

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