Posted on 09/24/2002 5:39:11 AM PDT by Jasonconley
The American administration decided to suspend aid to Ukraine in the sum of tens of millions of dollars. This decision was made due to a growing suspicion: the USA suspects Ukraine of delivering defense technology to Iraq. The newspaper New York Times reported on Tuesday that the White House came to the conclusion that Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma personally approved of a plan to export up-to-date radar systems to Iraq. This conclusion was made because of conversations that was secretly taped in the Ukrainian president’s office. The tapes were recorded by a former security guard, major Nikolay Melnichenko, who later fled to the West.
(Excerpt) Read more at english.pravda.ru ...
Well, Colombia sells drugs to United States. So?
Colombian govt or Colombian criminals? Big difference.
Who knows?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/626261/posts
Now Ukrainian elites stand accused by Italian authorities of involvement in illegal arms-trafficking. The Italians claim weapons were sent in the mid-1990s to the Taliban via Pakistan, and that shipments continue to other conflict zones around the worldHigh-level Ukrainian officials, if not directly dealing arms, are reportedly either smoothing the path for sales or at least looking the other way.
(Snip)
Ukraine has conducted only one official investigation into its illicit arms trade, a parliamentary commission in 1998. The inquiry found that Ukraine's 1992 military stocks were worth $89 billion and that over the next six years, $32 billion worth were stolen and resold abroad. But the investigation led to no charges, and the issue was swept under the carpet.
Some of the funds from the arms sales have returned to Ukraine and other former Soviet states from offshore zones such as Cyprus and Liechtenstein for use in insider privatizations of national industries. Other funds have remained deposited in safe offshore zones around the world.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/636844/posts
According to the latest issue of der Spiegel, the Office of Public Prosecutor of the city of Manheim gave permission to carry out a search of two firms suspected of illegal arm exports to Iraq and of violating a trade embargo by the UN against Iraq. The illegal supplies were transported through a small commercial firm in Manheim, which worked after the so-called “Food for oil" program. The trail leads to Ukraine, Great Britain, and Switzerland. In general, the action was brought against six persons, among whom there is a lawyer from the city of Heidelberg and an Iraqi businessman with US citizenship. Both men as well as an engineer in prison since last autumn are supposed to be organizers of arm exports to Iraq. One of the six accused is supposed to have Ukrainian roots.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/712906/posts
In recordings - heard by the Financial Times - of what appears to be a conversation between Ukraine's president, Leonid Kuchma, and Yuri Alexeyev, director of Yuzhmash, Ukraine's largest rocket maker, the men mention Iraq, Iran and rocketsThe recordings were supplied by Mykola Melnychenko, one of Mr Kuchma's former bodyguards. Mr Kuchma and Mr Alexeyev denied having supplied missile technology to Iraq.
(Snip)
Ukraine opened an embassy in Baghdad in 20 00 and its ministry of foreign affairs accepted the credentials of Yuri Orshansky, a Ukrainian businessman, as an honorary consul for Iraq.
Mr Orshansky told Ukrainian media he has visited Iraq 40 times since 1992, but denies breaking international sanctions. In 2001, Mr Orshansky organised a trade fair in Baghdad.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/726117/posts
A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Thursday that delegations from countries such as Iran and Iraq have visited Ukraine, seeking meetings with those who hold the technology. ``The Ukranians are generally pretty open with us about this,'' the official said.The United States has no evidence that Ukraine has transferred technology to Iraq, the official said, but is awaiting the results of an investigation, promised by President Leonid Kuchma, into the practices of those who trade with Iraq
In the meantime, U.S. officials are working with Ukraine on improving security at its 11 nuclear power plants and other institutions that contain sensitive materials used to make weapons such as dirty bombs, the official said. Also, they are looking to tighten security at Ukraine's border along Russia and the Black Sea, to prevent illicit nuclear weapons trafficking. Ukraine declared in May that it would seek membership in NATO, and is now in the process of bringing its economy and democratic institutions in line with international standards.
The United States has made clear that the way Ukraine controls its sensitive technologies will be a factor in its NATO bid, the official said. Those technologies include precision instruments, sensitive steel, gyroscopes and the knowledge of individuals who worked with nuclear material.
Ukraine gave up its nuclear arsenal in 1991, after independence from the Soviet Union. It declared itself neutral, but has taken an active role in numerous NATO-sponsored exercises and U.N. peacekeeping missions in Kosovo and parts of Africa.
I've got to wonder if their participation was just an opportunity to make advanced sales...
Who knows?
Why mention it if you don't know the answer ; )
Because it is an analogy with Ukraine. We do not know the answer about both countries. Who knows where is the separating line between the politicians and criminals over there? I don't and you don't know either.
If American help to Colombia does not stop the flow of drugs, why would sanctions against Ukraine stop the flow of weapons?
If not, then why bother mentioning Columbia?
Actually not.
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