The Pentagon\’s Price is Right
For God\’s sake. Who\’s in charge? At the Pentagon it seems no one is.
As I wrote some time ago, The Pentagon has retired the Tomcat.
It\’s now shipping all the spare parts to the "Defense Reutilization and
Marketing Service" where they can be sold in public auctions.
Are you feeling the fear yet?
What country do you think eagerly awaits those auctions? Aw, come on, this
one is easy.
Fighter jet parts and other sensitive U.S. military gear seized from front
companies for Iran and brokers for China have been traced in criminal cases
to a surprising source: the Pentagon.In one case, federal investigators said, contraband purchased in Defense
Department surplus auctions was delivered to Iran, a country President Bush
has branded part of an "axis of evil."In that instance, a Pakistani arms broker convicted of exporting U.S. missile
parts to Iran resumed business after his release from prison. He purchased
Chinook helicopter engine parts for Iran from a U.S. company that had bought
them in a Pentagon surplus sale. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents
say those parts did make it to Iran.(snip)
Federal investigators are increasingly anxious that Iran is within easy reach
of a top priority on its shopping list: parts for the precious fleet of F-14
"Tomcat" fighter jets the United States let Iran buy in the 1970s
when it was an ally.In one case, convicted middlemen for Iran bought Tomcat parts from the Defense
Department\’s surplus division. Customs agents confiscated them and returned
them to the Pentagon, which sold them again – customs evidence tags still
attached – to another buyer, a suspected broker for Iran. …
According to the AP, undercover agents of the GAO bought $1.1 million worth of military parts,
including rocket launchers, body armor, and surveillance antennas, simply
by posing as defense contractors. It gets worse. When the undercover agents
got phone calls asking why they didn\’t have Social Security numbers, all they
had to do was offer up some "phony utility bill," then claim — WAIT
FOR IT — they\’d been the victim of identity theft.
You just can\’t make this stuff up.
China, Iran and other countries were the beneficiary of the Pentagon\’s incompetence.
Talk about a shopping bonanza. I can just imagine going through this stock.
Hey, bud, is that a heat seeking missile over there, or is the U.S. just desperate for
cash?
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