The House oversight committee is holding hearings today on those 20-something Florida arms dealers (I could write that phrase a 100 times and take no less pleasure in it).
According to evidence obtained by the committee, government contracting officials had complained that their company, AEY, was delivering “poor quality,” “damaged goods, ” “junk” weapons, and other equipment in “the reject category.” And that was before the Pentagon awarded AEY that $300 million contract to supply ammo to the Afghan Army.
As we know now, AEY turned around and bought decades old Chinese-made ammo from an Albanian arms supplier, which the Justice Department now says was a violation of the Arms Control Export Act. So DOJ indicted these hapless dudes, even though the Albanian government, with an alleged sign-off from the U.S. embassy in Tirana, had helped conceal the Chinese origin of the ammo.
Did I mention that both the Albanian arms dealer and one of the 20-something dudes, Efraim Diveroli, were on the State Department Arms Trafficking Watchlist at the time the Pentagon awarded them the big contract? We’ll have more on that wrinkle shortly at TPMmuckraker.
Late Update: Here’s more on that State Department watch list that the Pentagon just routinely ignores.
Later Update: The U.S. ambassador to Albania has issued a statement denying any involvement in Chinese arms trafficking.
