If You Need More Evidence Things Are Not In Our Control

Yahoo News:

In a hidden corner of Rome's busy Fiumicino Airport, police dug quietly through a traveler's checked baggage, looking for smuggled drugs. What they found instead was a catalog of weapons, a clue to something bigger.

Their discovery led anti-Mafia investigators down a monthslong trail of telephone and e-mail intercepts, into the midst of a huge black-market transaction, as Iraqi and Italian partners haggled over shipping more than 100,000 Russian-made automatic weapons into the bloodbath of Iraq.

As the secretive, $40 million deal neared completion, Italian authorities moved in, making arrests and breaking it up. But key questions remain unanswered.

For one thing, The Associated Press has learned that Iraqi government officials were involved in the deal, apparently without the knowledge of the U.S. Baghdad command — a departure from the usual pattern of U.S.-overseen arms purchases.

Why these officials resorted to "black" channels and where the weapons were headed is unclear.

Hmm. Why would Iraqi government officials be complicit in smuggling 100,000 AK-47s into the country? It's an enigma. Maybe they're just gun collectors.

There's more good news:

Meanwhile, the planned replacement of the army's AK-47s with U.S.-made M-16s may throw more assault rifles onto the black market. And the weapons free-for-all apparently is spilling over borders: Turkey and Iran complain U.S.-supplied guns are flowing from Iraq to anti-government militants on their soil.

We need Joe Lieberman to make another visit to tell us how much better things are getting.

Comments

[Phillybits]

My, my my. I wonder what officials are involved and if this story will see "the light" of day.

[Phillybits]

I noticed this part as well:
Iraqi middlemen in the Italian deal, in intercepted e-mails, claimed the arrangement had official American approval. A U.S. spokesman in Baghdad denied that.
Wonder if this has anything to do with the recent reports that US forces are arming sectarian groups that have previously attacked our troops in an effort to have them take up arms against insurgents?

[Mithras]

Interesting that the Italians were the ones who originally were involved in passing along the forged memo about Saddam seeking uranium from Africa. Let's say that was an Iranian ploy, and the Iranians have the Italians infiltrated. Now the Italians bust a shipment of arms meant for militias - Sunni or Shiite? If Sunni, it would make a lot of sense. Let's see if we find out if the Iraqi government officials were Sunnis.