When the trove of State Department cables were released late last month, we reported on a document that alleged Armenia had sold arms to Iran, which were used in Iraq to kill an American soldier and injure seven others. At the time, the State Department issued a terse warning and threatened sanctions against Armenia. Since this news was reported, both US and Armenian officials have downplayed the event and have stated that the revelation will not adversely affect US-Armenia relations. On Tuesday, a two-part article in Der Spiegel regarding US efforts to curtail weapons smugglers reported from the WikiLeaks documents, details Armenia’s role in the arms sales. The German Der-Spiegel is one of four media outlets that were given the entire cache of documents by WikiLeaks.
Read the complete story here.
There is nothing new in the Der-Spiegel article, other than the quantity of weapons and the alleged source.
The whole affair smells of a setup – assuming there is any truth to it.
Let’s not forget that Bush Administration blatantly lied to the American people about the so-called WMDs in Iraq in order to illegally invade it.
The CIA cooked up so-called ‘intelligence’ about WMDs and showed them to Secretary State Colin Powell for his speech at the UN – the precursor to the invasion. Powell later said (in 2005) he regretted making that speech – diplomatic speak for saying he was lied to by the CIA.
Bush Administration was full of Neo-Cons, who are unabashedly Turkophile, including Mr. Negroponte, so why wouldn’t they manufacture lies to setup Armenia ?
If the CIA – under orders from President Bush (or VP Cheney) – set up and lied to their own U.S. Secretary of State in order to achieve their illegal aims, why wouldn’t they do the same to Armenia ?
Why would Armenia buy RPG-22s from Bulgaria of all places, when RPG-22 is a Russian weapon: they could have gotten it practically free from Russia, under the mutual defense agreement terms.
Why would Armenia buy heavy machine guns from Bulgaria ?
If Armenia intended to send them to Iran, why wouldn’t they change or erase the Serial Numbers, thus making them untraceable ?
None of it makes any logical sense
If, big if, the transaction took place, it was a false-flag operation planned and executed to entrap Defense Minister Sargsyan . Why was the affair kept secret by the U.S. if it was genuine ? There was no love lost between Bush Administration and Armenia, so why not stick it to RoA ? Nothing in this story adds up.
In August of 2007, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) said the Pentagon cannot track about 30% of the weapons distributed by US military in Iraq over the past three years.
Here is a list from GAO of what was lost in Iraq during those three years:
AK-47 rifles: 110,000.
Pistols: 80,000.
Body armour pieces: 135,000.
Helmets: 115,000.
These weapons were under 100% control of the U.S. military in Iraq, and they lost track of them inside Iraq. How many of those weapons ended up in the hands of Iraqi ‘insurgents’ ? How many of those weapons were used to kill American servicemen ?
Now, the same military/intelligence were somehow able to track 1,000 RPGs and 260 machine guns all the way from Bulgaria, to Armenia, thru Iran, then to Iraq – and then tie the weapons to the death of a single American serviceman ?
Are they serious ?
Wow! this should be better than wikileaks.
Perfect! thank you
First, we need to know the person who leaked this news to the State Department. Second, after identifying the person, we should look into and see if there’s a connection between this person/persons and the ADL or the Israel lobby. I smell a ‘RAT’.
Well that’s stupid. Having economic relations with Iran is defensible given that Armenia is land-locked and with 2 closed borders. But selling weapons to Iran given the international issues? Especially since Armenia needs those weapons herself!
The weapons transfers were wrong. However, keep in mind that the US sells 70% of the weapons in the world, and that it is for certain that these weapons kill all sorts of innocent people, including Americans themselves.
Instead of sanctioning armenia they should fined nuclear weapon in iraq and let USA sanction azerbajan about. $3.5 billion budget for arsenal, highest in its size and in region.
It is so ridicules.