Please tell me they found them about 10 days ago and have already pulled the string on this ...
The Finnish authorities have impounded an Isle of Man-flagged ship bound for China with undeclared missiles and explosives, officials say.A+ for effort on the Chinese part; F for execution. Imagine what they do get through.
Police are questioning the crew of the MS Thor Liberty after what were described as 69 Patriot anti-missile missiles were found aboard.
Interior Minister Paivi Rasanen said the missiles were marked "fireworks".
The MS Thor Liberty had docked in the Finnish port of Kotka after leaving Germany last week.
The forensics on this should be fairly easy to do for the Germans, who BTW have a very good intelligence service. Maybe what drew their attention was, "Who exports fireworks to China?"
In a larger sense - be careful what you export, get shot down, or leave behind.
26 comments:
General Patraeus, please call your office.
Scandinavian police, the spanner in the works :)
Germany has few Patriot batteries, right? And US had some in Germany up to the end of the cold war not sure if any stayed behind...
So, we only sell these missiles to a select group of nations so figuring out WHICH nation is selling them for hard cash ought to be a fairly easy thing, right?
Rumour in Germany is they were "unofficial" help for South Korea by either yours or us and the respective intelligence service screwed it up.
That makes sense. Finland is one of the least corrupt nations on the planet. That comes as a byproduct of their public servants doing their job very well with great precision. I can almost hear it now; "I am required to check the following...."
Could it really be that amateur hour for DEU and USA? Sad. Sounds like someone needs to be the new desk officer for Upper Volta.
Some folks need to physically check their magazine inventories, not just let the computer tot up the reciepts and inventories.
Arghh. Twice in two days. "Receipts and shipments elsewhere."
Loss by inventory. Survey it.
is that the opposite of "gain by inventory"???
C
Most likely a coincidence, but M/V ARCTIC SEA had left Finland (not the same port where THOR LIBERTY is in port) in 2009 when it was supposedly boarded by pirates off the coast of Sweden. It had a declared cargo of timber and was boarded by the Russian Navy who were never forthcoming as to the actual cargo.
"who exports fireworks TO China?" HA! HA! Better'n Sunday Funnies CDR! 'twas an instant guffaw, almost a ROFLMAO!
Merry Christmas, Sir!
Spiegel Online has more details (in German):
<span>http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,805425,00.html</span>
Arms deal was officially – if not public – sealed already in 2007 by Germany and South Korea. Says German ministry of defense. Just somehow the delivery got screwed up.
It would have been funny if this were actually funny.
Heads. Need. to Roll.
Here is the English translation. Still smells.
Sheize, meine Duetsch ist schlect.
Touch count the inventory. The Golden Rule.
<p><span>A Danish ship with a Ukrainian crew that left Emden on 6 December and stopped in Kotka Finland on 15 December after wandering with no charts to pick up a cargo of anchor chains and an old paper machine while already loaded with US-made anti-missile missiles marked as fireworks deficiently packed in wooden boxes on open pallets instead of <span> </span>metal containers in line with rules on the maritime transport of explosives ostensibly sold by Germany to South Korea based on a 2007 deal heading to a Chinese port (Shanghai).</span>
</p><p><span> </span>
</p><p><span>What could be wrong with that? <span> </span>Move along folks, nothing to see. Everyone is over-reacting</span>
</p><p><span> </span>
</p><p><span>It’s not like any country would like to get their hands on Patriot missiles to exploit them nor for any US company or the US government to raise the hue and cry that we needed a new/upgraded Patriot because certain countries manufacturing and exporting ballistic missiles now had the capability to defeat the Patriot, a capability they gleamed from exploiting 69 missiles or so.</span>
</p><p><span> </span>
</p><p><span>Nope, just business (and I mean business) as usual. <span> </span>Keeping the military-industrial-intelligence complex profitable at the expense of US taxpayers and citizens.</span></p>
Four years screwed up???
Often. And guard it. Well.
Why screw up the work in Upper Volta?
these are not PAC III's. Confirmed with folks in the know that this was all above board. Everyone take a chill pill.
heh
I remember a certain ORDO that wasn't helped by this, at one time on a Mayport FFG ... somehow he managed to count every Mk46 three or four times ...
Oops, Guest was me, in this case.
Fast and Furious Part II?
Not satisfied with sending AK's and SKS's to Mexico, the US Gov't is now expanding its operations ...
The Finns came on board the boat because they noticed some low-grade explosives improperly stowed (pallets vs container). They then found the missiles. The shipper didn't apply for a transit permit with the Finns. The shipment is bound for South Korea but the ship scheduled to stop in Shanghai before that.
Yes, old Patriots from German surplus stocks sold totally aboveboard to South Korea. Ownership transfer was in Emden port. The fuckup was on the side of the South Korean MOD in being extremely negligent in arranging transport as evident by the packaging and the freighters route. If it had been a German armed forces transport it would only have gone by an approved shipping line and have been accompanied by a reserve naval officer and perhaps even some ratings as supercargo(s) (typical reservist job that) and the route would have had to follow some restrictions.
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