Tracing ISIS´ weapons - back to the U.S.! - Radio Islam
Tracing ISIS´ weapons - back to the U.S.!
Below link to an article from Wired (Januari 2018 edition,
published online 12 December 2017) on the latest
revelations coming out as the weapon stocks of ISIS are captured and
thereafter analyzed - following the group's defeat in Iraq and Syria.
Who benefits from a conflict? Just follow the weapons trail....
and you will see; the Jewnited States!
Interesting also to note how the startling discoveries published by the
UK-based organization Conflicts Armament Research (that is Western and thus
cannot be dismissed as "Pro-Russian" or so), has largely passed
main stream media without being given any serious attention, as it
doesn't fit the narrative.
Another article on the same theme, from the US news site BuzzFeed:
Blowback: ISIS Got A Powerful Missile The CIA Secretly Bought In
Bulgaria
A new report on how ISIS
built its arsenal highlights how the US purchased munitions,
intended for Syrian rebels, that ended up in the hands of
the terrorist group.
ISIS militants march in Syria in
2014.
Reuters
A guided anti-tank missile ended up in the hands of ISIS
terrorists less than two months after the US government
purchased it in late 2015 — highlighting weaknesses in the
oversight and regulation of America’s covert arms programs,
according to information published Thursday by an arms
monitoring group called Conflict Armament Research (CAR).
Though the report says the missile was purchased by the
US Army using a contractor, BuzzFeed News has learned that
the real customer appears to have been the CIA. It was part
of the spy agency’s top secret operation to arm rebels in
Syria to fight the forces of Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad. The missile ended up in the hands of ISIS fighters
in Iraq, according to the report.
The CIA declined to comment on the Obama-era program to
back Syrian rebels, which was canceled by President Trump in
July. The Pentagon did not provide information in time for
publication.
The missile is one piece of a critical puzzle that is
being solved only now, with ISIS on the run: How did the
vast terror group arm its war machine? CAR spent three years
tracking ISIS weapons as they were recovered by Iraqi,
Syrian, and Kurdish forces — and found that what happened to
the missile was no aberration. Indeed, the terror group
managed to divert “substantial quantities of anti-armour
ammunition” from weapons provided to Syrian opposition
forces by the US or Saudi Arabia.
The anti-tank missile recovered
from ISIS in February 2016. It had been shipped
to the US Army in December 2015. Conflicts Armament
Research, "Weapons of the Islamic State"
As BuzzFeed News
has reported, the US
equips proxy armies in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan with
weapons such as AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades
made in Russia and Eastern Europe. The investigators
from CAR found that the policy has sometimes backfired,
allowing America’s enemies to obtain arms meant for its
allies. “Evidence collected by CAR indicates that the United
States has repeatedly diverted EU-manufactured weapons and
ammunition to opposition forces in the Syrian conflict,” the
report states. ISIS, it continues, “rapidly gained custody
of significant quantities of this materiel.”
The report lists 12 cases where Eastern European weapons
originally sent to the US military or US contractors appear
to have been diverted, somehow, to ISIS.
The weapon purchased by the US government in 2015, a
9M111B missile, is highly portable and can land a
devastating charge with pinpoint accuracy on tanks, trucks,
or buildings.
BuzzFeed News has been tracking the CIA’s procurement of
9M111 missiles as part of the deal for three years. In 2014,
the CIA issued a contract to obtain 600 such missiles to
Kiesler Police Supply, two sources said. Kiesler is a small
Indiana company that frequently contracts with the CIA,
according to experts in arms dealing. According to the CAR
report, the contract for the missile that ended up in the
possession of ISIS was handled by Kiesler.
Got a tip? You can email tips@buzzfeed.com. To learn how
to reach us securely, go to tips.buzzfeed.com.
The Indiana firm acquired those missiles from a Bulgarian
company called SAGE Consulting, sources familiar with the
transaction told BuzzFeed News. Bulgaria is a major source
of the weapons that the US and other powers use to arm
client armies.
In an email this summer, Kiesler declined to discuss the
issue, writing that “we are not contractually authorized to
disclose any information.” The company also insisted it was
not to blame for where the weapons ended up. “Once Kiesler
delivers its products to the customer, it does not have
visibility with respect to the Government’s handling, use or
disposition of the material,” it said.
On Wednesday, a woman who answered the phone at Kiesler
hung up immediately. Then, after she was called again, she
said that "we don’t talk to the media."
SAGE, a well-known broker in the Bulgarian capital Sofia,
declined a request for interviews with BuzzFeed News. But
two Bulgarian arms dealers say SAGE has indeed been
manufacturing the 9M111 missile, at a factory called VMZ,
for the US government. “They make them only for the
Americans,” one said, adding that the US buys as many as
SAGE can manufacture.
Photo purported to show a Jaysh al-Nasr
fighter firing a 9M111B missile with a serial
number close to the one recovered from ISIS. Conflict Armament Research "Weapons of the
Islamic State"
Two sources familiar with the Syrian opposition told
BuzzFeed News in 2015 that the CIA had begun to set up and
train small tank-killing units of rebels. Each of these
small units was planned as a force multiplier, which could
enter a battle and effectively knock out Syrian armored
positions, leveling the battlefield for the rebels.
In its report, CAR says the missile was originally
purchased in Bulgaria by the US on Dec. 15, 2015. Just 59
days later, it was recovered in Ramadi, Iraq, after it had
been fired by ISIS in combat.
In its report, CAR said a photo showed a US-backed Syrian
rebel group, Jaysh al-Nasr, firing a missile that is
identical to the one recovered from ISIS in Ramadi. The
serial numbers on the ISIS missile and on one fired by Jaysh
al-Nasr suggest that the two missiles were “part of the same
supply chain,” according to CAR’s report.
A source close to the Syrian opposition said Jaysh
al-Nasr fights chiefly in the north of Hama province, and
was indeed aided by the CIA in Turkey. Two sources said the
group received anti-tank missiles from the CIA.
It’s unclear how a missile provided to Jaysh al-Nasr in
Syria would have ended up across the Iraqi border in ISIS
hands.
A former Syrian opposition figure said rebels were vetted
to the best of the CIA’s ability. The rebels, he said, were
cautioned that every time they fired a weapon, they had to
bring back the empty casings to prove they had in fact fired
it rather than stolen or traded it.
Clarification: This post has been updated to reflect that
Jaysh al-Nasr chiefly fights in the north of Hama Province.
Aram Roston is an investigative reporter and editor
for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington, DC.
Read also: BBC reporter
uncovers scandalous US-ISIS deal on Raqqa
The propaganda version was that ISIS and its leadership would be
rounded up in Raqqa, isolated and then vaporised - to never wreak havoc again. But what then followed was a completly
different issue. ISIS' leadership, fighters and armory was let
safe passage out of Raqqa, under US auspices!
