Ever wonder what kind of grizzled veteran of world affairs and international trade has the kind of credentials to win a $300 million Pentagon bid to supply ammunition to our troops overseas?
Well, you can check out his MySpace page.
The whole amazing story about how a tiny Miami company being run by a 22-year-old was being paid with our tax dollars to send boxes of ancient ammunition to our troops is right here (more at TPM here).
I’ll bet his only qualification to supply the Afghan army with ammunition is his daddy’s a well-connected Republican. And that’s enough under this administration.
Or maybe the administration wants its Afghan allies to FAIL so they can keep the war going indefinitely?? After all, if someone caught Osama, they’d be out of business.
“About me: Well of course im a super nice guy!!! , i know what i want out of life but not exactly quite sure how to get it yet. I was born and bred in miami beach and have no immediate plans to leave but i have thought about it. Im a pretty easy going guy and many say i have a good sense of humor. I had problems in high school so i was forced to work most of my teen years and i probably grew up way to fast. I finally got a decent apartment and im content for the moment , however i definately have the desire to be very successful in my business and this does take up alot of my time.”
The reason I know he’s a Republican is because he can’t spell “too.”
It’s emblematic of the incompetent and corrupt Bush administration that they give a $300,000,000 defense procurement contract to a kid with “problems in high school.” (What “problems”? Did he shoot the teacher and some kids?) Hell, for that kind of money we could renovate Key Arena!
@3
Hell, for that kind of money we could renovate Key Arena!
Sure as hell puts things in perspective, don’t it?
He probably bought that crap for a penny a round (using freshly printed money procured from Ben Bernanke) and resold it to American taxpayers from a buck a dud.
Where was Dave Reichert when this happened? Once again, the Sheriff wasn’t patrolling the beat …
Hmmm … from the TPM link graciously provided above, we learn this yahoo got arrested for using a fake ID AFTER he turned 21! Is this what passes for a Republican defense contractor these days?
Rather than stay in Iraq no matter what the cost (to the US and to Iraq), it seems pretty clear it would be better (for the US AND for Iraq) to get OUT of Iraq no matter what the cost. Pottery Barn, my ass. We have proven that we can’t handle the job of either protecting OR rebuilding iraq.
He’s buying ammo from Eastern Europe and Asia, which means it’s for AK-style weapons, not the M16/M4 which our soldiers are carrying.
Ammo isn’t like food or fuel, it doesn’t go bad after a certain period. You can still buy and shoot Military-surplus ammo from WWII and earlier. I’ve shot British .303 ammo from pre-WWII. Works well for shooting rabbits.
He IS going to get steam-rolled for relabeling Chinese AK rounds as Hungarian. That’s a no-no.
From the links, it appears he’s Jewish. Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t most Jewish folks in this country Democrats?
Mission accomplished.
The Pianist
@9
Dumb comment of the Century (but it’s early days yet).
Come on Delbert, I bet you can top that! I suppose next you’re going to tell us that all black preachers are members of the Communist Party!
@9
Ammo isn’t like food or fuel, it doesn’t go bad after a certain period.
Um, Delbert, you might want to read the Raw Story article a little closer:
From the links, it appears he’s Jewish. Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t most Jewish folks in this country Democrats?
Most are. Some aren’t. Why on earth is this even relevant?
@11
Dumb comment of the Century (but it’s early days yet).
Definitely the stupidest comment so far this week. I’ve always wanted to do something on the front page to call out the greatest efforts of stupidity in the comment threads. Every Sunday night or something, have a top 5 countdown of the dumbest things posted down here throughout the previous week. Maybe I should do it at EffU.
“Ammo isn’t like food or fuel, it doesn’t go bad after a certain period.”
Look at USA Today’s front-page photo of that crap then decide whether you’d go into combat with it.
In any case, you miss the point. Why should taxpayers pay new ammunition prices for junkyard ammo?
The troll morons defending this idiotic contract will have egg on their faces when this young “entrepreneur” goes to prison for fraud.
@14
And Roger, for a little more perspective on this story, Diveroli was in diapers during the Iran-Contra hearings (then again, so was Reagan).
I repeat, where is Dave Reichert while things this are going on at DoD?
@16 Yes, I’ve noticed that Republicans aren’t potty-trained.
Brought to you by the same national security experts who refused to spend money on body and vehicle armor for our late troops in Iraq.
And these fuckwads want voters to believe their party is “better on national security” than Democrats … !
We’d better make damn sure the military ballots are counted this year, or we could lose an awful lot of votes.
http://tinyurl.com/jv9nf
Diveroli was in diapers during the Iran-Contra hearings (then again, so was Reagan)
I think somebody owes me a new keyboard for that.
@22
Sorry about that, Tlaz…
I was wondering how widely this would get picked up. I saw it in the Tacoma paper. Sometimes the MSM does alright.
Nothing like Republicans getting the “best” for our brave men and women going in to Harm’s way.
Of course, like Rumsfeld said “‘As you know, you have to go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want,’ Rumsfeld said.”
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/.....ld.troops/
I guess the Bush military is going to war with old Chinese ammunition. That’s what we have.
President Clinton turned over a better prepared military than what he got from Bush 41, and Bush 43 will turn over a military in the worst shape since God knows when. Pre WWII perhaps?
Republicans soft on defense, never spending money on our troops for training, weapons, armor, wounded vets and making soldiers pay for lost weapons when they get blown up in unarmored Humvee’s.
As John Kerry said in the 2004 presidential election, you can win a war “on the cheap.”
Kerry was right. Republicans were, as usual, on the wrong side of the issue and the wrong side of history.
Nancy “do nothing” Pelosi better get her ASS in gear and start some MAJOR congressional investigations on this one.
There’s nothing worse than fucking over our troops. If she doesn’t act on this I’d like to see her ass booted from office.
Correctin @ 26:
John Kerry said you can’t win the war “on the cheap.”
I saw this story yesterday, found a link to a NY Times investigation. I looked for a Republican connection, couldn’t find one. It might be just an example of how sloppy military procurement is right now.
I guess if you are a procurement agent and somebody high up regularly hands you a bunch of bids for your approval, and lets you know that you shouldn’t ask too many questions, it becomes a habit to get out your rubber stamp and just go through the motions.
But I would still be very interested if this kid didn’t have a friend somewhere who was greasing the skids on these contracts.
As for the quality of the ammo – sometimes performance IS affected by age and storing conditions. The U.S. and NATO perform regular tests on ammo batches after a certain number of years, measuring for decreases in muzzle velocity, etc. And the last thing you want is corroded shells going through an automatic weapon at a fast rate, it would make it prone to jamming. But at least the AK47 is less subject to jamming (more forgiving) than the M16.
I remember once when I was in JROTC on the gun range with an old M-14, I fired a round which seemed to take two seconds to travel a hundred yards. The old Master Sargeant at the time (Sgt. Morris) looked at the ammo, mumbled something about “ancient junk”, and pulled us off the gun range until newer ammo could be located.
Personally, I believe if you are going to spend considerable effort and money recruiting and training a soldier, gathering intelligence on the enemy and then transporting the soldier into combat, having him risk his life and limb in the process to get within rifle range of the enemy, you had better make SURE that the damned bullets work.
For some perspective, you might want to read about the U.S. Navy’s problems in getting submarine torpedoes to work in WWII. The Navy insisted that there was nothing wrong with them, even though submarine commanders were reporting torpedoes were repeatedly failing. Not only were they risking their lives in enemy waters to fire those shots, but their ammo was faulty! The Navy Bureau of Ordinance insisted that the sub commanders must be trying to blame them for their own bad shots. But it was eventually proven that there were multiple faults which inadequate testing had failed to reveal, including (a) a bad proximity fuse which relied upon magnetic fields, but which had never been tested in in lower latitudes, (b) the dummy warheads on test units caused the torpedoes to ride higher in the water than real warheads, so that in combat many torpedoes passed under ships even when set for shallow running, and (c) the detonation devices in the nose were too fragile, and a dead-on shot simply destroyed the detonator frame without firing the main explosive charge. It wasn’t until mid-1943 that they got all of those problems solved, at which time Japanese shipping losses jumped considerably.
A very frustrating example of warriors being sent into harm’s way with a “blunt tip of the spear”.
By the way, the reason why there wasn’t adequate testing prior to WWII? Why, real torpedoes were FAR too expensive to be destroyed in a mere test!
@27 Federal prosecutors are working on it. This guy is probably going down on multiple federal charges. But the more relevant question is, what Pentagon jackass gave him the contract in the first place? Must be a political appointee. Probably someone who graduated from Liberty University in January whose prior work experience consists of washing dishes in the college cafeteria.
Hmmm, that kinda sounds like Dino Rossi’s qualifications to be governor.
@29 I think it’s unlikely the Bushies would let a $300 million contract slip through their fingers.
@30 Considering our government spends considerably more than $1 million for every enemy soldier our forces kill, you’d think they would protect their investment by paying a few cents per round for rifle ammunition, regardless of whether it’s fired by our own troops or by our foreign mercenaries I mean allies.
I wonder what dud ammo will do the recruiting? How do you like the idea of going through all that training, being flown halfway around the world, walking miles through the desert, and then when you finally get a bad guy in your sights all your rifle does is go “click.” I can imagine that knowing your leaders are to cheap to pay for new ammo wouldn’t be very good for retention.
do to
Speaking of federal prosecutions…the 11th Circuit Court just order Don Seigelman released from prison pending the appeal of his conviction. At the same time, the House Judiciary Committee has invited him up for a little visit–seems they’re rather interested in the way the case was handled by the Justice Dept.
I have purchased a lot of surplus 9mm, and .308 ammunition. Never had a problem with it. So it can be an acceptable alternative. Of course, I’m guessing that if I bought in those quantities, I’d come across some bad lots…
gbs your such a fuckin joke guess you were booted before carter or clinton.
29 It very well could be the same chinese that Clinton
gave missle technology to. Hell wouldn’t it be funny if
the kid was related to Hillary.