Terrorism for Sale!

Why destroy a perfectly good heat seeking missile when you can just sell it to the highest bidder? Just ask these defense contractors who sold surplus US military hardware to undercover agents when they were supposed to be disposing of the weapons.

Undercover government investigators purchased sensitive surplus military equipment such as launcher mounts for shoulder-fired missiles and guided missile radar test sets from a Defense Department contractor.

Much of the equipment could be useful to terrorists, according to a draft report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

In June, two GAO investigators spent $1.1 million on such equipment at two excess property warehouses. Their purchases included several types of body armor inserts used by troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, an all-band antenna used to track aircraft, and a digital signal converter used in naval surveillance.

"The body armor could be used by terrorists or other criminal activity," noted the report, obtained Friday by The Associated Press. "Many of the other military items have weapons applications that would also be useful to terrorists."

Thousands of items that should have been destroyed were sold to the public, the report said. Much of the equipment was sold for pennies on the dollar.

The list included circuit cards used in computerized Navy systems, a cesium technology timing unit with global positioning capabilities, and 12 digital microcircuits used in F-14 Tomcat fighter aircraft.

At least 2,669 sensitive military items were sold to 79 buyers in 216 sales transactions from November 2005 to June 2006.

"DOD has not enforced security controls for preventing sensitive excess military equipment from release to the public," the report concluded. "GAO was able to purchase these items because controls broke down at virtually every step in the excess property turn-in and disposal process."
I know I feel safer already. Honestly, what the fuck is wrong with these people? Even the NRA, who will defend to the death the right of hunters to use fully automatic military assault rifles to take down a deer, might be a little hesitant to claim that there is any legitimate civilian use for a launcher mount for guided missile systems. It's hard to imagine any defense contractor not at least having a slight feeling of unease at the notion that people were willing to buy this hardware clandestinely, for large sums of money, without any known affiliation to any government.

And yet, the American people are expected to give up our freedoms because we know that the government is trying its hardest to make us all safe from the terrorists.

Here's what I want to know: if it is the actions of our government and its official associates that are actively making us less safe by putting this sort of weaponry into the hands of anyone willing to pony up the necessary cash, then why did we give up any freedoms in the first place?

web address: http://suicidegirls.com/news/all/17314/Terrorism-for-Sale/