Sales of US military gear 'pose terror risk' (GAO report)

[sabra]

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.asp?feed=FT&Date=20060725&ID=5895305

Sales of US military gear 'pose terror risk'

Investigators using false identities were able to obtain more than $1m of sensitive military equipment from the US department of defence, according to a government report released on Tuesday.

The equipment included body armour, launcher mounts for shoulder-fired guided missiles, components for F-14 fighter aircraft, biochemical weapons protection suits, guided missile radar test sets and various sensitive surveillance technologies. Many of those items have applications that could be "useful to terrorists", the report from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) says.

The defence department routinely disposes of excess military equipment either through cut-rate sales to the public or to government contractors. Any item that has a possible military application is supposed to be destroyed. But investigators from the GAO, disguising themselves as private citizens or defence contractors, obtained the sensitive equipment. Some of the body armour and the F-14 parts, which included circuit boards, were obtained over the internet, they said.

The GAO also found that between November 2005 and June this year buyers were able to obtain more than 2,500 kinds of sensitive military equipment at public sales. The GAO said it had notified federal and local law enforcement officials of the sales. At a House hearing on the report on Tuesday, Christopher Shays, the chairman of the national security subcommittee of the government reform committee, described the problem as "an outrage".

[TomInTib]

1. I know of a pawn shop in Pasadena, Texas that has been buying

all kinds of s**t and selling it to gangs.

[saigon68]

2. Parts for F-14 fighter aircraft are really useful if you smoke crack

Outside of being able to make a CRACK PIPE out of some of the ALUMINUM tubing, you can always repair the F-14 you have sitting in the carport next to your Condo

ASS CLOWNS--- AND THE SHEEP FALL FOR THIS SHIT.

[pinniped]

3. Dammit, someone beat me to an F-14 joke.

Oh well.

And those baaaaaad dudes were soooooooooooooooooo close to assemblying their very own F-14s.

We paid for this shit. A lot of people collect old military junk.

They didn't find any actual missiles for those launcher mounts so WTF is the problem?

[pinniped]

4. There used to be an old A-7 Corsair parked at the park ....

in San Francisco before, 19th avenue and Vicente to be exact.

I don't want no stinking F-14 parts.

If they only sold A-7 engines, A-7 avionics, and a bunch of other shit it needed, I could fly it right off the grass it was parked on. Come to think of it, there was not enough room for takeoff. So, I would need to purchase a complete surplus aircraft carrier steam catapult system and install it in the grass. I would also need a few of those surplus dudes that wear colored helmets on the carriers to help set up the catapult and launch.

They would also need to sell me a surplus pilot's license, flight suit, and a set of wings, because I don't have those.

[saigon68]

5. You could get Commander Codpiece as your Co-Pilot

[derby378]

6. Since when is selling body armor to civilians...

...considered to be a bad thing? Sheesh.