The Stoner Arms Dealers: How Two American Kids Became Big-Time Weapons Traders

Not a new story, but one that has been made into a movie ("War Dogs") that will premiere later this month:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-stoner-arms-dealers-20110316

 

I read the article last night. Wow. Intriguing.

What is bothersome to me is what an ugly, evil world we live in that I venture to say most folks here at home have no clue even exists. Scary. Makes one stop and think.

 

Well, it's no secret that if you're not NATO you are carrying an AK-47 in Afghanistan.
If you're an Afghan National Army grunt manning a checkpoint into Kabul trying to protect against Taliban / ISIS suicide vehicles aiming to kill as many Muslims as they can; or a Provincial Policeman in Jalalabad trying to protect a school for girls against the same bad actors... you are going to need to protect yourself and the noncombatants you have sworn to protect. No reasonable person would argue that is was a noble cause for the United States to incrementally transition their forces out of Afghanistan whilst simultaneously building up the native security forces.

Not sure what the Rolling Stone was driving for - lowest bidder wins government contracts and smoking lots and lots of weed impairs judgement to the point where bad decisions are made. No real news there. But Rolling Stone has a storied history of flawed reporting.

 

Watch this robot bird use a talon-like claw to land safely on a perch
https://www.newscientist.com/articl...-a-talon-like-claw-to-land-safely-on-a-perch/



https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/06/b00k-arms-dudes-guy-lawson-pentagon-contracting/


The Stoner Arms Dealers: How Two American Kids Became Big-Time Weapons Traders

The e-mail confirmed it: everything was finally back on schedule after weeks of maddening, inexplicable delay. A 747 cargo plane had just lifted off from an airport in Hungary and was banking over the Black Sea toward Kyrgyzstan, some 3,000 miles to the east. After stopping to refuel there, the flight would carry on to Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. Aboard the plane were 80 pallets loaded with nearly 5 million rounds of ammunition for AK-47s, the Soviet-era assault rifle favored by the Afghan National Army.

Reading the e-mail back in Miami Beach, David Packouz breathed a sigh of relief. The shipment was part of a $300 million contract that Packouz and his partner, Efraim Diveroli, had won from the Pentagon to arm America’s allies in Afghanistan. It was May 2007, and the war was going badly. After six years of fighting, Al Qaeda remained a menace, the Taliban were resurgent, and NATO casualties were rising sharply. For the Bush administration, the ammunition was part of a desperate, last-ditch push to turn the war(read-"RACKET"-lol) around before the U.S. presidential election the following year. To Packouz and Diveroli, the shipment was part of a major arms deal that promised to make them seriously rich.

Reassured by the e-mail, Packouz got into his brand-new blue Audi A4 and headed home for the evening, windows open, the stereo blasting. At 25, he wasn’t exactly used to the pressures of being an international arms dealer. Only months earlier, he had been making his living as a massage therapist; his studies at the Educating Hands School of Massage had not included classes in military contracting or geopolitical brinkmanship. But Packouz hadn’t been able to resist the temptation when Diveroli, his 21-year-old friend from high school, had offered to cut him in on his burgeoning arms business. Working with nothing but an Internet connection, a couple of cellphones and a steady supply of weed, the two friends — one with a few college credits, the other a high school dropout — had beaten out Fortune 500 giants like General Dynamics to score the huge arms contract. With a single deal, two stoners from Miami Beach had turned themselves into the least likely merchants of death in history.

Arriving home at the Flamingo, his sleek condo with views of the bay, Packouz packed the cone of his Volcano, a smokeless electronic bong. As the balloon inflated with vapors from the high-grade weed, he took a deep toke and felt the pressures of the day drift away into a crisp, clean high.
http://ghostsofanbar.com/news/the-s...merican-kids-became-big-time-weapons-traders/