August 2004: US Transports Arms out of Bosnia Intended for Iraqi Security Forces using Network of Shady Firms

The Defense Department secretly contracts Taos Industries, Inc. to coordinate a shipment of 99,000kg of AK-47 type assault rifles from Bosnia to Iraq using a complicated labyrinth of private contractors. The company that is hired to do the actual shipping is a Moldovan air firm by the name of Aerocom. The company, which operates from a US base in Bosnia, just recently had its Air Operating Certificate revoked because of concerns expressed by EU member states about the company’s “safety and security record.” (The company has a shady history—in 2003, the company was implicated in the “diamonds-for-guns trade” in Liberia and Sierra Leone.) In 2006, an investigation by Amnesty International will be unable to locate any evidence that the rifles actually reached the Iraqi security forces, the intended recipient. A commanding general in charge of training Iraqi security forces tells the organization that no weapons ever arrived from Bosnia. Even Taos is unable to produce any evidence that the shipment made it to Iraq. [Amnesty International, 5/10/2006, pp. 104-121 ; Guardian, 5/12/2006]