TIRANA, Albania: Albanian officials are raising to 25 the death toll from a massive explosion at an ammunition dump March 15.
e premte, mars 28, 2008
Albania's airport signs €22 million loan with EBRD to extend terminal
TIRANA, Albania: Officials at Albania's Tirana Airport say they have signed a €22 million (US$34.7 million) loan with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to extend the passenger terminal.
Why Ron Paul Scares the GOP
There used to be an organization for people who believed in a truly limited government — limited taxes, limited spending, limited interference in individual lives and limited intervention in foreign affairs. That organization was known as the Republican Party. But the only one of those beliefs that still motivates the G.O.P. establishment is limited taxes. In 2008, people who still hold all of them joined the Ron Paul Revolution.
22 year old crook sells 300 million of faulty ammo to US millitary
With the award last January of a federal contract worth as much as nearly $300 million, the company, AEY Inc., which operates out of an unmarked office in Miami Beach, became the main supplier of munitions to Afghanistan's army and police forces.
Since then, the company has provided ammunition that is more than 40 years old and in decomposing packaging, according to an examination of the munitions by The New York Times and interviews with American and Afghan officials. Much of the ammunition comes from the aging stockpiles of the old Communist bloc, including stockpiles that the State Department and NATO have determined to be unreliable and obsolete, and have spent millions of dollars to have destroyed.
In purchasing munitions, the contractor has also worked with middlemen and a shell company on a federal list of entities suspected of illegal arms trafficking.
Moreover, tens of millions of the rifle and machine-gun cartridges were manufactured in China, making their procurement a possible violation of American law. The company's president, Efraim E. Diveroli, was also secretly recorded in a conversation that suggested corruption in his company's purchase of more than 100 million aging rounds in Albania, according to audio files of the conversation.
"Nothing but the best for our boys!" -- Official White Horse Souse (MR)
U.S. suspends supplier of arms to Afghanistan
# Story Highlights
# AEY Inc. is under investigation for reportedly dealing in Chinese ammunition
# According to government contract, company cannot buy munitions from the Chinese
# Army memo: Government awarded AEY contracts worth in excess of $200 million
# Army Documents reveal ammunition arrived in Afghanistan corroded, poorly packed
Incompetence Alert: Pentagon gives inexperienced 22 year-old $300 million contract
So to recap: During the free-cash-giveaway that is defense contracting, the Pentagon awards $300 million to the company of a clueless 22 year old, resulting in our soldiers having to use substandard weaponry.
Confusion persists over death toll in Albanian munitions blast
Tirana - Two weeks after the huge blast at a munitions depot levelled the village Gerdec on outskirts of the Albanian capital Tirana, authorities could still not say how many people were killed, reports said Thursday. So far 24 casualties were confirmed in Gerdec, but the fate of some 120 people who were supposed to have been in the facility when it exploded on March 15 remains unclear.
e enjte, mars 27, 2008
Tirana explodes: Albanian families pick up pieces of their shattered lives
Albanian families are picking up the pieces of their shattered lives after the explosion of the military depot in Gërdec village, 12 km from the capital city Tirana, that left thousands of people homeless, traumatized and hurt on 15 March.
Albania Leaders In Arms Trafficking Row
The row erupted after the New York Times accused Albanian officials of murky deals with United States-based AEY. The company, had its contract with the U.S. military revoked this week amid claims by the paper it was supplying decades-old ammunition to the Afghan army.
Supplier under scrutiny on aging arms for Afghans
Efraim Diveroli, was also secretly recorded in a conversation that suggested corruption in his company's purchase of more than 100 million aging rounds in Albania, according to an audio file of the conversation.
Joining Nato would lift prospects
These are momentous days for Albania. Two separate events - Kosovo's declaration of independence and the likelihood of receiving an invitation to join the Nato alliance - offer one of Europe's poorest countries an unprecedented chance of improving its long-term prospects.
After Nato the next challenge will be EU membership
The recent explosions at an ammunition depot near Tirana, serve as a reminder that Albania remains well behind much of the rest of Europe in the enforcement of health and safety standards.
Abonohu te:
Postimet (Atom)
