The Army Sustainment Command gave the Miami Beach-based AEY, Inc. $300 million to supply ammo to the Afghanistan government. The 22 year-old [founder of AEY], Efraim E. Diveroli, used the money to buy unusable, discarded artillery from Russia, Albania and other former Eastern Bloc countries. These are the same weapons the State Dept. has spent millions trying to destroy since the Cold War.AEY, Inc. is no longer doing business with the Army, with the stated reason that it illegally bought weapons from China. Those weapons, apparently, didn't work either.
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.[...]
This week, after repeated inquiries about AEY’s performance by The Times, the Army suspended the company from any future federal contracting, citing shipments of Chinese ammunition and claiming that Mr. Diveroli misled the Army by saying the munitions were Hungarian.
Misled?
[P]roblems with the ammunition were evident last fall in places like Nawa, Afghanistan, an outpost near the Pakistani border, where an Afghan lieutenant colonel surveyed the rifle cartridges on his police station’s dirty floor. Soon after arriving there, the cardboard boxes had split open and their contents spilled out, revealing ammunition manufactured in China in 1966.“This is what they give us for the fighting,” said the colonel, Amanuddin, who like many Afghans has only one name. “It makes us worried, because too much of it is junk.” Ammunition as it ages over decades often becomes less powerful, reliable and accurate.
Part of our confidence-building within our nation-building operations. But I don’t know. Why should we be giving Afghans proper equipment when U.S. soldiers don’t?
[An] examination of AEY’s background, through interviews in several countries, reviews of confidential government documents and the examination of some of the ammunition, suggests that Army contracting officials, under pressure to arm Afghan troops, allowed an immature company to enter the murky world of international arms dealing on the Pentagon’s behalf — and did so with minimal vetting and through a vaguely written contract with few restrictions.
Well, it’s really not their fault, Mr. Rumsfeld would have said. Stuff happens. You go to war with the army you have. They didn’t have much time to prepare for this war.
Mr. Diveroli, in a brief telephone interview late last year, denied any wrongdoing. “I know that my company does everything 100 percent on the up and up, and that’s all I’m concerned about,” he said.
That and a little domestic trouble.
In November 2005, a young woman sought an order of protection from him in the domestic violence division of Dade County Circuit Court.The woman eventually did not appear in court, and her allegations were never ruled on. But in court papers, the woman said that after her relationship with Mr. Diveroli ended, he stalked her and left threatening messages.
Once, according to the file, his behavior included “shoving her to the ground and refusing to allow her to leave during a verbal dispute.” Other times, she reported, Mr. Diveroli arrived at her home unannounced and intoxicated “going about the exterior, banging on windows and doors.”
Mr. Diveroli sought court delays on national security grounds.
And a little forgery trouble.
On Dec. 21, 2006, the police were called back to the condominium. Mr. Diveroli and AEY’s vice president, David M. Packouz, had just been in a fight with the valet parking attendant.The fight began, the police said, after the attendant refused to give Mr. Diveroli his keys and Mr. Diveroli entered the garage to get them himself. A witness said Mr. Diveroli and Mr. Packouz both beat the man; police photographs showed bruises and scrapes on his face and back.
When the police searched Mr. Diveroli, they found he had a forged driver’s license that added four years to his age and made him appear old enough to buy alcohol as a minor. His birthday had been the day before.
“I don’t even need that any more,” he told the police, the report said. “I’m 21 years old.”
Dude. I trade arms for the U.S. government.
AEY was awarded the contract in January 2007. Asked why it chose AEY, the Army Sustainment Command answered in writing: “AEY’s proposal represented the best value to the government.”
Heaven help us all.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
There is more. Much more.
Update: Some interesting tidbits turn up in the comments at TPM.
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