Posts Tagged ‘Ivory Coast’
Oh, good. You found our missing military command post.
Wow – we could sell these to FEMA
The French army top-brass were left red-faced when after a mobile command post worth 600,000 euros complete with military computers, was stolen…
The modular command post system, which resembles a cargo container, was discovered during the search of a warehouse in Bobigny, northeast of Paris, that had been rented by a man suspected of fraud…
The army noticed the command post was missing from its Montlhery barracks south of Paris during an inventory on July 18. Investigators suspect someone inside the barracks of involvement with the theft as the command unit can only be moved by a flatbed truck.
The Le Parisien newspaper reported the command post was supposed to have been sent to the Ivory Coast, where former colonial ruler France has a large military presence supporting a United Nations peacekeeping mission.
A 46-year-old Ivorian national and another suspect have been arrested and another two other suspects are being investigated, the local magistrate said.
Heartwarming to learn that military services outside the United States have traditions comparable to Sergeant Bilko. And it’s just as easy to steal from the French Army as it is from Uncle Sugar.
FBI nabbed colonel on official business – arms smuggling!
Preparing for elections,eh?
An Ivory Coast man arrested while allegedly trying to buy weapons in New York last week was on official business, a spokesman for his government says.
Former Ivory Coast Defense Minister Bertin Kadet told Radio France Internationale that the man arrested by the FBI was an army colonel named Yao N’Guessan.
Kadet said N’Guessan was sent to New York to purchase crowd control armaments in advance of the Ivory Coast’s October elections.
The FBI said N’Guessan allegedly was engaged in a deal worth more than $3.8 million for 4,000 handguns, 200,000 rounds of ammunition and 50,000 tear gas grenades when he was apprehended.
The funds to purchase the armaments had already been transferred to the United States.
Opponents of Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbago say the arms purchase was intended to keep his party in power.
The United Nations imposed an embargo on arms to the Ivory Coast in 2004.
That’s what happens when you send an amateur out on a shopping trip like this one.
He should have worked through traditional channels, discovered which members of Congress would grease the wheels of international arms sales for him, which lobbyists needed to be engaged to avoid anything like law or principle getting in the way.
