Missile Sting Praised

[QuietStorm]

snip

MOSCOW (AP) -- U.S. President George W. Bush called President Vladimir Putin on Saturday to swap praise over the international sting operation earlier in the week that resulted in the arrest of an arms dealer accused by the United States of arranging to sell a Russian shoulder-fired missile, the Kremlin said.

Putin's press service said the two leaders "with satisfaction noted that the close cooperation in the fight against terrorism is yielding concrete results." Both leaders "highly appraised" the joint operation, the Kremlin said....

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/08/18/031.html

WTF - I guess the outage eclipsed this story and what now? Praise for the sting mission by Putin???

[QuietStorm]

1. Much ado about a missile (aug 16, 2003)

snip

There has been much media hype about a joint operation mounted by the USA's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Russia's Federal Security Service and the MI5 (Security Service) and MI6 (Secret Intelligence Service) of the UK, which resulted in the arrest of three persons, one of them a British arms smuggler, and the recovery of a surface-to-air missile (SAM) of Russian make, which had been procured in Russia and smuggled to the US for possible sale to jihadi terrorists.

The operation has been projected as reflecting unprecedented co-operation amongst the services of the three countries and as yet another success in the war against terrorism. A Russian claim that the missile was intended to be used against the US Air Force aircraft in which President Bush normally travels has been denied by the FBI.

The most important point to underline is that it was a sting operation mounted by the FBI with the co-operation of the services of Russia and the UK. Two unposed and hence unanswered questions in this regard are: first, was it a sting operation from the beginning till the end and, if not, at what stage it became one; and, second, whether the Russian and British services also knew that it was a sting operation...

http://sify.com/news/othernews/fullstory.php?id=13226668

[NYC]

2. That's not such a rosy article.

...whether the Russian and British services also knew that it was a sting operation...

[jamesinca]

3. The joke was told the day after the sting happened

It was on the news that the whole thing was being played by the White House. Russian and British sources were saying that it was mostly a photo-op type thing. The point they made was this: 1 missle, by one person who bought it from an undercover agent and sold it to an undercover agent. 1 missle is nothing in the blackmarket, thousands get moved everyday. This guy was a bit player at best. Because of the selling of a dummy missle from an undercover agent to an undercover agent, was this entrapment? That was a point that was also made. I was suprised to see those things come out so quick about this story. FOX was showing Bush on the farm talking to the press about the greatness of patriotic Americas in his administration because of this major operation to prevent a cosmic terrorist event. CNN was showing a Russian govt. person saying it was a joke, and nothing more than a photo op.

[QuietStorm]

5. To tell you the truth

and I do not want to go into personal stories, but if the feds want you and perhaps you have organized crime dealings 1 of anything is enough to do you. It just depends who wants you out of the way. I am not saying that is what happened here that perhaps someone wanted lakani out of the way for more personal reasons, but if they want you out short of a hit they will get you out. In the black market arms trade is as murky as the black market drug trade, payola, double dealings, blah blah blah. As I said from jump, my gut thought perhaps the whole thing is a cover for something else, but I really don't have a workable scenario for that.

[QuietStorm]

4. no not so good

I started out after 9/11 trying to anticipate changes in alliance, but there are so many damn crisscrosses and all is so fair in love and war. Russia is a big part of the caspian consortium and also it seems in alliance with Saudi Arabia and OPEC with SA recently aligning with Iran to strengthen OPEC. Which is very strange considering the Saudi Royal collusion with Carlyle, an alliance in conflict the US Israel partnership. Double dealings and counter espionage are bound to be difficult to track or understand. That said, I am not sure we are talking about the same thing in regards to it being not so good.