The House Oversight Committee has received evidence that the U.S.
Embassy in Albania approved an effort to conceal the illegal
origins of ammunition shipped to Afghanistan by AEY, a Florida arms
dealer whose 22-year-old president was indicted last week.
AEY purchased outdated ammunition and sold it to the U.S Government to arm the Afghan forces that the U.S. military hopes will lead the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Much of the 40-year-old ammunition came from aging stockpiles of
the old former Soviet Union that the State Department
and NATO have determined to be unreliable and spent millions of dollars to destroy.
In
a letter from Rep. Henry Waxman, Chairman of the Oversight Committee, to Secretary Rice today, Waxman requested several
Embassy officials to appear before the Committee for transcribed
interviews as well as relevant documents. The letter stated that the
Oversight Committee received information that "the U.S. Ambassador to
Albaniaheld a late-night meeting with the Albanian Defense Minister at
which the Ambassador approved removing evidence of the illegal Chinese
origins of ammunition being shipped from Albania to Afghanistan by a
U.S. contractor. The Committee has also received information that State
Department officials tried to conceal this information from the Committee."
The letter went on to state that Major Larry Harrison, the Chief of the Office of Defense Cooperation at the U.S. Embassy in Albania provided evidence that the U.S. Ambassador to Albania and his aids worked with the Albanian government to removed Chinese packaging from the ammunition before New York Times reporters came to investigate the arms cache.
"On November 19,2007, the U.S. Ambassador to Albania and his top aides met with the Albanian Defense Minister to discuss how to respond to a request by the New York Times to visit a site in Albania where a U.S. arms contractor, AEY, Inc., was removing Chinese ammunition from its original packaging before sending it to Afghanistan.
As a result of discussions that went late into the night, the Albanian Defense Minister ordered one of his top generals to remove all evidence of Chinese packaging before the site was inspected the following day. Major Harrison told the Committee: 'the Ambassador agreed that this would alleviate the suspicion of wrongdoing.'
On Friday, the Justice Department announced the indictment ofAEY and four company officials for concealing the Chinese origins of the ammunition shipped from Albania to Afghanistan. Although the circumstances are different, the evidence the Committee has received suggests that on at least one occasion, Embassy officials also played a role in concealing the Chinese origins of the ammunition. This evidence raises questions about both the State Department's role in the shipment of illegal Chinese ammunition and the candor of the Department's responses to the Committee. To assist the Committee in its ongoing investigation, I request that several Embassy officials appear before the Committee for transcribed interviews. I also request that you provide relevant documents to the Committee."
Read the letter
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