This is a very interesting expose! I’ve amalgamated two reports including additional links, but, encourage you to read the linked articles, entirely. Germany it appears was less then happy with the US routing of arms through US bases in Germany then onto other US bases in other countries, where the weapons were distributed. Including back to the US, New Jersey! Yes, New Jersey and Piccatiny Arsenal. Emphasis on appears because I question the German and Czech concerns, because often, but not always, appearances are deceiving. Who was unhappy in Germany? What persons? What parties? Is it more for local media populace consumption vs global? Perhaps the domestic population is sick of being occupied by the arms smuggling Americans? What ever the case it seems some consternation has arisen regarding the arms smuggling.An aside, related in a different way- The US has been hit by two hurricanes and they are crying the blues and begging for money all over the place- But, clearly, priorities are very very skewed since the US obviously has multiple billions of dollars, accessible and ready to spend, to destroy other nations.Balkaninsight: German Concerns Spark Pentagon RerouteBalkaninsight: Pentagon 2.2 Billion Arms Pipeline Floods Syria
" The defeat of Islamic State (drawing new colonial borders) in Syria is reliant on a questionable supply-line, funnelling unprecedented quantities of weapons and ammunition from Eastern Europe to some 30,000 anti-ISIS rebel fighters"
You will come to understand that the vast majority of these weapons have fallen into PKK/YPG hands.
"Armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades fresh from state-owned production lines and stockpiles of the Balkans, Central Europe and increasingly the former Soviet Union, these US-backed troops are spearheading the battle to reclaim Raqqa, the capital of the so-called caliphate, and liberate other areas of Syria held by ISIS.The Pentagon’s US Special Operations Command Mission, SOCOM, ordered its contractors to stop trucking Soviet-style weapons from the Balkans through Germany after officials in Berlin became concerned about the deliveries" (I’m not 100 percent convinced that the US really stopped shipments via Germany)
Flashback: September 4/2017: Evidence Makes a Liar of Mattis- Washington Supplied an Army in Northern Syria
"Ankara revealed that the Washington has provided 1,285 truckloads of weapons and ammunition to the PKK's Syrian armed wing, the People's Protection Units (YPG) while they are claiming that only 60 trucks of arms support was sent to the YPG.
Binge buying for US Dirty Wars
"Amid a flurry of negative headlines, the Pentagon needed a new plan: Starting in September 2015, and largely unnoticed by the media, it quietly shifted focus to arming Syrian rebels already on the ground with the Eastern Bloc arms and ammunition they were already using, according to a previously unreported Pentagon document from February 2016.Reporters have pinpointed more than $700 million of spending on weapons and ammunition likely destined for Syrian rebels since September 2015, when the Pentagon’s anti-ISIS train and equip programme shifted strategy.The Department of Defense has budgeted $584 million specifically for this Syrian operation for the financial years 2017 and 2018, and has earmarked another $900 million of spending on Soviet-style munitions between now and 2022.The total, $2.2 billion, likely understates the flow of weapons to Syrian rebels in the coming years"
Flashback- August 18/2017: US to Remain In Syrian “Kurdistan” For Decades After ISIS is “Defeated”
“They have a strategy policy for decades to come. There will be military, economic and political agreements in the long term between the leadership of the northern areas (of Syria) and the US administration,” Selo said.
Earmarked spending on smuggled weapons for Syrian rebels until 2022 with a long term plan of occupation.....
"The first Pentagon delivery, which included 50 tonnes of ammunition, arrived in October 2015, just a month after the shift in policy. The munitions were airdropped to Arab units within the then recently formed Syrian Democratic Forces, SDF, a Kurdish-led coalition currently spearheading the fight to reclaim Raqqa, and the Pentagon’s main ally in Syria.The shipment was far from a one-time event and the SDF was not the only group to receive support – a changing coalition of rebel fighters in Syria’s south east is also being armed by the Pentagon"
" It (the Pentagon) has bought up to $480 million worth of Soviet-style arms and ammunition for Syrian rebels since the switch in strategy, this investigation can reveal, from Afghanistan, Bulgaria, BIH, Croatia, Romania, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Georgia, Poland and Serbia.
The weapons and ammunition that the Pentagon is supplying to Syria are dispatched through a sprawling logistical network, including an army of arms dealers, shipping companies, cargo airlines, German military bases and Balkan airports and ports"
Logistical networks and shipping companies? Perhaps this company or another one just like it? Germany and Romania being mentioned as conduits for shipping arms..
Fast Delivery -The distance between Romania and Germany is only 1597 km – we can cover all this distance in just 20h. Just get in touch with us and see it for yourself.
"The purchases are routed through two channels. One is run by the US military’s Special Operations Command, SOCOM, and the other is operated by Picatinny Arsenal, a little-known New Jersey weapons depot."
Picattiny Arsensal- An apparently little known weapons depot, military base and research facility on 6,400 acres of land. Leaked SOCOM emailGermany: A Logistical Hub
"Germany has long been a key logistical hub for the US army and is home to one of America’s most important air bases in Europe, Ramstein, as well as a nearby ammunition depot at Miesau, the largest of its kind outside the US.But these bases’ role in the Syria supply-line has never been acknowledged by authorities in the US or Germany.
The leaked SOCOM email, Pentagon flight cargo paperwork, UN arms export reports and data on transit licences through Germany support this claim.Following an official request from reporters, Germany’s Economy Ministry revealed an upsurge in weapons transiting to or from US military bases through German territory and onto another country in 2016.The ministry approved 11 land transit licences that year, significantly more than in any year in the previous decade, when the numbers ranged from one to six.Three further approvals were made in the first five months of 2017, although authorities declined to provide additional information, including whether these were heading to or leaving from US Jan Paul van Aken, an MP for the left-wing Die Linke party and a member of the German parliament’s arms control committee, said that “once more it is through Ramstein [US air base in Germany] that the USA organises its dirty wars all around the world.
UN arms export reports for 2015 and 2016 also recorded three weapons transfers from Serbia to an end user of a “US military base in Germany”, with the final importing country entered as “Germany”. This type of entry is unprecedented, bar two others in 2016 noting Serbian exports to a “US military base in Romania”.A vast trove of emails and documents related to Azerbaijan’s state-owned Silk Way air cargo carrier, leaked online in June, also provide further evidence of SOCOM’s use of German bases in 2016 – and the need to reroute after Berlin’s concerns emerged.These revealed that in January 2017, just weeks after the email warning of Germany’s sensitivities about the weapons transports, 20,000 grenades were dispatched to a SOCOM depot in Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, instead of the original destination - Miesau base in Germany – because of “last minute changes to program circumstances”.Bagram was being used as a temporary store for SOCOM activities in Syria and Iraq at the time.
In March, the rerouting was confirmed in a Pentagon report which noted that an extra $23 million was needed for the Syria programme to cover additional transportation costs before the end of September 2017 because of “the inability to consolidate non-US source weapons and equipment in Europe.The Pentagon refused to confirm or deny that its sudden inability to gather Eastern Bloc weapons in Europe was connected to the German concerns, adding that such decisions are made due to “diplomatic” and “logistical” reasons.The revised route for armaments to Syria remains unclear, but details of recent SOCOM flights on Silk Way, according to the leaked documents, show planes carrying weapons from Azerbaijan to Rijeka in Croatia in May and June, and flights from Kazakhstan to Chicago and Frankfurt, suggesting a variety of new paths to the conflict zone"
A standard end user certificate and a "Misleading" SOCOM End user certificate! Related NATO news? Germany, Romania and the Czech Republic deepen defence ties- Feb 15/2017Related: Czech Report
The United States have re-sold old weapons from central and Eastern Europe to Syria, despite guaranteeing to be the end user, the Czech Centre for Investigative Journalism reported on Wednesday. Some of the weapons were reportedly purchased in the Czech Republic. According to the Czech journalists, who cooperated with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, such a procedure would be a breach of the arms trade agreement.
The US is very clearly an arms trading black marketeer of extraordinary scope. Undoubtedly marching hand in hand with their drug smuggling...Last few paragraphs because this is getting very long:
"Weapons continue to pour into Syria to fight ISIS, and fears are growing about what will happen to the arms and fighters when the jihadists are defeated.Wilcken said that he feared for the future of the Middle East. “Given the very complex, fluid situation in Syria … and the existence of many armed groups accused of serious abuses,” he said. “It is difficult to see how the US could ensure arms sent to the region would not be misused.”
Repeating:
“Given the very complex, fluid situation in Syria … and the existence of many armed groups accused of serious abuses,” he said. “It is difficult to see how the US could ensure arms sent to the region would not be misused.”
Assuming the US wants to keep track of these weapons and ensure they would not be misued?I would say that's a very foolish assumption! And a brief video-Everything used here is linked to- my commentary is, of course, my own!The Balkans arms trading reports are in black.