4 British Soldiers Admit Iraq Gun Plot

[DoYouEverWonder]

December 11, 2006

LONDON -- Four British soldiers admitted involvement Monday in a plot to smuggle pistols out of Iraq to sell them for cash to other British troops.

During a court-martial, two of the soldiers -- Lance Cpl. Ross Phillips and Pvt. Shane Pleasant -- admitted possession of a prohibited pistol.

The other two -- Lance Cpl. Ben Whitfield and Pvt. Robert Marlow -- each admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice.

All four are from the 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, which was stationed in southern Iraq between October 2004 and May 2005.

The four admitted involvement in a plot to buy pistols in Iraq, where they were easily available on the black market, and sell them to fellow soldiers at the battalion's base in Germany.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-britain-iraq-smuggling,0,4447723.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines


Nice to know that guns are so easy to get in Iraq.

[cassiepriam]

1. I bet there are all kinds of interesting things available on the black market

in Iraq.

A desperate Iraqi people, lots of American GIS with lots of US cash.

Bet you can get anything you want.
Except a ticket out of Iraq.

[Jed Dilligan]

2. The report from my friend in the Green Zone 2 yrs. ago:

Lebanese hash, Syrian whiskey, and, strangely enough, shrooms. Imagine being on shrooms in Baghdad right now.

[cassiepriam]

3. I have no doubt you can get any kind of illegal drug your heart desires

in Iraq right now. Reasonably priced.

And any thing else you might want.

[benEzra]

8. Hey, the strategists in Washington apparently are...

Imagine being on shrooms in Baghdad right now.

Hey, the strategists in Washington apparently are...

[benEzra]

4. Rocket launchers are easy to get in Iraq...

as are machineguns, grenades, and explosives.

There was a report on the other day where some reporters went to a bazaar and were shown an RPG, machineguns, and actual Iraqi police cars with light bars and all the proper insignias. All for sale.

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. Where are the US Troops

to shut these vendors down? Too busy playing sitting ducks out in Anbar Province?

[Nihil]

6. Woohoo good move!

Do you think you could find me ONE soldier who thinks it would
be a good idea to advance with hostile intent upon an arms fair
for militants?

Given the mindset of most of the clientele and the convenient supply
of weapons & ammunition, does it not strike you as a trifle suicidal
to send US troops to "shut these vendors down"?

They might be stupid but they're not *that* stupid.

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. Then if we are too afraid to enforce law and order

then maybe we shouldn't be there at all?

[Nihil]

11. Exactly

End the pretence that there is any form of control as that only achieves
two things: it encourages the idiots back home to keep the soldiers in
place and it gives the Iraqis a supply of targets to vent their feelings
of revenge, frustration and (US-imposed) despair.

Bring them home (and pray that they get medical help before reverting to
the same behaviour that they've been living for the last few years).

[benEzra]

7. They'd be even worse sitting ducks strolling through a marketplace

and asking to see what the vendors had for sale. And I'm sure the vendors wouldn't show them the real wares, either. "RPG's? No, I'm just an honest businessman selling these vegetables, sorry."

Here's the New York Times story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/world/middleeast/10weapons.html?ref=world

“In the south, if the Americans give the Iraqis weapons, the next day you can buy them here,” said one dealer, who sold groceries in the front of his kiosk and offered weapons in the back. “The Iraqi Army, the Iraqi police — they all sell them right away.”

No weapons were displayed when two visitors arrived. But when asked, the owner and a friend swiftly retrieved six pistols, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and three Kalashnikovs from a car and another room. The rifles and the grenade launcher were wrapped in rice sacks. He slipped two of the rifles out of the cloth. They were spotless and unworn, inside and out, and appeared never to have been used. They had folding stocks and were priced at $560 each. The dealer said they had recently been taken from an Iraqi armory. “Almost all of the weapons come from the Iraqi police and army,” he said. “They are our best suppliers.”

. . .

When asked if he was surprised that the Iraqi police and soldiers sold their own guns, he scoffed.

“Everything goes to the bazaar,” he said.

He added: “It is not only pistols. A lot of police cars are being sold. The smugglers brought us three cars and asked if we wanted to buy them. Their doors were still blue, and police labels were on them. The lights were still on top.”

[krispos42]

9. Shopping list

Two steaks,
Two baking potatoes,
Lettuce,
Cucumber,
Tomato,
Two onions,
Mushrooms,
Olives,
Second Kalishnikov from the left.

And could you double-bag that, please?