A Syria Ukraine Military Connection?

While most breaking news stories suggest North Korea as the source for a possible Air Defense System enroute to Syria, piecing together a few International stories suggests North Korea may not be to blame. Twenty-one vehicles are now being detained in Cyprus.

Police said they have completed their investigation on the cargo vessel and found that 18 out of 21 trucks were fitted with mobile radar that "appear to be part of an air defence system".

But three pieces of possibly pertinent information seem to be getting lost in the majority of reports. Only one AFP version of the story I could find claims the ship did not originally launch from North Korea, but China.

But Interpol informed Cyprus that the Gregorio 1 may be involved in arms smuggling and was loaded with the shipment in China and North Korea.

Still, perhaps even more intersting is the information below, only reported once in a Cyprus weekly.

The majority of the crew are Ukrainian apart from a single Russian.

That could prove to be a very interesting bit of information. According to the Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 2002, after the start of the war in Iraq, the US accused the Ukraine of illegally selling Air Defense Systems to Iraq.

The United States is accusing Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma of authorizing the illegal $100 million sale of four Kolchuga radar stations to Iraq in violation of UN sanctions. Unlike conventional radars, the Kolchuga emits no radio pulse, but works by passively scanning the electronic signals given off by incoming aircraft. The US fears the units could help Iraqi air defenses survive an attack, because American antiradar weapons work by homing in on radar beams.

The ship involved, the Gregorio 1, is said to have changed its flag five times in five years. The arms trade, illegal, or otherwise, is a very murky business. What better way to disguise a shipment from the Ukraine than by shipping it through China and North Korea, assuming they'd most likely be blamed?

Comments

[splashtc]

No big suprise-the russians are prostitutes.

[TigerHawk]

That's a good bit of work, Dan. Sharp reading.