Nov 10
by Matt Schroeder
Photos of firearms seized from criminals in Colombia are poignant reminders of the importance of strong controls on government arsenals.
The photos, which were provided to the FAS’ Arms Sales Monitoring Project by the Colombian National Police, are of firearms reportedly seized in the department of Narino from a paramilitary group called the Organizacion Nueva Generacion (New Generation Organization). The weapons include an H&K G3 assault rifle apparently diverted from the “Guardia Republicana de Peru” (Republican Guard of Peru), an Argentine-manufactured FN rifle, an Israeli Military Industries (IMI) Galil rifle bearing the initials “P.N.C” (Policia National de Colombia) and an FN FAL rifle stamped “Fuerzas Navales de Venezuela.” The only weapon that does not bear markings of a government agency is an old Interdynamic KG-99 sub-machine gun.
The document from which the photos were taken provides no additional information the source of firearms or how and when they entered the black market. Most of the weapons appear to be quite old and in poor condition. Nonetheless, they do underscore the risk of diversion from government arsenals and the need for robust stockpile security.
Photos:
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written by Matt Schroeder
\\ tags: arms trafficking, Colombia, small arms, Venezuela
Nov 02
Missile Watch
A publication of the FAS Arms Sales Monitoring Project
Vol. 2, Issue 2
October 2009
Written by Matt Schroeder and Scoville Fellow Matt Buongiorno
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written by Matt Schroeder
\\ tags: arms trafficking, manpads, Russia, small arms, UN, United States, Venezuela
Oct 13
By Matt Schroeder
Documents provided to the Federation of American Scientists by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York provide additional details about the case against alleged arms trafficker Viktor Bout, but many important questions remain (publicly) unanswered. Below is a brief summary of these documents and their significance. Continue reading »
written by Matt Schroeder
\\ tags: Arms Sales, arms trafficking, Colombia, manpads, Russia, small arms
Aug 24
By Matt Schroeder
The recent discovery of Swedish AT-4 anti-tank rockets sold to Venezuela in a Colombian rebel arms cache raises serious questions about Venezuela’s ability to safeguard its arsenal of modern weaponry, including dozens of advanced SA-24 shoulder-fired, surface-to-air missiles. Given the potential threat posed by these missiles and other weapons in Venezuela’s rapidly growing arsenal, the international community should take immediate steps to identify and close the gaps in Venezuela’s stockpile security and to ensure that the end-use monitoring conducted by states that export weapons to Venezuela is sufficiently robust.
According to Colombian authorities, Swedish anti-tank rocket launchers were found in October 2008 in an arms cache allegedly linked to the FARC. On July 27th, Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos asserted that “[i]n several operations in which we have recovered weapons from the FARC, we have found powerful munitions and powerful equipment, including anti-tank weapons, from a European country that sold them to Venezuela and that turned up in the hands of the FARC.” Thomas Samuelsson of the Swedish firm Saab Bofors Dynamics confirmed that the AT-4 rockets were manufactured and sold to Venezuela by his firm. The Venezuelan government responded harshly to Colombia’s revelation, calling it “laughable” and recalling the Venezuelan ambassador to Colombia.
This is not the first time that Colombian authorities have discovered Venezuelan weapons in rebel arms caches. In 2006, the Federation of American Scientists called attention to several reports of Venezuelan firearms acquired by the FARC, sometimes “…in lots of 50,” according to a demobilized guerrilla interviewed by Jane’s Information Group. In most of these cases, it is not clear what role, if any, that Venezuelan government officials played in the diversion. There is much speculation about the regime’s support of the FARC and its role in arms trafficking to the embattled rebel group, but verifying accusations of high-level complicity by the Venezuelan government based on information in the public domain is nearly impossible and, at one level, it doesn’t matter. The Venezuelan government is responsible for safeguarding the military’s arsenal and should be held accountable for any diverted weapons, regardless of the circumstances surrounding their diversion. The focus, therefore, should shift from the fruitless back-and-forth with Chavez over his regime’s alleged support for the FARC to identifying the specific sources of diverted weapons, bolstering Venezuelan stockpile security, and calling on states that arm Venezuela to closely monitor their exported weapons. Continue reading »
written by Matt Schroeder
\\ tags: Arms Sales, manpads, small arms, Venezuela
Apr 17
At a press conference in Mexico City yesterday, President Obama urged the Senate to take up the Inter-American Convention against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Other Related Materials, which is often referred to by its Spanish acronym, CIFTA.
The Convention aims to curtail the illicit international trade in small arms by requiring member states to establish basic export controls and to cooperate with each other to stop international arms trafficking. These controls include the establishment of effective systems for authorizing international arms transfers, identifying and preventing arms trafficking at border points, exchanging information on illicit trafficking and best practices for combating it, and providing technical assistance to countries attempting to increase their capacity to identify and thwart arms trafficking. As stated in the preamble, “this Convention does not commit States Parties to enact legislation or regulations pertaining to firearms ownership, possession, or trade of a wholly domestic character…”
The US played an important role in drafting the Convention, and was one of the first signatories in November, 1997. The Convention was transmitted to the Senate in June 1998 and, more than a decade later, still awaits the Senate’s advice and consent. To date, 29 of the 34 OAS member states have ratified the Convention. Only the US, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and St. Vincent & Grenadines have yet to take that step.
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written by Matt Schroeder
\\ tags: Arms Sales, small arms, United States
Feb 05
The President’s foreign aid budget request for FY2008 contains an unexpected and laudable surprise: a five-fold increase in funding for the State Department’s Small Arms/Light Weapons Destruction initiaitive. If approved by Congress, the additional funding will bolster US efforts to stem the illicit trade in deadly light weapons.
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written by Matt Schroeder
\\ tags: arms trafficking, small arms, United States
Dec 19
On November 29th, Venezuela received the final shipment of the 100,000 AK-103 assault rifles that it purchased from Russia last year. Despite the high-profile nature of this sale, little is known about Venezuela’s plans for safeguarding the rifles, which would be a hot commodity on the region’s vibrant black market. It’s time to start asking some tough questions about the rifles and President Chavez’s plan for protecting them.
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written by Matt Schroeder
\\ tags: arms trafficking, small arms, Venezuela
May 30
Last week, lawmakers demonstrated their commitment to reining in the black market trade in deadly conventional weapons by forwarding two important bills to the full House and Senate. On Tuesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the Lugar-Obama Act (S. 2566) by voice vote and without amendment. The bill calls on the State Department to “carry out an accelerated global program” to secure or dispose of surplus and poorly secured man-portable air defense systems and other conventional weapons, and authorizes an additional $25 million in funding for the State Department to accomplish this mission. Two days later, the House International Relations Committee followed suit by passing, also by voice vote and without amendment, the “Shoulder-fired Missile Reduction Act of 2006″ (HR 5333), which authorizes an additional $35 million for securing and destroying poorly secured weapons and imposes sanctions on governments that knowingly transfer MANPADS to terrorists and their state sponsors. Both bills enjoy broad bipartisan support.
A summary of HR 5333 was posted on the SSP blog on May 11th. The full text of the bill and the Lugar-Obama Act is available on the ASMP’s “Bills and Laws” page.
written by Matt Schroeder
\\ tags: small arms, United States
Mar 30
At a Senate hearing on the foreign aid budget on Tuesday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice underscored the importance of “…deny[ing] terrorists access to the world’s most dangerous weapons, including conventional weapons like MANPADS,” and pointed to funding increases in the President’s FY07 budget for State Department programs that “help countries counter the proliferation of dangerous weapons and materials.” While it is true that the FY07 budget request does increase funding for combating the spread of WMD, programs aimed at reducing the threat from surplus and poorly secured conventional weapons – the weapons of choice for many terrorists – actually take a (slight) hit in the President’s budget. The $8.6 million request for the State Department’s small arms/light weapons destruction fund in FY07 is $60,000 less than the program’s budget for FY06.
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written by Matt Schroeder
\\ tags: small arms, United States
Mar 09
The FY07 Congressional Budget Justification for Foreign Operations is now available on the State Department’s website. The CBJ contains a detailed breakdown of the President’s budget request for foreign aid programs, including programs related to conventional arms threat reduction.
Of particular importance is the $8.6 million request for the State Department’s SA/LW destruction program. This amount is a slight decrease from last year’s budget of $8.663 million, and it falls far short of Congressional expectations. At a Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) hearing on February 9th, Senator Joseph Biden remarked that “$8 million doesn’t even get a blip on the screen,” a sentiment echoed by Senator Barak Obama, who called it “decimal dust.” State Department Undersecretary Robert Joseph acknowledged that his team could do more on conventional weapons reduction if it had more money, but warned against diverting funds from other valuable nonproliferation programs.
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written by Matt Schroeder
\\ tags: small arms, United States
