$300m munitions contract suspended

[Petra]

It's mindboggling that the contract was awarded in the first place. How the hell did the kid get it? Very, very strange.


http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/...anistan-03152/

Small business qualifier AEY Inc. in Miami Beach, FL received a delivery order amount of $48.7 million as part of a $298 million firm-fixed-price contract for various ammunition for the Afghanistan Security Forces. AEY, Inc. was established in 1999; unsurprisingly, Craigslist says they’re hiring.
Work will be performed in Miami, FL and is expected to be complete by Dec. 30, 2008. Bids were solicited via the World Wide Web on July 28, 2007, and 10 bids were received by the U.S. Army Sustainment Command in Rock Island, IL (W52P1J-07-D-0004).
Ammunition and weapon shortages been an reported issue in Afghanistan, where police and other security forces trainees have been forced to use fake wooden rifles at times.

The Associated Press: Grandfather defends suspended military contractor as legitimate weapons dealer

According to an Army Legal Services memo, AEY began contracting for the Defense and State departments in 2004. To date, the company has been awarded more than 150 contracts, worth more than $200 million. Its key contract was awarded last year for various types of ammunition for the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police. AEY also sold weapons, grenades, grenade launchers, rockets and clothing to the Pentagon and State Department.

Federal Contracts for Federal Fiscal Year : 2007, Place of Performance State : Florida, Contractor : AEY, INC., Level of Detail : Summary


A contractor led by a 22-year-old hasÂ*givenÂ*useless ammo to Afghan security forces. - By Daniel Politi - Slate Magazine

The New York Times leads with an investigation into a weapons contractor that has been providing Afghan security forces with lots of old and useless ammunition. The company, AEY Inc., is led by a 22-year-old who has no discernible experience in military procurement and has had problems with the law. After the paper began making inquiries, the Army decided to suspend AEY from any further contracts, but it seems clear the problems with the munitions were fairly obvious to anyone who was bothering to pay attention.

The NYT's lead story, which clocks in at more than 4,000 words and involves reporting by seven reporters in as many countries, has several key pieces of damning information, and each could have made up a story by itself, but added together they paint a shocking picture of the underworld of the arms trade, not to mention the inefficiencies in the federal procurement process. Here's a highlight: Some of the ammunition provided by AEY is more than 40 years old; much of it came from former Communist countries and involves obsolete stockpiles that the State Department has paid to destroy; to maximize profits, the materiel was often sent in inappropriate packages that quickly disintegrated; AEY appears to have done business with people whom the federal government suspects of illegal arms trafficking; and millions of pieces of ammunition were manufactured in China, which could mean the company broke U.S. law. Not enough for you? To top it all off, a conversation between the company's president and an Albanian businessman, which was secretly recorded, suggest the 22-year-old executive was well-aware that his purchases involved lots of kickbacks and corruption.

http://hk.

YouTube - Gerdec: 10 pergjimet (me ze)

Transcript of YouTube conversation, including a name key so you know who's who: http://www.albemigrant.com/index.php..._from=&ucat=1&


It's like a movie or something. How the mofo'ing hell did the kid get the contracts? It's unreal, 'cepting it is real.

[Clutch Munny]

War is a gravy train.

[California Tanker]

much of it came from former Communist countries

This should be surprising? 7.62x39R used by the Afghan forces is a Soviet bloc round. The former Communist countries already make it, and their labour costs are cheaper than any American-based companies, plus they do have massive stocks of them to sell. Maybe going back to 1966 isn't the best possible idea (Though it's certainly good enough to be sold publicly in the US to private citizens), but certainly the 80s stocks should be quite applicable.

The NYT article appears to indicate that the chap was already being investigated for providing sub-standard products the time the article came out. Seems to be a fairly standard federal procurement process: Open to bids. Accept best bid. Verify delivery. If delivery was not to scratch, pursue the issue. Seems to me that the 'pursue the issue' part of it was already being undertaken when the news broke.

NTM