The Missing Missiles of La Maddalena
Ricochet's running a contest. Place your bets about where these weapons will show up:
TEMPIO PAUSANIA – Missiles, anti-tank projectiles, Katyusha rockets, kalashnikovs and ammunition stored in the Italian navy’s cave armouries on Santo Stefano, in the La Maddalena archipelago, have vanished. The weaponry, enough to kit out an army, was on a vessel sailing from the former Soviet Union to the war-torn Balkans when it was intercepted in the Channel of Otranto. The weapons were seized and the court of Turin ruled that they should be destroyed. Instead, two months ago the assorted missiles, rockets and kalashnikovs were removed from storage, handed over to the army and taken to Lazio, where they vanished. Meanwhile for the past few days, Tempio Pausania magistrates, who had begun to investigate whether the arms had perhaps gone to Libya or Afghanistan, have been up against a wall of state secrecy. The Prime Minister’s Office has blocked all further inquiries into the weapons’ destination.
They will show up, you know. You don't go to the trouble of spiriting off 400 wire-guided anti-tank missiles, 30,000 AK-47s, 5,000 Katyusha rockets, 11,000 anti-tank rockets, and 32 million rounds of machine gun ammo for private hobby purposes. Generally.
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Comments :
Oct '10
Re: The Missing Missiles of La Maddalena
My money is on Libya.
May '10
Re: The Missing Missiles of La Maddalena
Kennedy, please tell your fan club to back down. I'm sure J.K. Rowling will release more books soon.
Re: The Missing Missiles of La Maddalena
I guess mine is, too.
Jan '11
Re: The Missing Missiles of La Maddalena
I've heard some rumors that Victor Davis Hanson and Peter Robinson intercepted the shipment to put some teeth behind their secession movement.
Edited on Jul 19, 2011 at 5:33pmSep '10
Re: The Missing Missiles of La Maddalena
Ajax,
Ever since I read Claire's report about the tortured Syrian's and their uprising I've been thinking, there are a million reasons why that couldn't happen here but one of them is that everyone I know is pretty well armed. I know it would never come to that but it is a fact.
Libya seems most likely but wouldn't be surprised if Hamas and Hezbollah grabbed a piece of the action too.
Edited on Jul 19, 2011 at 5:56pmMay '10
Re: The Missing Missiles of La Maddalena
On their way to a Mexican drug lord near you.
Jul '11
Re: The Missing Missiles of La Maddalena
Part of Holder's special Veloce y Furioso operation....nothing to see here people.
May '10
Re: The Missing Missiles of La Maddalena
Perhaps because I have his newest book beside me, but I immediately thought fiction - as in a Daniel Silva thriller. Fiction imitates life.
Apr '11
Re: The Missing Missiles of La Maddalena
Interesting story, but how many of these weapons are not oterwise available on the black market for the well-connected buyer with enough $$. If they all went to LIbya and then affeceted the course of the combat there, I guess they might make a difference. But if not??
May '10
Re: The Missing Missiles of La Maddalena
Lebanon.
Sep '10
Re: The Missing Missiles of La Maddalena
Sarejvo, it's tradition
Apr '11
Re: The Missing Missiles of La Maddalena
Bang-a, bang-a! Stick-a, stick-a.
Sep '10
Re: The Missing Missiles of La Maddalena
A guy could have a pretty good weekend with all that.
Sep '10
Re: The Missing Missiles of La Maddalena
Oh, you wanted a bet as to where they will turn up. SPECTRE, of course.
Apr '11
Re: The Missing Missiles of La Maddalena
Libya, or maybe Operation Gunwalker.
Mar '11
Re: The Missing Missiles of La Maddalena
I love the phrasing of the first paragraph. "Missiles....have vanished" And like that...wiff....they're gone.
How about this instead: "A cache of former Soviet-bloc weaponry was stolen from the Italian naval magazine at La Maddalena. The organization responsible for the theft has not been identified, but is considered extremely dangerous by Italian authorities."
If it turns out the weapons were there all along and someone couldn't count properly, the paper can print a correction.
"Have vanished" harumph.
Mar '11
Re: The Missing Missiles of La Maddalena
Sandy Berger's undergarments.
Re: The Missing Missiles of La Maddalena
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
I guess mine is, too. · Jul 19 at 5:23pm
They were either sold to Gaddafi or given to the rebels.
Re: The Missing Missiles of La Maddalena
Crow's Nest: I love the phrasing of the first paragraph. "Missiles....have vanished" And like that...wiff....they're gone.
How about this instead: "A cache of former Soviet-bloc weaponry was stolen from the Italian naval magazine at La Maddalena. The organization responsible for the theft has not been identified, but is considered extremely dangerous by Italian authorities."
If it turns out the weapons were there all along and someone couldn't count properly, the paper can print a correction.
"Have vanished" harumph. · Jul 20 at 3:59am
The organization that removed them may well be the Italian authorities. I mean, God knows, "covert weapons shipments to people no one is officially supporting" is not ... unheard of in history. Or even necessarily a bad thing. Although it probably is.
May '10
Re: The Missing Missiles of La Maddalena
Let's hope the recipient is not Hezbollah occupied Lebanon, or Palestinian West Bank/Gaza. You just know this is not going to end well.
Perhaps the ATF has set up a branch operation after its recent successes selling arms to Mexican drug lords.
Edited on Jul 20, 2011 at 10:38am