Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Two- Faced Austrians Outfit Iraqi Assassins

The HS50 heavy sniper rifle built in Austria by Steyr-Mannlicher.

Clearly the Austrians still hate the Americans, and they are hoping that the Iranians and Iraqis will kill plenty of US troops. Why else sell precision weapons to a rogue regime whose President professes to admire Hitler, and also swears it is his sacred duty to destroy the State of Israel? Recall the political hysteria just two years ago when the Austrian press went after California Governor Arnold Swarzenegger, all because he "allowed" the state penal system to execute a convicted murderer. Lunatic politicians in Austria, including the Fuhrer of the Austrian "Green Party", demanded that Arnold's original Austrian citizenship be revoked. His birthplace, Graz, Austria, threatened to take his name off the town sports arena. It became rather obvious that their shrill and vicious attitude toward Arnold was simply because he's a Republican.

Now we learn that that the Austrians have sold enough sniper rifles to equip a battalionof Iraqi terrorists, using an Iranian "End User" arms export certificate. That's just about as evil as Russian President Putin supplying Iran with a new generation S.A.M. missile system, to defend Iran's rogue nuclear weapons program. Shame on those rotten Austrian's. Let's hope that Iran doesn't send a few dozen of these rifles to the Taliban. Our troops in Afghanistan don't wear anything that will stop the Austrian round for the HS50. Here's the story by a Defence correspondent at THE TELEGRAPH:

IRAQI INSURGENTS USING AUSTRIAN RIFLES FROM IRAN
Feb.. 13 - Austrian sniper rifles that were exported to Iran have been discovered in the hands of Iraqi terrorists. More than 100 of the.50 calibre weapons, capable of penetrating body armour, have been discovered by American troops during raids. The Steyr HS50 is a long range, high precision rifle. The guns were part of a shipment of 800 rifles that the Austrian company, Steyr-Mannlicher, exported legally to Iran last year.
The sale was condemned in Washington and London because officials were worried that the weapons would be used by insurgents against British and American troops.
Within 45 days of the first HS50 Steyr Mannlicher rifles arriving in Iran, an American officer in an armoured vehicle was shot dead by an Iraqi insurgent using the weapon.
Over the last six months American forces have found small caches of the £10,000 rifles but in the last 24 hours a raid in Baghdad brought the total to more than 100, US defence sources reported.

The find is the latest in a series of discoveries that indicate that Teheran is providing support to Iraq's Shia insurgents. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, yesterday denied that Iran had supplied weapons to Iraqi insurgents. But on Sunday US officials in Baghdad displayed a range of weapons they claimed had originated in Iran. They said 170 American and British soldiers had been killed by such weapons. The discovery of the sniper rifles will further encourage those in Washington who want to see Iran's uranium-enriching facilities destroyed before a nuclear weapon is produced.
The [British] Foreign Office expressed "serious concerns" over the sale of the rifles last year and Britain protested to the Austrian government.
A Foreign Office spokesman said last night: "Although we did make our worries known the sale unfortunately went ahead and now the potential that these weapons could fall into the wrong hands appears to have happened." The rifle can pierce all body armour from up to a mile and penetrate armoured Humvee troop carriers. It is highly accurate and fires a round called an armour piercing incendiary, a bullet that the Iranians manufacture.
The National Iranian Police Organisation bought the rifles allegedly to use them against drug smugglers in an £8 million order placed with Steyr in 2005. The company was given permission to export them by the Austrian government, which is not a NATO member.

1 comment:

lindwurm said...

Two faced News Papers?
Steyr Weapons are rebuild in many other countries. Read Viennea Zeitung:
US-Streitkräfte widersprechen Zeitungsbericht: "Keine österreichischen Waffen bei Terroristen gefunden"
Doch keine Austro-Waffen im Irak
Von Alexander U. Mathé


"Gerüchte haben sich nicht bestätigt."
Erleichterung bei Steyr-Mannlicher.

Wien. Was als Steyrgate begonnen hat, endet nun als Seifenblase. Eine englische Tageszeitung hatte im Februar berichtet, dass panzerbrechende Scharfschützengewehre der österreichischen Firma Steyr-Mannlicher in Händen irakischer Terroristen gefunden worden seien. Doch nun widerspricht das für die Streitkräfte am Golf verantwortliche U.S. Central Command diesem Artikel. "Im Irak wurden keine österreichischen Waffen gefunden", erklärte Lieutenant Commander Scott Miller am Donnerstag im Gespräch mit der "Wiener Zeitung". "Es hat zwar entsprechende Gerüchte gegeben, diese Gerüchte haben sich aber nicht bestätigt." Nähere Details wurden allerdings vorerst nicht bekannt.
Auch Österreich vom Pranger genommen
Steyr-Eigentümer Franz Holzschuh war zwar hocherfreut, nun offiziell vom "Pranger" genommen worden zu sein, will die Angelegenheit aber nicht mehr weiterverfolgen. "Schlafende Hunde soll man nicht wecken. Ich bin froh, dass Gras über die Sache gewachsen ist", sagte Holzschuh. Dennoch reagierte er auf die Aufklärung der Affäre sichtlich erleichtert, waren dadurch doch sowohl Steyr-Mannlicher als auch die österreichische Regierung in Verruf geraten.

Der "Daily Telegraph" hatte im Februar berichtet, dass mehr als 100 Scharfschützengewehre des Typs HS50 bei Razzien der US-Truppen in Bagdad gefunden worden waren. Die Waffen stammten angeblich aus einer Lieferung, die 2005 mit Genehmigung der österreichischen Regierung an Sicherheitskräfte des Iran gegangen war. Der Redakteur des Artikels war leider für eine Stellungnahme nicht erreichbar.

Politisch besonders brisant war der Fall dadurch geworden, dass England und die USA das Geschäft mit dem Iran heftig kritisiert hatten. Beide waren der Ansicht, die Waffen könnten in die Hände von Terroristen im Irak geraten.

Die Zeitungsmeldung schien diese Befürchtung zu bestätigen und das von den USA verhängte Embargo gegen Steyr-Mannlicher auf eine starke Grundlage zu stellen. Dieses Embargo soll übrigens Ende dieses Jahres auslaufen.