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INTELLIGENCE                                     ISSN 1245-2122
N. 38 New Series, 27 May 1996
Publishing since 1980

Editor
Olivier Schmidt
(email intelligence-adi@wanadoo.fr;
web http://www.blythe.org/Intelligence
tel/fax 33 1 40 51 85 19;
post ADI, 16 rue des Ecoles,
75005 Paris, France)

INTELLIGENCE AROUND THE WORLD, p.31

USA: TIDAL WAVES ACROSS THE WORLD USED SMALL ARMS MARKET

On 23 May the major media looked over the impressive display of samples of
the 2,000 AK-47 Kalachnikov automatic assault rifles supposedly smuggled
from China and seized by San Francisco attorney, Geoffrey Anderson. 
Subsequent press reports often noted the coincidence between this "sting
operation" and the U.S. campaign against China for producing $2 billion
dollars worth of illicit U.S. commercial goods and allegedly selling
nuclear weapons equipment to Pakistan last year.  No one noted that
earlier this month Congressional action and a provision of the Defense
budget will result in 373,000 aging M-1 assault rifles worth $100 million
being put on the market. 

The M-1, a contemporary of the AK-47, has not aged as well and was
replaced by the M-16 Colt during the Vietnam war.  But the AK- 47 and M-1
are targeting the same market and Vietnam, which has a massive stock of
seized M-16s on its hands, has dropped its price from $250 cash, or
exchange for needed merchandise, to $150 cash for each M-16.  The "sales
manager" for this campaign seems to be Huynh Hoang-Ho, the new Vietnamese
foreign intelligence chief (see p. 29 in "People" above), according to
French intelligence sources who say that Huynh, through a family member in
France, is trying to sell hundreds of M-16s to Cameroon which is part of
France's African "back yard". 

Another major player in this already crowded market is Russia and Eastern
Europe which literally have thousands of AK-47s to dump anywhere.  Fred
Broughton, chairman of the Police Federation protested at the officers'
recent annual conference that Great Britain has been flooded with the
Eastern European machine guns.  According to Broughton, "Denmark, Sweden
and Norway are all seeing Russian military hardware.  The same thing is
happening in Germany."  

Broughton didn't mention that Great Britain already has what it needs in
terms of M-1s, M-16s and AK-47s, thanks to former CIA officer, Samuel
Cummings, the U.S.-born founder and president of Interarms, one of the
world's largest private sector "merchants of death", whose company
headquarters are in Alexandria, Virginia, but who can "supply 40 infantry
divisions" from its warehouse in Manchester, England.  Cummings recently
described the "financial health" of the trade as "about as bad as you can
imagine" due to a flood of cheap weapons from Eastern Europe (INT, N.33/13). 

The current price of an AK-47 is #85. (in bulk) and an M-16 is #26.  In
Washington's "back yard", the Russians are also held to blame, indirectly
via their allies in Nicaragua and El Salvador, for over 67,000 AK-47s now
in Honduras which can be purchased for as little as $50 each. With tidal
waves sweeping over the market, it will be some time before things settle
down and surviving arms merchants in the U.S. and elsewhere can get back
to "business as usual". 

                                *

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Also in this Issue:

N. 38 New Series, 27 May 1996

FRONTPAGE

BELGIUM - LOG OF AN INTELLIGENCE OVERSIGHT SHIPWRECK p.1

TECHNOLOGY & TECHNIQUES

NEW TECHNIQUES ON BOTH SIDES OF DRUG BATTLE p.2
ANOTHER BRITISH FORENSIC TECHNOLOGY ERROR FAVORS IRA p.3
BOSNIA BECOMES INTELLIGENCE HIGH-TECH BAZAAR p.4
CURRENCY - Magnetic "Bar-Code" on New $100 Bills. p.5
IMAGERY - CIA "Dumps" Declassified Photos at USGS. p.6
RECONVERSION - Military to Civilian Simulation. p.7
GYPSIES - Open Source Law Enforcement Study. p.8
RADAR - U.S. Navy Gets Its Own SAR. p.9
COMPUTER CRIME - Another "Honest" Survey. p.10
STEALTH - "Baby Beluga" Takes a Curtain Call. p.11
INTERNET - Java Just a Little Too Hot. p.12
COMPUTERS - A 50th Birthday for "Baby". p.13

PEOPLE

MELVIN A. GOODMAN - U.S.A. p.14
NICOLAS BLAZIANU - FRANCE/SWITZERLAND p.15
LEON GIET - BELGIUM p.16
HASSAN SALAMEH - PALESTINE p.17
U.S.A. - Intelligence Internships. p.18
CANADA/SRI LANKA - Kumaravelu Vignarajah. p.19
GREAT BRITAIN - "Mr. X". p.20
NORTHERN IRELAND - Dessie Mccleary. p.21
FRANCE - Philippe Rondot. p.22
ESTONIA/RUSSIA - Sergei Andreev. p.23
BULGARIA - Bogdan Karayotov. p.24
RUSSIA/U.S.A. - Richard Dunn Oppfelt. p.25
RUSSIA - Nikolai Lysenko. p.26
SYRIA/LEBANON - Abdullah Ocelan. p.27
AUSTRALIA - "Monica". p.28
VIETNAM - Huynh Hoang-Ho. p.29

AGENDA

COMING EVENTS FROM 5 JUNE TO 28 JUNE 1996 p.30

INTELLIGENCE AROUND THE WORLD

U.S.A. - TIDAL WAVES ACROSS THE WORLD USED ARMS MARKET p.31
     Bases Close at Home and Open Abroad. p.32
     Good Encryption News for Public & Business. p.33
     Federal Eavesdropping Increases Again. p.34

GREAT BRITAIN - POLICING EURO'96 p.35
     TAINTED CASH FOR THE TORIES p.36
     LIMPING HOME FROM THE WAR GAMES p.37
     Reanalyzing Criminal History. p.38

IRELAND - Extradition Embarrassment. p.39

FRANCE - PUSHING FOR A REAL WEU INTELLIGENCE SERVICE p.40
         Changes at the DGSE. p.41

BELGIUM - The Surete's "List of Subjects". p.42
NETHERLANDS - BVD REPORT ENCOURAGES RAIL TRANSPORT p.43
GERMANY - VERFASSUNGSSCHUTZ REPORT GOES INTERNET p.44
SWITZERLAND - A Difficult Future for Bruno Breguet. p.45
POLAND - Oleksy Case Still Kicking. p.46
HUNGARY - To Be or Not To Be an Offshore Haven. p.47
SLOVAKIA - TRANS-KARPATH SPY CIRCUS GETS BLOODY p.48
RUSSIA - LONDON & WASHINGTON WORRIED ABOUT RUSSIAN CRIME p.49
CUBA - New "Offensive" Intelligence Service. p.50
COSTA RICA - Another Israeli Arms Scandal. p.51
SOUTH AFRICA - Rooivalk Gets Night Vision Despite U.S.. p.52
SUDAN - A CHOICE OF DEPORT OR BE DEPORTED p.53
ISRAEL - MOSSAD AND MI6 HUNT HEZBOLLAH VIA SWITZERLAND p.54

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