Stolen US Military Equipment Being Sold On eBay

I Buy These From eBay points out a Washington Post story about how stolen military equipment has ended up on eBay and Craigslist. Undercover investigators reported being able to purchase defense-related items with "no questions asked." Let's hope the sellers don't get their hands on any retired rebellious robots. From the Post: "Among the items purchased include two components from F-14 fighter jets, bought from separate buyers on eBay. The warplanes, now retired by the military, could easily be purchased and transferred to the Iranian military, which is seeking its components, the report said. Investigators couldn't determine where the sellers had obtained the F-14 parts. They also purchased from a Craigslist seller a used Nuclear Biological Chemical protective suit, other protective accessories as well as an unused chemical-biological canister, which contained the mask filter used to guard against warfare agents. The property was likely stolen from the Defense Department, the report said."

Comments

Nothing new here

[Hojima]

People have been selling military equipment from the US for years. Ever seen "Lord of War"? Not all of it was fiction you know. Probably the only surprise is that it was sold on ebay. And chances are that the military equipment wasn't stolen either. Many parts from scrapped vehicles are given or sold to boneyards to be sold again. Hell, the old motors from Vietnam's apache helicopters are actually in use on speedboats up to this day.

More fearmongering?

[ParaShoot]

The Register has their usual perspective-giving article up, for those of you who might be inclined to start screaming OMG TERRORISTS as the US Government no doubt wants you to.

Re:Fear mongering?

[trash eighty]

As some of the parts were for F-14 fighters and Iran are the only operators of the type now why not mention them? There wouldn't really be much point Al-Qaeda or North Korea buying F-14 spares, unless they were going to throw them at GWB's head.

Re:Not smart

[penix1]

And this is something new?!?! Government surplus has been with us as long as government procurement has.

http://www.govliquidation.com/list/c7007/lna/1.html

Get just about any aircraft parts directly from the government. Everything from engines to rotary blades for helicopters to complete aircraft shells. Nothing new here...

NBC Suit loss is common

[Anonymous Coward]

Every soldier is issued an NBC suit (including mask and filters) and they are one of the first things to get lost on field deployments - not a major theft of some military secret equipment.

Re:Not smart

[an.echte.trilingue]

This behavior is IMHO incredibly stupid. If you manage to steal such items, one would think that you also manage to sell them somewhere else than on Ebay. You would be surprised how easy and wide spread this is. I got out about a year and a half ago, but it was already pretty common. We had a guy in our commo unit who stole a projector and got caught because he sold it on Ebay. My battalion's head cook was selling MRE's on Ebay and got caught. Our sister unit had a First Sergeant whose wife (also an NCO) was mailing stolen equipment out of Iraq and got caught by selling it on Ebay. Of course, for everybody who gets caught, 10 get away with it. I once did a report of survey for a lost light amplifier (the sensitive piece of night vision goggles) and we wrote it off as a loss. It could have been the unit armorer or XO, it could have been the maintenance specialist, it could have been the maintenance NCO; there was just no way to tell. I heard through the grape vine a couple months later that CID had recovered it off of Ebay, but the original seller/thief was a mystery.

People like to use the US's phenomenal military budget as evidence of the country's militarism, but in my admittedly limited experience, it has more to do with massive lack of accountability on an institution-wide scale. Anybody I have ever spoken to who has been in military logistics for a long period of time can tell you about the time he watched a million dollars get wasted in a day.

Re:Not smart - obviously???

[rubycodez]

Obviously stolen? the F-14 has been scrapped. they're in junkyards here and abroad. entire decommissioned aircraft like the Harrier have been sold on eBay, perfectly legal. There's a hobbyist market for the parts for all manner of aircraft too. You can buy decommissioned howitzers, tanks, jets...parks and VFWs have them. And uniforms and MRE, anyone can buy those, perfectly legal.

Why does Iran want F-14 parts? Iran threat? No.

[Futurepower(R)]

Exactly. Thanks for adding some reason to the discussion.

Quote from the Slashdot story: "The warplanes, now retired by the military, could easily be purchased and transferred to the Iranian military, which is seeking its components, the report said."

Why does Iran want F-14 parts? I'm guessing that is because the war industry in the U.S. sold the Iranian government F-14s, with the permission and the aid of the U.S. government. Presumably that happened when the Shah was in control. The Shah was a U.S. government puppet, installed in 1953 after the U.S. government destroyed the administration of the democratically elected President Mohammed Mossadegh". That's right, those who control the U.S. government were against democracy, for violence, for interference in the operation of other countries, and they put profit above all other issues.

Also, Iran is not the threat that is being presented to U.S. citizens. Those who control the U.S. government are trying to demonize Iran the way they demonized Iraq. They want a war, and the entire reason they want a war with Iran is the same as the reason they wanted war with Iraq: to make more money. Those who control the U.S. government have a sickness about money. They will do anything to get more money, even lie and kill other people.

At the beginning of the first U.S. government-Iraq war, U.S. weapons companies were still delivering weapons to Iraq, under a long-term contract. Those who control the U.S. government and weapons companies want war, continous war.

The U.S. government is the biggest promoter of violence in the world. Don't say "we" when talking about war. There is no "we", unless you are part of the group that makes the profits, while stealing from U.S. taxpayers.

If you love your wife, and she is having a difficult time, you don't turn your back on her. You get involved and try to help. It's the same with your country. If you love the U.S. like I do, you will help stop the violence.

Re:Why not buy a Gripen

[budgenator]

I thought that that GM bought the automotive division from Saab and everything else remained.

Its not all stolen...

[missileman]

Heaps of guys in the hobby have built home sims using parts from real jets. F15s, F16s, A7Es etc. There *are* legitimate ways of getting hold of cockpit parts that aren't stolen. Since the F14 is no longer in service it would not be a stretch at all to find bits of a broken up one for sale. One guy got a whole F15 cockpit for his project. http://www.f15sim.com/index.html

He got it from the Olympia Air Museum. Prior to that it was PURCHASED from McChord AFB in Tacoma after being struck off the register. It was used for training battle damage repair.

Aircraft parts from wrecked, scraped airframes often legitimately come up for sale on Ebay, IMO this report / article is just a way to promote an agenda. Congress are probably planning some new bill defining everyone who possesses ex-military equipment a terrorist. I guess I'm a cynic.

Re:Not smart

[elguap0]

A quick search shows that the Saegheh is simply a copy of the US Air force's F-5 from the 1960s! And who says it's on par with the F-18? Why, Iran of course! I'm not saying that Iran doesn't have some smart engineers, but the Saegheh doesn't seem to be proof of that.

Re:Not smart

[couchslug]

"If I were to take this article at face value, I'd say it's an attempt at sticking it to the army for not taking better care of its stuff. While I'm all for that, it stops being funny once non sequitur allegations are made about certain foreign countries. Then it becomes a transparent attempt at instilling paranoia among the public."

You are quite right!

The list of stuff isn't impressive. We should be impressed by a fucking used NBC suit? Literally millions of the things have been produced from the Cold War onward. They are not classified. The "used" (= charcoal no workee no more, washed multiple times so it doesn't stain your uniform black) suits are in every G.I.s NBC training bag and many surplus stores and are NOT illegal to possess!

Neither are uniforms, with the caveat that you must buy them or be issued them and not (no shit) steal them. Anybody who wants to can buy them (or nicer private brands) online at U.S. Cavalry, Brigade Quartermasters, etc. G.I.s often spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on aftermarket gear.

Wanna legal mask?
http://www.approvedgasmasks.com/msa-mcu2p.htm

Whole NBC ensembles?
http://www.approvedgasmasks.com/mask-kits.htm

I'm sure some illegal gear ends up on Ebay (SAPI plates, etc) but it would be nice to see WHICH "F-14" parts were there. Just because a National Stock Number crosses to an F-14 doesn't make it strategic material.

Wanna see everything that's for sale legally from Uncle Sugar? You can even bid online:
http://www.govliquidation.com/

I did 26 years (Comm/Nav. Engines,Crew Chief) in the USAF and am familiar with aircraft, parts, supply, and buying stuff outta surplus even before it was outsourced to GovLiquidation. The WaPo piece is IMO bullshit fearmongering and reflects their dislike for the military.