Stolen military gear sold on eBay and Craigslist
Items stolen from the military ended up being fenced through sales online, as GAO investigators handed a House Subcommittee a laundry list of sensitive items they purchased. This may come as a shock to some buyers out there, but just because you found it on eBay, doesn’t mean you should have been able to pick up something banned for resale by the federal government. A study by the GAO, titled “INTERNET SALES – Undercover Purchases on eBay and Craigslist Reveal a Market for Sensitive and Stolen U.S. Military Items,” listed goodies that people who hate America probably have on their shopping lists.
The GAO conducted their undercover investigation over a 15-month period ending in March 2008, at the behest of the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs.GAO found plenty of items up for sale that should not have been available to the highest bidder. F-14 components, of value currently to the Iranian military, showed up in a couple of transactions. Military-spec night-vision gear turned up on eBay. Stolen body armor showed up on Craigslist. Both Jim Buckmaster, Craigslist’s CEO, and Tod Cohen, eBay’s VP of government relations, appeared before the Subcommittee to discuss the matter with curious Representatives.
Source: Webpronews, Zdnet
Comments(44)
“people who hate America” – amusing… ^^
I gotta get me one of them night-vision binos.
mmm “people who HATE America” is a little too hard, dont you think? i rather say… “people who doesnt like america too much”
Clearly only terrorists could be interested in night vision goggles and body armor!
I’d really like a pair of goggles for the long winter months. Flashlights are worthless and the cold kills their batteries in minutes
@4:
And some body armor against those frost bite, harhar!
Nice, so the german troops finally can get decent gear
another cho seung ho wannabe would want to buy these…
If you replace “people who hate america” with “people who may get screwed around by the US” you are closer to the truth.
Anyone got a torrent for this?
or “people who hate to be terrorized by america”
All useless garbage that we can find somewhere else.
Now if they could have stolen a suitcase nuke that would have been interesting and i would have bought it. No biggie though because i can always get one from the Russians.
ALLUH AKBAR !!!!!!!!!
mainly everything that is from America sucks, at least the gear and soldier material.
I guess the terrorists only want to “hit them with the same thing they hit us with” witch I find ironic ^^
@11. Terrorist: G.R.A.W. 2 Much? lol
erm..no Pilsu i would love some of that stuff and only have love in m heart (but my burgling equipment is a little old now and i could do with the updates;)
Every country in the world has this problem.
Its well past epidemic levels in Latin America and Russia, and is fairly common in Western Europe too.
I’m sure we all remember the stories of Russians trying to sell fighter jets, submarines, and even warships on the black market.
In the US though, you can buy most of this stuff legally as a civilian. Its not tagged as being ‘military grade’, but often its the same hardware.
the iranian military needs new gyroscopes for the F14s… I highly doubt they are sold on ebay… LOL
@3 No, it’s okay we hate America.
or people who hate america, while downloading american tv shows to watch on their american o/s
otherwise known as ‘useful idiots’ the self-hating war-for-oil brigade (as if anything in life is that simple)
@16
Yep, it’s called a ’surplus store’. I remember going to one some years ago, they pretty much had anything that was not being commissioned anymore.
people who hate america could also be changed to people in the US military who have to buy their own body armor.
@21
You are clearly some sort of idiotic, ignorant twelve year old internet troll. Service members are not allowed to use any privately purchased body armor for all sorts of reasons including legal liability, maintenance & standardization regulations, and, above all, because because the currently issued ESAPI plates are perfectly fine. Service members purchasing their own plate carriers or alternative vests that can carry them is another matter. That depends on the unit commander and, in garrison, on the base commander. Lesson is: don’t talk about things you know nothing about, tool.
@22 : True but it’s still sad that Blackwater mercenaries are better equipped than most service members.
Man it was hard to get UPS to deliver that F-16
@22 that’s because they are free to choose! And BTW many of them using “m21″ serbian assault rifle. Ha!
american military: yea man our country just spent 80 billion on equipment for us yo guys
french military: yea we just used ebay got some great deals. look at this paired shipping on body armor.
@ runcible man
you go girl!
cuz body armor and electronics are rly dangerous.
It’s so amazing how, a year prior, if I brought up concepts like Osama being a CIA asset, or how planes wouldn’t be able to demolish two steel towers, or how the US has no benevolent purpose in the middle east etc., people would have responded very differently. Nice to see so many open minded, forward thinking people.
Is this better than Halo 3 ?!?
@ 27; ARC: Ya they are….imagine getting hit in the head wit a armor plate…
@ 27; ARC: Ya they are….imagine getting hit in the head with an armor plate…or if those nightvision goggles have nokia or apple batteries lol
Runcible Man:
Four words for you: dragon scale body armor.
Its been shown way to many times that the current body armor:
* Restricts movement
* Offer little to no protection against anything not fired strait at the back of front. In other words, anything that hits your sides, and your toast. The plats only protect a fraction of your upper body.
Military: In other words, we don’t care if the armor you got privately is better then the stuff we provide. Use our crap, or your family can forget about the payoff if you get killed…
It does not take long to find comments from service men, who actually use/used this armor. Yet, the army seems to have it hart set on providing less the adequate body armor. My guess, some people are making to much money on the currently used armor. And safety of the people who put there live on the line is put in danger because of it.
It takes to bloody long for the better equipment to get past the army’s qualification tests ( even longer when they already claim the equipment is no good, before! they tested it ) and in the hands of the people who need it.
Whats a few more dead soldiers in the grand scheme of bribes, and money making
Honestly all I can say is wow…are people really this freaking selfish and greedy? I swear to god….terrorists could anonymously buy this armor and study it to find flaws….god damn people, use what little mind you have left!
I’d buy the skull of an American.
WHO DOESN’T HATE AMERICA? Hell, I’m American and I hate our government and most other Americans. Don’t even get me started on our screwed up society and backwards values. And lets not forget the morons who think E! and Bravo or anything to do with Hollywood or pseudo reality shows is important. If “Next Top Model” or “The REAL Housewives” are allowed to continue much longer then I say the terrorists are right.
PS. I want stolen military hardware.
Hmmmm, I’ve got some friends still in the service(against their will nonetheless)who might be able to hook me up.
***Off to ponder what evil goings on I can accomplish with my pilfered military goods***
@35 AMEN!
Nice post MARTIN! These little news are very good, while waiting for more releases.
Just read some more of the comments….
Gotta say that to the US Government would rather have a dead solder over an injured one and they want everyone els dead before retirement so you can’t collect social security.
Sorry I’m one of tho’s ppl who gets all their nfo from semi-political satirical television, yep I’m part of the problem and proud of it. I wish I was raised republican so I could just do what I’m told and believe what the government and the puppet news organizations tell me to. Damn my free thinking non-conformist ideals.
Just waiting for the tonnes of partially processed uranium/plutonium which the American nuclear industry have ‘lost’ to turn up on e-Bay (they say it is sediment in the pipes – yeh!!)
re 32
Buying your own armour isn’t such a weird idea. Australian Army personnel have been buying their own (non-issue) boots for years because the Govt is too cheapskate to purcahse boots which (a) stay in one piece and (b) don’t actually cripple your feet. There is a (very) old joke which says that Army boots only come in two sizes “too big” and “too small” – pity it’s true.
@38
lol
could you consider those semi-political satirical television programs as a good source of information?
i live in holland and i love those shows
replace people who hate america with families of british and american troops whos government has failed to provided them with adequate body armour whilst shipping them to the gulf.
“Inadequate body armor”. That would imply there is such a thing as adequate armor
This isn’t Halo kids, body armor isn’t some magic shield that blocks the dragon’s breath. It’s just a bunch of plates that might sometimes stop a projectile. That’s as good as it gets
so cool