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."

Re:Not smart

[Kuroji]

Hey, that's how the Soviets did it.

If the Iranians are smart, they would have torn the planes down in the eighties and made replicas then. Somehow I doubt this is the case, however - they probably went for the lowest bidder as most militaries do when it comes down to something that isn't related to intercontinental bombers.

Re:Fear mongering?

[Anonymous Coward]

besides Iran probably can MAKE F14 parts if they really want them... it's not like other country's military respects patents.

The F14 is a 30+ year old EOL aircraft. It's too bad there are so many fear-mongers out there because nobody will be able to keep a few birds flying for air shows and such. After WW2 & Korea you could buy excess 2 1/2 ton trucks, flack jackets, guns, & prop planes by the dozen. Even retired Howitzers and Shermans made their way parked in front of many VFW posts. Army Surplus in the 60's, 70's, & 80's was the big thing. Some of that stuff is still used by guys like the "Michigan Militia" (not associated with the state)

Nothing is like going to an air show and seeing those old B17's or B25's or P51's or the old "heuey" choppers that somebody scavanged from the scrap heap and worked hard to hand make parts for. After 9/11 people started harassing even the VFW people for those inoperable cannons and tanks they have out front. That means nobody will keep any of that history alive for fear of the paranoid and the govt spooks. That is sad.

Re:Not smart

[Albert Sandberg]

The scary thing is that this might be the top of the iceberg, how much of the militarys material is stolen each year?

When I served in the army here in sweden it was more or less custamory to "lose" some stuff and keep it for yourself. Normally this was t-shirts or similar stuff but it was still pretty normal.

Then I lost stuff (which you do) you couldn't help to feel guilty about it as if you would have stolen it because it was that common, and I can safetly say that the only thing I "stole" was a few empty shells to keep as souvenirs from the whole experience.

Re:Not smart

[Crayon Kid]

Or buy one. F15 is not the only model in the world. Nor are all fighter planes made by the US.

That's not the point. It's not about getting war tech, it's about studying current american war tech to find weaknesses.

Stuff like this surfacing on eBay is silly for many reasons. Frankly, I'm doubting the entire story, or at the very least the angle.

The WP article is full of inflamatory speculation, slapping together possibly unrelated information to make a troll. Every other paragraph has dubious points in it. What exactly are those "plane parts"? They're not saying. Who bought them? Not a peep, so then why finger Iran if there's no evidence? They say they couldn't figure out where the parts came from, yet they "must" be "stolen", because that's how they automatically define selling certain kinds of Army items.

Granted, any piece of knowledge about the US army may be useful for any foreign power. But if the US army doesn't want stuff to end up on eBay they should guard it more careful. Since they didn't, there's either major incompetence at play, or it wasn't such sensitive material after all.

Seriously, do you really think that truly useful information or material of this kind would be sold on eBay? When there are professional arms dealers and spies out there? Let's give those Hollywood movies a rest, shall we.

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. "Oh noes, Iran is buying our planes on eBay! How low have we sunk! We're doomed!" Please.

Don't know about the US army but...

[ZeroExistenZ]

.. My grandfather always has these kindof stories from when h e lead different sections in the Belgian army. Mostly it was because of the paperwork. I recall him telling about an inspector asking for a specific vehicle. My grandfather would look it up in the logbooks and reported it being at a certain base. After his reporting, he got a reply asking wherever he was "really sure". So he sent out a soldier to verify it, he came back, reported the vehicles present in that base. But the guy never checked the chassis numbers and such. He just confirmed there were vehicles of that type present.

Turned out, the bordercontrol had arrested some guys who'd stolen some vehicles. Officially they weren't gone as they weren't reported missing.

Same with selling overstock; Every month a train came by bringing soldiers' cigarettes. They were picked up from the town and brought to base. At a certain point the soldier ordered to pick them up reported the shipment being picked up by "unknown" individuals. (so some Germans have been imposing as an army unit to pick up the shipment cigarettes). Since then my grandfather was put in charge for a new order, with the order to order 20% extra "just in case".
Instead of piling up the 20%, they devised a plan to sell it consistently through an external contractor and the profits where split. Until bordercontrol noticed an unusual high amount of soldiers going home for the weekend and they've searched some vehicles.

This is all post-WW erra with a bloathed army with paper reporting, but still. I can imagine there are still people trying to make a profit like this or the same logistic problems.

Oh yea, my grandfather went on trail for that and got away clean because they had to sign a statement they couldn't sell "their own" rations. He stated he didn't, he had sold overstock. After that he was put in charge of all logistics instead of his own regiment and the statement was adjusted.

Re:Why not buy a Gripen

[gripen40k]

Hey! My name finally gets mentioned in /. !

I think the underlying point of your message though is that Iran is more than capable of buying jets from other military hardware producing nations. The trick is finding one that wouldn't mind selling them the stuff. Maybe the French?

"Likely stolen"

[menace3society]

The DoD spokesjerk says the kit was "likely stolen". These guys have been misplacing shit for years, and they have the audacity to assume some junk sold on the internet is stolen?

I saw an documentary on the war in Iraq. One segment focused on a particular base where various units would be stationed temporarily before being moved on to somewhere else. Any material or equipment that they didn't want to take with them at the end of their stay just got dumped because they didn't want to do the paperwork to return it to the quartermaster. It all just ended up being a big pile of junk in the middle of the desert, and there are apparently dozens of these across Iraq. You expect me to believe that no one just picks that stuff up takes it home?

If the Defense Department wants to stop this stuff being sold online, they should stop misplacing it in the first place. They have no one but themselves to blame.

Re:Fear mongering?

[Piazzola]

Right, because no [wikipedia.org] other [wikipedia.org] country [wikipedia.org] has [wikipedia.org] suffered [wikipedia.org] terrorist [wikipedia.org] attacks. [wikipedia.org]

military surplus

[CompMD]

Working in the aerospace field has exposed me to tons of interesting surplus. I have an F-14 canopy, various B-57 parts, and a ton of clothing and tools. A friend of mine owns a P-51 fighter that he keeps hangared at our local airport. It replaces another fighter from his collection, one of the last surviving F4F Wildcats that he sold to a museum. There are tons of Aero Vodochody fighter trainers flying around the US. And if you've ever flown in a Cessna Citation, that's technically a dual use aircraft; some eastern European countries have retrofitted Citations with missile pylons. Heck, the Learjet 25 was *designed* to be a fighter.

If you count foreign military surplus, all of my firearms are military surplus, including Mosin-Nagant rifles, a Nagant revolver, a Romanian AK-47, and Sig Sauer and Tokarev pistols.

There's a good story about a rich guy who bought a MiG-23 from Poland (I think) and had it imported. It would have been totally legal except for one problem: when the aircraft was pulled off the flightline, it wasn't disarmed. In the shipping crate, were armed air-to-air missiles, the Russian equivalent of a Sidewinders, and in the nose section the gun was still loaded and armed. US Customs took exception to this and confiscated the aircraft. Shortly thereafter it was given to the Air Force and is now on display at Wright Patterson AFB.

So, bottom line, is there are legal ways to own all kinds of military equipment.

Re:Not smart

[Memnos]

I agree. I was involved in the construction of F-14's in th '70s, and the engineering requirements for the construction process were as complex as for the aircraft itself. Try doing high precision manufacturing with finicky Titanium, just to name one example.

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

[Dun Malg]

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" [wikipedia.org].

Nice propaganda, but it isn't true. The US has indeed fomented rebellion and installed puppet dictators, but the Shah of Iran was not one of them. Shah Pahlavi was the last in a line of Iranian kings that goes back hundreds, and arguably thousands of years. The Shah, as head of the constitutional monarchy removed Mossadeq from his position as head of parliament after he 1) demanded full control of the military, 2) moved to abolish anonymity in popular voting, and 3) moved to dissolve parliament, a power reserved for the Shah. It was, in fact, Mossadeq who was trying to install himself as dictator. All the US did was strongly encourage the Shah to act within his power as head of state in removing a populist would-be dictator from a dangerous position. Now, Shah Pahlavi was no saint, to be sure, and the wisdom of our involvement in the region is debatable (see Pakistan today); but the popular myth that it was any sort of "coup" fails in the face of fact. Even the hideously anti-US slanted wikipedia entry admits that "Operation Ajax", the so-called "coup", was nothing of the sort:

"The plot, known as Operation Ajax, centered around convincing Iran's monarch to use his constitutional authority to dismiss Mossadegh from office"

Ah yeas, spreading stories about Mossadeq and lobbying the constitutional leader of the country to act within his powers to remove a man contrary to our interests, yes, that's the same as arming revolutionaries to storm the presidential mansion! In that case, anyone who's ever written a letter asking congress to impeach Bush, they are also attempting a "coup".

Really, if you want an example of US malfeasance, go look at that asshole Kissinger with regard to Chile and Pinochet. Iran just ain't fuckin' it, no matter how much airhead intellectual leftist tell each other it was.