Iraq-Italian Black Market Arms Deals Via "al-Handal-ers"

"Italy probe unearths Iraq arms deal" from the AP reports that Italian anti-Mafia investigators busted an Italian-Iraqi arms deal worth $40 million of Russian automatic weapons - apparently with the knowledge of the Iraqi government - but not the US command in Iraq - which raises many questions about just what the purpose of these weapons were for.  The investigation revealed personnel harking back to the days of Saddam Hussein and the Oil for Food scandal involved in this and other shady deals with Libya- and some deals that the US knew about allegedly - chiefly via Jordan based Waleed Noori al-Handal of the al-Handal General Trading.  This gives further credence to the incredible out of control arms bazaar that is taking place in Iraq and in the Middle East in general.

Iraqi middlemen in the Italian deal, in intercepted e-mails, claimed the arrangement had official American approval. A U.S. spokesman in Baghdad denied that.

"Iraqi officials did not make MNSTC-I aware that they were making purchases," Lt. Col. Daniel Williams of the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq (MNSTC-I), which oversees arming and training of the Iraqi police and army, told the AP.