Welcome to the jungle

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=151295&f=19

This extended piece on arms dealing is well worth the time.

Keep in mind that the company profiled is just one of many shady companies with a multi million dollar contract and license to trade in weapons. Each one has its own details, but the shape is almost always the same: one or two man show with ties to the old country get a contract to provide Soviet weapons at American price levels, no questions asked.

Also, given that it is a government (Albania) giving them to a private firm giving them to another government (us) I am not sure why we need the private sector. I am sure the margin between the $22 per 1000 he paid and what we paid - probably no less than $60 - could easily pay for a couple DoD bodies to check if the ammo was older than my mother before dropping a few hundred million.