Covert Raytheon V3 Patriot Missile Shipment to Asia Intercepted in Finland

[FastTadpole]

You have to wonder how many of these type of shipments slip by.

I saw the BBC do a piece on the Patriot Missile Shipment Story a few days ago and was tempted to post it but it made a too many assumptions about the source and destination. The I heard some leads to follow up on the latest Rense broadcast. I still have yet to find the actual cargo inventory and/or declaration papers for the shipment.

Here's the facts:

* Finnish Authorities (FNBI) are investigating the incident with joint forces
* The ship was flagged with UK (Isle of Man)
* There were (about) 32 people on board (a required crew of 13)
* The charge was unduly completed documents for half of the hazardous cargo, confiscated on December 21.
* The previous stop was in Germany (Emden) on December 11th and maybe another in Rendsburg Germany according to MarineTraffic.com
* The explosives were stored improperly and labelled as fireworks
* A Finnish dock worker reported the suspicious cargo in Kotka
* Cargo consisted of 69 Patriot missiles around 160 tonnes of explosives
* Origin unknown
* Raytheon (US) manufactures the Patriot Missile
* May have been destined for Korea but documents indicate the
* 11 Ukrainian Nationals (the entire crew) were detained, including the Captian and First Mate and later cleared
* Jim Kirwan (and the dailypaul) reports there was a connection to Israel, but the connection is insignificant, upon followup - ##
* They have repacked the explosive in safer metal containers.
* On December 27 the ship plans to load additional cargo in Kotka, Finland which consisted of anchor cables.
* These are the latest generation of Patriot Missiles and in short supply ##Israel is the only nation to have publicly revealed posession of the V.3 "iron dome" version of the Patriot missile
* Thorco Shipping is the registered owner of the vessel, the MS Thor Liberty
* Nitroguanidine (falsely reported as picric acid) was the explosive found. It is a low sensitivity explosive with a very high detonation speed. These explosives have several uses, among them launching shipboard or submarine launched missiles or in the development and testing of nuclear weapons design.
* In the past six years in Finland there have been 20 cases of defense material being transported without the required documentation with the latest incident appearing to be one of the largest consignments.
* China is subject to an arms embargo by the United States and European Union imposed after the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators around Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989.
* Chinese officials deny that the cargo was destined for Shanghai, as detailed in the cargo manifest
* The military has destroyed some of the cargo, not sure exactly which pieces had been disposed of but the explosives repackaged for shipment to China are now 10 tons lighter
* Raytheon has operations in Germany under Raytheon Anschütz that deals a lot with China it has a dedicated Singapore subsidiary They deal with
* "A spokesman for Germany's Defense Ministry told The Associated Press on Thursday that the missiles were an official shipment that was fully declared and had all necessary clearings from German authorities. He also said they were being transported to South Korea."
* The US DoD denied that the cargo was destined for South Korea and noted it was unusual for missiles to be sent without guidance systems sent in ahead of time.

Sources:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45774847/ns/...d-finland/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec...NTCMP=SRCH
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec...red-travel
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16292244
http://www.raytheon-anschuetz.com/compan...-presence/
http://un.ua/eng/article/367840.html
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/12/23/...by-israel/
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-2011...10097.html

Related Thread:

Israel as the US Military Technology Transfer Conduit to China and Russia since the 1990s
http://concen.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=33986

[TeslaandLyne]

Germany is a US world wide weapons stronghold as we should know
by now and an easy supplier to China perhaps for these items.
US weapon builds deemed safe to send to allies are profits for corporations.
And Belgian Triangles of the 1980s came from the western borders the
direction of Germany. So Germany has Tesla ships just like they developed long ago.
Cause we sent them back to Germany.
There must be safer lands for flying these days.

[h3rm35]

I´d be more worried were they not defensive weapons. patriot missiles are designed to take down other missiles, although I´m sure they can be redesigned. if they were in fact headed to south korea, they probably wouldn´t need guidance systems since the US has been arming them with defensive technology for decades. it may just be a leaked story to scare Kim Jong Un, or it might just be (imo, the most likely option,) a simple behind the scenes arms dealer shipping shit to some rich prick with friends in just the right high and low places who knows, like everybody here, that the shit´s about to hit the fan and wants to protect his stronghold during chaotic times.