http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/probe-of-silencers-leads-to-web-of-pentagon-secrets/2014/10/12/12c8d110-4fea-11e4-aa5e-7153e466a02d_story.html

I'll tell ya what's fucked up . . . it's that there is any taboo here at all (except maybe the apparent nepotism and high unit cost).  Those AK-47's and silencers should be available for any of us for any reason at all without any .gov bullshit.

Any case with that many shenanigans should be thrown out.

Yeah, I don't see this going anywhere.

It's always bugged me that in the grand scheme of things supposedly this uber secret group hired the boss' brother to make a suppressor when he is a auto mechanic by trade and apparently never made any before.  One would assume that the CIA or any number of cloak and dagger govt groups had the expertise to knock that out in a more competent manner.  

The order may have been semi legit but it reeks of hooking up his brother for a slice of govt pie.

Probably a lot of shenanigans going on. But if the Navy is going to burn evidence, the accused need to walk.

Yeah I agree.  I think they are smoke screening their shady shit deal with the government destroying evidence to cover some secret mission they don't want to get out and taking the lumps on the destruction.

I think the Navy doesn't want this prosecution and doesn't want it causing trouble for their ops. That's why the officer isn't being prosecuted at a court martial. That's why they've been burning evidence.

Yeah kinda my thought also, just wasn't clear.   I think they guys were shady but  too much of the legit stuff would get out in a trial.

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ETA: Not only was this post stupid, I pissed away number 16,000 on it.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRGH!

that this is a witch hunt.

custom parts are more expensive.

these were for operations that we don't want linked back to us.  those kinds of operations need to be done in a particular way in order to prevent tracing.  that includes documentation that they were ever produced, and they can't be done using normal manufacturers.  

I don't see the problem (with the way the navy went about this).

Is there supposed to be a problem with the .mil using equipment that can't be traced back to the US? Am I missing something? OMG, it's another Iran Contra watershed moment! My Gives a Fuck meter isn't moving..

If the Navy needed 'untraceable' parts, why not just purchase silencers in some foreign country where they are readily available,


and ship them to wherever they are needed.





After all, they would not be imported into the USA, so no problems with with import restrictions. Even so, they managed to import 1600 AK-47's


to Philadelphia, so why not some silencers also.

Is the Navy planning a 'top secret' mission inside the USA. Maybe going to clean up Philly?





And if it is a 'custom' design, there are machine shops available in a few overseas countries that are capable of manufacturing a custom silencer.





This seems to be a 'sweetheart' deal to get some .gov money into the family coffers.





But with the cover-up going on, destroyed evidence and docs, everybody needs to walk, except maybe the people doing the cover-up.





"It's not the crime, its the cover-up that gets you hung"




 

~$4500 per item isn't that expensive for a one-off design that also includes using a shop that wouldn't be suspected of making them in the first place.

This smells more like someone got their dick stepped on, throwing a tantrum and trying to cause a ruckus.

Never mind ... my mistake was so stupid that I am embarrassed to even think about it.

from the article



"Court records filed by prosecutors allege that the Navy paid the auto
mechanic — the brother of the directorate’s boss — $1.6 million for the
silencers, even though they cost only $10,000 in parts and labor to
manufacture."



Thats a lotta profit for a custom job. Even better than the $6000 toilet seats.
 

       A bit off topic:  An explanation I once heard for $6,000 toilet seats back in the 70's and 80's when all that BS was being trumpeted by liberals went something like this:
Occasionally a military contractor would get to the end of a contract and be financially upside down due to unexpected changes or other factors outside of their control.  So .mil procurement would say something like, "hey, we need to order 50 toilet seats on a purchase that doesn't require a bid process.  Just invoice us for them at $6K each and you'll come out whole."
Seems plausible to me.  That was back in the days when supplier/purchaser relationships were about partnering and mutual benefit.  Now, thanks to Walmart and others, it's more of a purchaser-rapes-the-fuck-out-of-supplier type of attitude.

Back on topic:  The actual labor/material cost was allegedly $28 - $29 per unit, labor and materials are only a small part of final product cost.  Tooling, machine time, facilities, TAXES, etc. can dwarf that.  But in a case like this, the supplier is taking on a HUGE risk for the government (as proven by the fact that this story is even out), so there would be an expectation of reward that matches the risk.  I have no problem with the $1.6 million price.  I have a big problem with the fact that this is even an issue.





 

There is no way they cost that little to make.

Well, I guess the way I see all of this -and I'll try to leave a little tinfoil on the roll- but there is no way in hell this was a legitimate operation.

1)If they needed a bunch of silencers made on the downlow, why not have one of the many qualified mechanics, engineers, millwrights the Navy surely has on hand? Why outsource to the directors brother? Pull some guys aside, say it's top secret, and get them cranking out parts.

2)If the 1,600 AK's are meant for use in other parts of the world to arm our guys or rebels, or whoever. why would they bother to bring them back the US? Judging by illegal silencers and seeing as it's apparently meant for blackops these guns surely were not imported legally. I highly doubt the ATF knew about them. That would be paper trail and could be traced back to the US. Surely it would have been easier to leave them in a conex box at some US base with a big sign that says "TOP SECRET: NO PEEKING" on it

3)If the guns are legit why destroy them? They could have easily dismissed the guns as training weapons, or kept them to still use, after all there is no documentation on them. No one would be the wiser.

4)If this was a legit operation why would they need to burn evidence at all? Couldn't they just declare everything top secret, play the national security card, and seal the records?

I won't go as far to say this was to be used in some sort of false-flag but It's my belief that these guns and silencers were most likely smuggled in to the US to ultimately be supplied to the mexican cartels, or possibly to terrorist sleeper cells. My basis for that is the government has been caught pants down in gunwalking, the embassy in Benghazi was known to be distributing weapons, and out in the open funding and arming ISIS. A president has been set for this behavior from the government. This was more than likely the work of a collection of guys high up in the DoD who are doing some Lord of War on the side, hence why they're playing cards close to the family, actively destroying evidence to cover their tracks and not actually utilizing any of the legit DoD resources they have at their disposal.

And it looks like I used up the entire roll of tinfoil anyways.

USG doesn't have the customs issues that a corporation would have.

I read farther. The tinfoil is cutting off oxygen to your brain dude.

umm, no.

This is about a couple of people who decided to steal a bunch of money from the Navy.

Absolutely they are crooked and if the Navy is going to burn the evidence these crooked people should get away with it.