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Last update - 02:19 21/11/2008
Defense Min. turns blind eye as Israelis sell arms to enemies
By Yossi Melman
Tags: Defense Ministry, arms trade 

Israeli arms dealers have negotiated and sold military equipment to a number of countries defined by Israeli law as enemy states in recent years with the full acknowledgment and approval of the Defense Ministry, Haaretz has learned.

The ministry has okayed negotiations and sales between Israeli dealers and several Arab states including Iraq, Libya and Yemen, say the sources.

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz recently approved the Tel Aviv District State Prosecutor's Office decision to close an investigation against dual Israel-U.S. citizen Shlomi Michaels, whose company, the Kurdistan Development Organization (KODO), was suspected of illegal arms deals with Iraq.
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A police spokesman confirmed they had opened an investigation into Michaels dealings in 2006. Michael's company Kodo used to be partly owned by former MK Dani Yatom, who is also a former head of the Mossad secret service. The police spokesman stressed that at no point in the investigation was Yatom questioned or considered a suspect. Yatom said that he severed his ties to the company in 2002, when he was elected to the Knesset, and before the company began its dealings in Iraq. Michaels, a former member of the elite Yamam police unit, emigrated to the U.S., where he started Kodo, which is registered as a company in Switzerland.

The investigation began on the basis of information that equipment manufactured by Israeli companies like Magal Motorola and Tadiran were being used in the construction of an airport in the city of Arbil, in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, and that Kodo's security advisers were training local Kurdish militias. Laura Rozen wrote this week in Mother Jones, a U.S. weekly, that Kodo was vying for a 20 percent stake of a $300 million budget. Its activity in the Kurdish territory ended after it received information that Iranian agents might try to harm Israelis.

Police began investigating the company after it discovered it did not receive approval from the Defense Ministry to operate in Iraq, which is still technically in a state of war with Israel. The ministry's former director general, Amos Yaron, told police he had approved the company's dealings.

Haaretz recently learned that the Defense Ministry allowed Israeli dealers to sell flak jackets to Libya and weapons to Yemen. In the past, the ministry allowed the Israel Aerospace Industries to enter negotiations with Yemen over its Mig-fighter planes but the deal fell through.

According to a 1939 law drafted under the British Mandate as a way to supervise trade with Nazi Germany, the Finance Ministry is charged with defining countries as enemy states. However, any government ministry may de facto approve trade deals with enemy states based on its own definition of the term.

"International law or Israeli law is not clear over the definition of an enemy state," Ehud Keinan, the deputy legal adviser to the Foreign Ministry, admitted in 1999. Iraq's classification as an enemy state was removed after the U.S. invasion of the country in 2003. Since then Israeli companies have supplied the U.S. army in Iraq with drones and ammunition.

The Defense Ministry spokesman responded that "the Defense Ministry obeys the law but does not comment on defense industry trade."

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      1.   "Iraq, Libya and Yemen"? 05:49  |  Silvienne 20/11/08
      2.   All such activities are initiated and approved by... 06:06  |  ManintheMiddle 20/11/08
      3.   Weapon sales - Share Land 06:42  |  Enoch 20/11/08
      4.   outrageous 06:57  |  real vision 20/11/08
      5.   Silvienne - you have a right to be concerned 07:22  |  * BEN JABO 20/11/08
      6.   Defense ministry turns blind eye as Israelis sell arms to the ene 07:27  |  Roxy 20/11/08
      7.   3 Outrageous - USA does the same thing 07:28  |  * BEN JABO 20/11/08
      8.   Selling UAV`s to Russia 08:25  |  Ron 20/11/08
      9.   At least we know what they have in their arsenals... 08:43  |  Esther 20/11/08
      10.   Arms to our enemies 09:16  |  Yoel 20/11/08
      11.   As the Left also gives them land and fuel ... 10:26  |  Binyamin Dissen 20/11/08
      12.   Busines as usual 10:37  |  Ralph is back 20/11/08
      13.   aRMS 10:50  |  J10 20/11/08
      14.   #5 Ben Jabo 11:09  |  Scott G 20/11/08
      15.   Shady eco - political deals by government 11:16  |  H.H.M. 20/11/08
      16.   Over-reaction 11:16  |  Scott G 20/11/08
      17.   BACKDOOR diplomacy.All kinds of things happen 11:24  |  PETER SM 20/11/08
      18.   Selling todays technology to finance tomorrows 11:35  |  PETER SM 20/11/08
      19.   the tip of the iceberg 15:15  |  Joshua 20/11/08
      20.   Business is business 17:31  |  Abir 20/11/08
      21.   Arms Dealers 19:20  |  Don 20/11/08
      22.   Joshua, you only seem to blame Israel 20:55  |  DavidAK 20/11/08
      23.   #5 Ben Jabo. Haven`t you heard... 22:31  |  Maureen Ann 20/11/08
      24.   #5, Ben Jabo... 22:36  |  Silvienne 20/11/08
      25.   Ben Jabo the second...Scott G 22:42  |  Silvienne 20/11/08
      26.   #21, DavidAK... 22:48  |  Silvienne 20/11/08
      27.   DAVID AK thats all he knows.Thinking outside the collective 23:35  |  PETER SM 20/11/08
      28.   Israel and US citizens 02:07  |  Kmansfield 21/11/08
      29.   Shopping down at Col. Bubbies 05:23  |  Mark Lincoln 21/11/08
      30.   Leftist Israeli Governments are the largest gun suppliers.. 08:14  |  Karen Levine 21/11/08
      31.   #29 M Lincoln, yes, we get it. 17:41  |  janet 21/11/08
      32.   #12 Ralph 17:44  |  janet 21/11/08
      33.   money, money, money 20:26  |  Mark 21/11/08
      34.   3RD TRY Scott G. 03:12  |  * BEN JABO 22/11/08
      35.   #24 Silvienne - Let me clue you in 03:16  |  * BEN JABO 22/11/08
      36.   #23 Maureen Ann - I say it so it`s easy for you 03:18  |  * BEN JABO 22/11/08
      37.   Silvienne re: Stingers 03:22  |  * BEN JABO 22/11/08
      38.   Ben Joabo the ignorant and unresponsive.. 16:04  |  Scott G 22/11/08
      39.   #38 Scott G- The unaware and incapable 18:16  |  * BEN JABO 22/11/08
      40.   Scott G. - None so dense 18:24  |  * BEN JABO 22/11/08
      41.   #35, Ben Jabo...so you do agree with me!? 23:17  |  Silvienne 23/11/08
      42.   #37, Ben Jabo and the PIATs... 23:22  |  Silvienne 23/11/08
      43.   Scott G & Afghan rifles.. 23:39  |  Silvienne 23/11/08
      44.   #41 Silvienne - I had my say 03:17  |  * BEN JABO 24/11/08
      45.   Ben Jabo & Scott G... 06:00  |  Silvienne 24/11/08
      46.   #44, Ben Jabo... 17:17  |  Silvienne 24/11/08
      47.   #42 Silvienen - Piats 23:10  |  * BEN JABO 24/11/08
      48.   #47, Ben Jabo... 17:24  |  Silvienne 25/11/08
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