US invokes Human Rights for thief, money launderer, arms dealer

The US Embassy in Moldova website posted an item on Friday that is, at first sight puzzling, tantalising, and ultimately outrageously funny... you may have missed the blazing hypocrisy of it.

Statement by U.S. Embassy regarding the trial of former Moldovan Defense Minister Valeriu Pasat

The U.S. expresses its disappointment with the recent trial of former Moldovan Minister of Defense Valeriu Pasat. Whereas the verdict in the case appears to have been based on the assumption that the 1997 sale of 21 MiG-29 jets to the U.S. was disadvantageous for Moldova, we believe the Moldovan Government made the right decision to sell the MiGs to the U.S. Had Moldova chosen to sell the airplanes to a country associated with international terrorism, that decision would have drawn strong criticism from the international community and would have negatively affected our relationship. Additionally, we regret that Pasat's trial was held behind closed doors and note that the presiding judge refused to admit sworn statements offered by former U.S. officials involved with the sale.

In light of new, unrelated charges issued against Pasat, we call on the Government of Moldova to ensure that any future judicial proceedings, in this as in all cases, are carried out in full conformity with international human rights standards.

That the US Administration should appeal to the international standards of Human Rights, the administration that not only employs Spanish speaking 23 year Foreign Service veteran but also the Spanish speaking Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez … the man who put the unconventional in his reading of the Geneva Conventions has a delightful edge of irony about it.

What on earth is going on here ?

In the aftermath of glasnost and the Global Warming started the thaw in the Cold War The US Department of Defense of the United States of America and the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Moldova reached an agreement to implement the Cooperative Threat Reduction accord signed on June 23, 1997, in Moldova. This involved the purchase of Moldova’s complete stock of Mig – 29’s bits and pieces, missiles etc., by the US. This was for an undisclosed sum but now said to be in the region of USD$80Mn. Thus preventing that these dual-use military weapons did not fall into the hands of rogue states

The Pentagon pounced on the planes after learning Iran had inspected the jets and expressed an interest in adding them to their inventory. (Hmmmmm…)

Iran (who operate the Russian Sunburst supersonic cruise missiles to guard the Persian Gulf) already flies the less-capable Fulcrum A, it doesn't own any of the more advanced C-models.

Of the 21 Fulcrums the United States bought, 14 are the frontline Fulcrum C's, which contain an active radar jammer in its spine, six older A's and one B-model two-seat trainer.

From Oct. 20 to Nov. 2, 1997, loadmasters and aerial port experts squeezed two MiGs apiece, less wings and tails, into the cargo holds of C-17 Globemaster III transports from Charleston Air Force Base, S.C. The Charleston airlifters delivered the MiGs to the National Air Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson AFB near Dayton, Ohio.

A team of 40 airmen, including engineers, aerial port personnel and security forces, spent 24 days last October and November at Markuleshti Air Base in Moldova, packing up and shipping the jets, missiles and equipment. Enlisted members composed a majority of the team, representing several commands and agencies like the Air Intelligence Agency, Air Mobility Command, and U.S. Air Forces in Europe.

Many pundits including the Federation of American Scientists recognize that in an individual match-up, the MiG-29 is potentially equal to, or better than the F-15 Eagle or F-16 Falcon.

Valeriu Pasat was Moldova’s ambassador to Russia, and after that took up the post of Moldovan Defense Minister in 1997 and was responsible for negotiating the sale of the Mig –29’s. The picture shows Secretary of Defense William Cohen (left), Col. Gregory Gardner, U.S. Army (center), and Minister of Defense Valeriu Pasat (right), of the Republic of Moldova, inspect the joint services honor guard during an armed forces full honor arrival ceremony at Conmy Hall, Fort Myer, Va., on Jan. 29, 1998.

Later Pasat moved to head up Moldova’s spy agency from 2000 to 2002, when he was dismissed by president Vladimir Voronin one of the old Cold War Communist apparatchiks.

It might be worth mentioning here a detail from an interview the new US Ambassador Ms. Heather Hodges gave to Welcome Moldova magazine.

Q. What have you encountered to be the biggest problem Moldova faces today as a newly independent state?
A. I believe that corruption is the biggest problem that Moldova faces.

The poorest country in Europe and a former communist Russian state, Moldova sits between the Ukraine and Romania and is comparable in size to Indiana. Ms. Hodges was in no doubt about about the nature of POlitics in the land of her service.

Meanwhile Valeriu Pasat headed for Moscow to work with the State Energy group UES. There his boss was, UES Chief Executive Officer Anatoly Chubais, who has called on Moldovan president Vladimir Voronin to free his employee. The arrest of his aide “cannot be separated from what has been happening in Russian-Moldovan relations in recent weeks,” he is quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.

Returning to Moldova he was arrested and he is suspected of laundering money obtained from the sale of 21 MiG-29 fighter jets to the United States in 1997. The deal was worth more than $80 million, but the republic’s budget received only half of this sum, prosecutors estimate. He was charged with “usurpation of state power and premeditation of murder for clearing the way for another offense”. Apparently he had been overheard threatening to murder a politcian.

The trial ended this week, and was held in secret, behind closed doors, a procedure the US apparently finds breaches human rights, but which they regularly use in Kabul, Bagram, Diego Garcia, and Guantanamo Bay … and probably in many other places.

Pasat was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment being found guilty of defrauding the state budget of 50 million dollars as a result of a transaction with 21 war planes MIG-29 and of defrauding the public budget of 1.8 million dollars as a result of selling war systems “Uragan” and rockets for them to “JOI Slovakia” at lower prices.

US invokes Human Rights for thief, money launderer, arms dealer ? Yes. But he's OUR thief, money launderer, arms dealer.

Some fascinating background information is available here


The Velvet Revolution
Fascinating insight into US diplomacy in Ukraine and some light on Anatoly Chubai’s career under both Yeltsin and Putin.

Mig impresses in Dubai
Information about the new deflected multi-vectored (DFV) thrust which will feature in the MiG – 35 ( was MiG –29 OVT) which India wants to replace the ageing MiG 21’s. … Dubya is due in India next month.

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