U.S. Ambassador accused of removing evidence of illegal arms shipments

WASHINGTON, June 23 – It was reported Monday that a senior U.S. House Democrat wrote a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accusing the U.S. ambassador to Albania of approving the removal of evidence of the Chinese origins of ammunition being shipped from Albania to Afghanistan by a U.S. defense contractor.
Rep. Henry Waxman said the State Department then attempted to conceal that information from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which he chairs, according to The Associated Press news agency.
Waxman’s allegations comes three days after Efraim Diveroli, the disposal contractor’s president, and three others were charged in federal court with providing prohibited ammunition to be used by Afghan army and police forces. Diveroli’s company, AEY Inc., was paid more than $10 million through a U.S. government contract for 35 shipments of ammunition that prosecutors say was manufactured in China.
Prosecutors contend AEY Inc. removed markings from containers to hide the fact they were manufactured in China. Diveroli then certified that the ammunition was manufactured in Albania and submitted an invoice for it, they said.
AEY Inc.’s contract required it to certify that it was providing serviceable and safe ammunition. The contract also barred delivery of ammunition acquired, directly or indirectly, from a Chinese company.
In his ten-page letter to Rice, Waxman said John L. Withers II, the U.S. ambassador to Albania, met with Albanian Defense Minister Fatmir Mediu in November 2007 to discuss how to respond to inquiries from The New York Times. The newspaper was investigating AEY Inc. and one of its reporters wanted to visit a site in Albania where AEY was taking Chinese ammunition from its original packaging.
Army Maj. Larry Harrison, chief of the office of defense cooperation at the embassy, attended the meeting, according to an interview the officer had with committee staff earlier this month. Mediu, who has since resigned his position, was concerned a story about AEY would reveal allegations of corruption against him.
The meeting lasted well into the night. Mediu ordered the Chinese markings be removed before the visit. According to Harrison, Withers agreed “that this would alleviate the suspicion of wrongdoing.”
Harrison told the committee he was “very uncomfortable” with the discussions because there was an ongoing criminal investigation of AEY. He recommended the reporter not be allowed to visit the site. That advice was not accepted, Waxman said.
There was no immediate comment from the State Department on Waxman’s letter.
In late March, after The New York Times published its article on AEY Inc., Waxman’s staff asked the State Department for a wide range of documents about the company, its transactions and any interactions it had with U.S. Embassy officials in Albania. In the department’s response there was no description of the November 2007 meeting.
According to Waxman’s letter, Harrison had urged U.S. embassy officials to tell the committee about the meeting. He was overruled, however.
Waxman has sought to interview Withers and other U.S. officials at the embassy in Albania. (Waxman’s letter may be found on the net: http://oversight.house.gov/story. asp? ID2035.)
Deputy State Department spokesman, Tom Casey, was asked in his regular briefing to comment on the case.
“I somehow think there needs to be a bit of an investigation of the mail service between that particular committee and this building, because it does seem that there’s a lot of letters that seem to manage to get into your guys’ hands before they ever make it here,” he answered.
Casey said it was just over one hour since had received the letter and needed time to “take a look at it and provide a response to the chairman that’s appropriate,” adding they will treat any allegations seriously and look into it rather thoroughly.
Casey said that Ambassador John Withers and the other people specifically mentioned in this letter were career Foreign Service officers. “They’re certainly not individuals who have any political connections or issues to speak of, nor are they individuals who, if you look at the bank accounts of most Foreign Service officers, have any particular business interests with the company involved.”
Casey also knew that there was an ongoing investigation and that the Department of Justice was working with the Department of Defense in looking into the activities of the company involved here. Casey said he had no information that Withers had met with the Albanian official, adding that if the chairman of the committee was asking for information, “we will certainly make sure that we provide the information requested.”
“We have no information that would support the idea that U.S. officials were involved in some kind of illicit activity. But obviously, again, any allegations made, certainly any questions raised by the chairman of a major committee in Congress, is something that we will be happy to look into,” he said.