National security leaks compromise local international arms dealer

BY KATHY KAHN

Many countries supply weaponry to allies, and the U.S. is no exception. The manufacturing, buying and selling of munitions and arms goes on everywhere, including Rockland’s own backyard. It is a delicate business to be in, considering armaments headed for American allies can fall into the wrong hands.

Former local political candidate Anthony Melé has a record of service with the armed forces and U.S. Government and is licensed by the Office of Political – Military Affairs, U.S. State Dept. since 2009. AMI Global Security, Melé’s firm, was contracted by the new U.S.-backed government of Ukraine to procure and transport $7.5 million worth of arms to Ukraine via an intermediary broker in Bulgaria.

Some of the weaponry was manufactured by Barrett Firearms, based in Tennessee. “The weapons were exported from the U.S. to Ukraine brokered by Bulgaria in compliance with my contract,” said Melé, “ this type of arrangement is discreet…it is ultra-sensitive work, it is what I do as a professional.”

The transfer of arms from the United States to Ukraine exported by AMI Global Security marked a stark change in U.S. policy as the first time they approved providing lethal weapons to that East-European Country. What happened next according to sources inside the Ukraine was some time during an official visit by Vice President Joseph Biden to Kiev in January, 2016 these sensitive documents somehow ended up on the front pages of news media in Ukraine, Bulgaria and Russia. You can read an article in a Russian news site outing Mele’s firm for yourself at:
http://rian.com.ua/inquiry/20151002/374622306.htm

Ukrainian sources speculate the documents outlining the transfer of the arms shipment were compromised on what must have been an unsecure server or for political reasons aiming to embarrass the new Ukrainian regime and the Obama Administration.

“If you want to move secret weapons, they call AMI. I’m a U.S. defense trade broker. When you are working discreetly, you do not want or need that kind of publicity. Essentially, that’s what happened,” Mele explained.

Under Clinton’s stint as Secretary of State, another arms dealer was contracted to deliver arms and munitions to Libya, continued Mele. “Those weapons ended up in the hands of terrorists in Yemen and Syria. The U.S. government recently dropped criminal charges against Michael Turi, another State Department licensee, when it was revealed it would implicate Hillary Clinton’s involvement.”

Melé opines these examples of continuing blunders are an outgrowth of the ill-advised string of regime change foreign policy engineered by the Obama/Clinton Administration in Libya, Syria and Ukraine; “This is symptomatic to failed U.S. foreign policy…It’s hard to imagine the American public entrusting the same person who is responsible for the current foreign crises across the Middle East and Europe, with the White House.”