> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dr Deuce 264-0909 [SMTP:keith@apache.ENET.dec.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 1998 7:37 AM
> To: @us2rmc.zko.dec.com@us2rmc.zko.dec.com
> Cc: keith@apache.ENET.dec.com
> Subject: [MV] oh oh MV collector in the (negative) news
>
> Sept. 25 Customs Service officials say they are
> investigating whether the shipping records used to
> import a fully operational Scud missile into the
> United States were falsified. Officials fear that the
> importation could hint at a black market in the
> missile made famous by the Persian Gulf War.
>
>
> THE MISSILE, complete with a MAZ-543 transporter-erector-launcher and
> empty
> warhead, was rolled right off a ship in Port Hueneme in California on
> Sept. 2
> and has been impounded until the investigation determines if there
> were any
> crimes committed, said Customs spokesman Pat Jones. Another U.S.
> official
> identified the buyer as Jacques Littlefield, a well-known military
> hardware
> collector and self-proclaimed tank nerd who lives on a 450-acre ranch
> in
> Portola Valley, Calif., near Palo Alto. As one of General Electrics
> largest
> individual stockholders, Littlefield is worth hundreds of millions of
> dollars,
> according to several news articles about the man and his military
> collection.
> The seller is listed as R&R Motor Services Ltd. of Ashford, England,
> an
> automobile service company that deals in military vehicles. Contrary
> to initial
> reports, the missile was fully operational and included an empty
> warhead, said
> Jones. It was manufactured in what was then Czechoslovakia in 1985.
> Officials
> declined comment on how it got to Britain. British Customs is also
> investigating. A Scud missile has an operational range of 190 miles.
> Officials
> say Littlefield paid about $50,000 for the missile. There is a
> warhead, just
> nothing in it. ... The Pentagon experts who looked at it told us it
> was fully
> operational, Jones said. All it needed was fuel.
>
> REVIEWING DOCUMENTATION The U.S. Customs Service is investigating
> whether the
> documentation was falsified, he added. We know it was inaccurate; we
> dont know
> about intent. We would need to know of the intent to determine whether
> it was
> falsified, Jones said. U.S. defense and intelligence officials say
> they are
> concerned not only that this missile was delivered to a US port, but
> also that
> it points up two growing fears among proliferation experts: that there
> is a
> black market in Scud missiles and that a terrorist could fire one or
> more from
> a ship off a major U.S. city. The fact that a complete missile was
> available
> and on a freighter made what were once abstract fears very real. One
> official
> described the missile as looking like a fire engine on steroids as it
> came off
> a freighter at Point Hueneme, about 35 miles north of Los Angeles.
> Customs has
> inspectors trained to recognize all sorts of nasty stuff. This one was
> easy,
> the official said. Customs records indicate this was the second Scud
> shipped
> to the California port for delivery to Littlefield. The first, which
> was not
> operational, was delivered a month earlier, Customs officials said.
>
> MUST BE DEMILITARIZED U.S. law requires military equipment on the U.S.
> munitions list to be demilitarized made inoperable prior to being
> cleared for
> private collections. After identifying the missile, Customs first
> called in the
> Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, then the U.S. Navy, which has
> its
> Pacific Missile Test Center in nearby Point Mugu. The missile was
> examined
> there, then seized and impounded. The first missile remains at the
> weapons
> collectors ranch. Various profiles of Littlefield reported that he has
> collections of 46 tanks and another 80 military vehicles to go with
> his private
> railroad, a fire truck and 15 vintage cars. Im interested in all
> mechanical
> things, how they work, how they run, Littlefield once told the San
> Jose Mercury
> News. The fact that they are weapons is almost beside the point.
> Littlefield is
> a member of the Wattis family, which merged with GE in a 1976 stock
> deal. The
> family is worth more than $3.5 billion. Neither Littlefield nor R&R
> Motor
> Services Ltd. returned phone calls seeking comment.
>
> ===
> To unsubscribe from the mil-veh mailing list, send the single word
> UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of a message to <mil-veh-request@skylee.com>.
===
To unsubscribe from the mil-veh mailing list, send the single word
UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of a message to <mil-veh-request@skylee.com>.