http://www.nytimes.com/1986/12/04/world/the-white-house-crisis-an-army-of-arms-merchants-the-arms-market-shadowy-world.html
THE WHITE HOUSE CRISIS: AN ARMY OF ARMS MERCHANTS; The Arms Market: Shadowy WorldBy ELAINE SCIOLINO, Special to the New York Times
Published:
December 4, 1986WASHINGTON, Dec. 3— Operating in the shadows of the international arms market is an army of globe-trotting private entrepreneurs with contacts in high places and access to warehouses of weapons.
They include legitimate arms dealers with their own stocks, brokers who never take possession of weapons, and small-time smugglers.
The secret American arms sales to Iran and the diversion of profits to Nicaraguan rebels show how some of the arms merchants function not only as businessmen, but also as free-lance diplomats whose actions are likely to affect foreign policy.
The Iran affair, for example, has shaken long-held policies in the Middle East. Through the secret arms deals with the United States, Iran has found itself doing business with Israel, an archenemy, and financing insurgents against the Government of Nicaragua, which Iran supports. The United States, meanwhile, has been supplying arms to a country that it has accused of fomenting terrorism. New Role for Arms Dealers
Arms dealers seem not only to be advising governments, but to assume a new role, helping to shape policy.
The Iran affair is said to have been the brainstorm of
Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian businessman who flies a private jet among his 12 residences around the world, owns a $30 million art collection, a game ranch in Kenya and a $70 million yacht.
Mr. Khashoggi worked with two Israeli dealers, Al Schwimmer and Yaacov Nimrodi, on the arms sale to Iran that preceded the release in September 1985 of one of the hostages in Lebanon, the Rev. Benjamin Weir. No other dealers were apparently involved in the Iran sales.
In a statement issued through a spokesman in New York, Mr. Khashoggi sought today to quell reports that linked his deals with the Saudi Government. He said he had never acted on behalf of the Saudi Government, ''directly or indirectly, in any matter relating to the sale or other transfer of arms to Iran, or between the Government of Saudi Arabia and opposition forces in Nicaragua.''
American officials say that the sales to Iran were part of a larger pattern by governments using middlemen for covert deals.
Most of arms deals, worth $35 billion to $40 billion a year, result from contracts between governments, which are virtually the only sources of large arms such as planes, tanks, missiles and naval vessels.
In recent years, manufacturers have captured a larger share of the market, according to Joseph P. Smaldone, chief of the State Department's Arms Licensing Division.
The independent dealers fill in the gaps - selling small arms and spare parts, buying for governments too small to have their own expertise, and acting as fronts for governments that do not want to be involved.
''There is never a clear line between intelligence agents, government officials, corporations and independent arms dealers,'' said Anthony Cordesman, vice president of the defense research arm of Eaton Corporation of Cleveland.
Some arms dealers believe the United States Government has been turning to the wrong brokers for help, and they consider the Iran arms operation amateurish.
Iran Deal Sloppily Handled
Samuel Cummings, a Philadelphia-born British citizen who got his start buying arms for the C.I.A. before he went into business on his own in 1953, said of the Iran deal:
''In a purely commercial sense, it was sloppily handled. We could have done it without all the commissions and middlemen. Unfortunately, the United States is using a lot of characters who charge too much and have rather baroque histories.''
Mr. Cummings should know. As a C.I.A. agent, he bought German World War II weapons for the Chinese Nationalists. Later, after opening his own business, known as Interarms, he supplied arms for the C.I.A.-backed coup in Guatemala in 1954.
Mr. Cummings' sister is married to John G. Tower, the former Senator who heads President Reagan's three-member commission investigating the Iran arms affair and other operations of the National Security Council staff in the White House.
Referring to the relationship with the former Texas Senator, Mr. Cummings said: ''I go out of my way not to talk to him. I don't want to cause him any embarrassment.''
Another arms dealer who has been used by the Government, according to American officials and Arab diplomats, is
Sarkis G. Soghanalian, a Lebanese. He was called in when the United States wanted to send 45 civilian helicopters made by Bell Helicopter Textron of Fort Worth to Iraq in a goodwill gesture during the reopening of relations in late 1984.
Mr. Soghanalian was then still on probation for a 1982 wire fraud conviction in Miami for reneging on a transfer of machine guns to Mauritania.
Last September, he was indicted on eight counts of illegal weapon possession. Several of the machine guns had apparently been mounted on a Bell combat helicopter bound for Nicaraguan rebels, according to sources familiar with the case.
According to his lawyer, Gerald Richman, Mr. Soghanalian's clients include the State Department and the C.I.A., and he was transferring the Bell helicopter to ''Latin America'' with the encouragement of the United States Government. Other sources said the helicopter was destined for Nicaraguan rebels.
Officials refused to comment on Mr. Soghanalian's relationship with the Government.
The Government has also used arms manufacturers as middlemen.
In 1984, when the United States wanted to establish a military relationship with China, Sikorsky Aircraft of Stratford, Conn., was called in to arrange the sale of 24 helicopters outfitted with military engines.
''We could not come right out after the normalization of relations and sell military equipment and this was a convenient way to advance a policy goal,'' said one official. ''Sikorsky did it with our blessing.''
Arms dealers have been helping intelligence agencies and their dummy corporations to supply rebels in Nicaragua, Angola and Afghanistan, according to foreign policy experts.
Congressional investigators have traced profits from Iran sales to a Swiss bank account managed by the C.I.A. to fund rebels in Nicaragua and in Afghanistan. Today the C.I.A. denied that its bank accounts had been used for diverting money to ''covert action programs.''
Israeli Stockpiles Used
Arms dealers add that the intelligence agencies pay good prices for arms and do not argue about commissions. Israeli dealers are said to have access to Israel Government stocks.
One independent dealer who has bought Soviet-made rifles for rebels on behalf of the United States is Ernst Glatt, a West German dealer, according to officials. Some arms dealers believe that
Michael Kokin, who heads Sherwood International Export Corporation, with offices in Los Angeles, Miami, London and Washington, has peddled small arms to rebel groups.
Law enforcement officials say they are often called on to prosecute arms dealers who have links with intelligence agencies.
''We have had investigations of people who have at some time worked for the C.I.A., but there has never been a problem in prosecution,'' said Joseph Vince of the Miami office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. ''If there is such a relationship, the courts naturally take it into consideration.''
In the 1982 case against Mr. Soghanalian, the United States District Judge, Joe Eaton, granted five years' probation with the right to travel abroad, explaining that the case involved ''international affairs conducted by the State Department.''
Dealers are philosophical about their relationship with governments.
''We are all used by governments and we will be dumped on the chopping block when it suits their purposes,'' Mr. Cummings said.
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Il est souvent fait mention de
Sarkis Soghanalian dans le livre de Joseph J. Trento "Prelude to Terror" (2005).
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Dans l'article ci-dessus, on parle de
Samuel Cummings...
Voir : https://tueriesdubrabant.1fr1.net/t293-davila-carlos (René Haquin)
Dans les années 1977-80, la justice belge avait été amenée à enquêter sur les activités de Carlos Davila qui, parallèlement à ses activités à la FN, exploitait le club privé ‘El Puma’, dans la rue du Marché au Fromage à Bruxelles.
Officiellement, ‘El Puma’ n’était à Bruxelles qu’un centre culturel sud-américain.
Mais la gendarmerie belge était parvenue à établir que sous cette couverture se dissimulait une antenne de la CIA par laquelle le milieu latino-américain de Bruxelles était facilement surveillé. Carlos Davila utilisait d’ailleurs un break Chevrolet pourvu de plaques d’immatriculation attribuées en Virginie à la firme ‘Replica-Model’, une couverture de la CIA dirigée par
Sam Cummings.
Cette enquête sur Carlos Davila avait été effectuée à la BSR de Bruxelles par le maréchal des logis
Madani Bouhouche.
Merex, c'est notamment
Klaus Barbie :
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/from-nazi-criminal-to-postwar-spy-german-intelligence-hired-klaus-barbie-as-agent-a-740393-2.html
Il serait intéressant d'étudier les liens possibles avec Alain et Armand
Coesens (oncle de Armand De Decker).
Deux remarques :
Davila quitta bien plus tard la fabrique d’armes pour la société américaine
Sherwood, où I’ancien capitaine parachutiste péruvien s’était fait miroiter de bien meilleures conditions. (...) Un lien avec "Michael Kokin, who heads
Sherwood International Export Corporation" ?
_
Juan Mendez devient donc avec Alain Coesens le responsable de la division Défense et Sécurité de la FN pour l’Amérique latine, l’Espagne et le Portugal.
Son prédécesseur était Carlos Davila del Pielago, que le père d’Alain avait rencontré à l’époque où il était notre ambassadeur à Lima.
Le père d’Alain Coesens s’était d’ailleurs étonné de ce qu’un Péruvien ait été chargé par notre Fabrique nationale de négocier avec le gouvernement péruvien.
On trouvera sans doute une explication dans le fait que Carlos Davila, un ancien capitaine parachutiste et ancien bras droit du président péruvien, avait dû quitter le Pérou pour des raisons politiques.
Sa femme appartenant à la famille d’un des fondateurs de la Kredietbank, c’est assez naturellement qu’il choisit la Belgique pour terre d’accueil.
Accueil 
