Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military From: jfb@ihlpm.att.com (Joseph F Baugher) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: MiG's in US service Summary: The Rumanian Connection Message-ID: <1990Sep2.061125.3603@cbnews.att.com> Date: 2 Sep 90 06:11:25 GMT References: <1990Aug24.034335.1293@cbnews.att.com> <1990Aug31.031223.25368@cbnews.att.com> Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Indian Hill - Naperville, Illinois Lines: 36 Approved: military@att.att.com From: jfb@ihlpm.att.com (Joseph F Baugher) In article <1990Aug31.031223.25368@cbnews.att.com>, tek@CS.UCLA.EDU (Ted Kim (Random Dude)) writes: > I haven't read any confirmation of this from anywhere else, so regard > it appropriately ... > > The wildest story I have seen on this, is a story the LA Times ran a > few months ago. If I remember correctly, the story was plucked from a > wire service, so it may have appeared elsewhere. The gist of the story > was that the KGB admitted in a Soviet newspaper that it had not been > totally successful at preventing unauthorized transfer of Soviet > military technology. Apparently, some Eastern European countries had > sold some of MiG-29s and T-72s to unauthorized parties. The article > went on the imply one of the foreign recipients was the US acting > through dummy corporations. > > -ted I remember hearing similar sorts of stories after the fall of the late, unlamented Ceaucescu of Rumania. It seems that his regime was so corrupt that Western intelligence services simply walked in with wads of cash (hard currency, of course) and just bought any Soviet bloc weapon they wanted. It seems that there was no lack of officials willing to sell. However, I don't know if Rumania had any MiG-29s or T-72s for sale. The almighty dollar seems to work when everything else fails. Joe Baugher ************************************** AT&T Bell Laboratories * "May as well be frank, monsieur. * 200 Park Plaza * It would take a miracle to get * Naperville, Illinois 60566-7050 * you out of Casablanca." * (708) 713 4548 ************************************** ihlpm!jfb jfb200@cbnewsd.att.com Who, me? Speak for AT&T? Surely you jest!