DonNikmare
Member
FROM BROOKLYN TO PRISTINA
http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2005/thebrooklynconnection/
"How does a gun purchased legally in the US end up in action in a guerilla war in Kosovo? Trace a route across the Atlantic, from the factory and gun show to an airport and, eventually, a Kosovo border village..."
I watched this last night and here are some comments...
The guy profiled raises $ for "the Kosovo independence" with which he buys as many weapons as he can and smuggles them from N.Y. city to Kosovo. He uses the cover of "humaniterian aid" and if given trouble for some of his bigger cal weapons has the cover of some kind of "hunting association" he has set up. They showed him buying a 50 cal rifle and telling the FFL that he needed it for elephant hunting in Africa.
He is helping an unofficial Kosovo army get armed for some future independance war against NATO/UN forces, the Serbs, and whoever else is in the way.
He told the reporter he smuggled 25 tons of weapons at one time by renting a cargo plane and hiding them with humanitarian aid packages.
The program attempted to reinforce some stereotypes of gun owners/sellers.
The Kosovo character made a statement, while snickering, that FFL were all easy to fool as most of them are "...extreme rightwingers who hate communists. We just tell them we are buying the weapons to fight against communists. They are happy and give us discounts..." They went to some gunshow and talked to two sellers - one of them was going on about how he carries 24/7 and that he does not practice heart shot "...cause if you shoot somebody in the heart they have 9 seconds to live and shoot back. But if you shoot them in the head..."
He helped raise a lot of $ for John Kerry and at one point was shown righting a contribution check to Democrat senetor Hyde at a fund raising event. It is beyond me how someone can come out of the opression of socialism and communism, profess to have nothing but hate and disgust for communists and yet support Democrats here in the US :banghead:
The reporter could not resist and asked a couple of anti type questions such as "Do you think Americans are being killed by their own guns?" The guy brought up Columbine to answer affirmatively and then justified his countrymen's ownership of weapons all in the same breath. He said that no one would ever be able to disarm Albanians due to their history of war.
The program ended by stating that after learning of the smuggling efforts and activities the UN tried to find and confiscate them but found none. The UN also devised a program to confiscate an estimated 140,000+ firearm and ended up finding and taking only 155. Either the UN's plan must have really sucked or those guys are extremely good at hiding their firearms.
Well, all in all it was a very interesting program. Anyone else see it?
Found this too...here is how the reporter/film maker describes this character...
"He's full of tricks and you can easily see it. He has a sense of humor, he's a very engaging character, and the story was amazing. On the one hand he's a great guy, he's very sympathetic. He's a big charmer. He's a Brooklyn roofer and he's a father of three kids. And on the surface, he lives a totally normal life. On the other hand, he actually has a double life, because he is a gun runner. And during the Kosovo war in the late 1990's, he raised $30 million dollars and he bought thousands of weapons and brought them to Kosovo to fight a war there. And he bought them all here in the United States. He's ruthless."
Nik
http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2005/thebrooklynconnection/
"How does a gun purchased legally in the US end up in action in a guerilla war in Kosovo? Trace a route across the Atlantic, from the factory and gun show to an airport and, eventually, a Kosovo border village..."
I watched this last night and here are some comments...
The guy profiled raises $ for "the Kosovo independence" with which he buys as many weapons as he can and smuggles them from N.Y. city to Kosovo. He uses the cover of "humaniterian aid" and if given trouble for some of his bigger cal weapons has the cover of some kind of "hunting association" he has set up. They showed him buying a 50 cal rifle and telling the FFL that he needed it for elephant hunting in Africa.
He is helping an unofficial Kosovo army get armed for some future independance war against NATO/UN forces, the Serbs, and whoever else is in the way.
He told the reporter he smuggled 25 tons of weapons at one time by renting a cargo plane and hiding them with humanitarian aid packages.
The program attempted to reinforce some stereotypes of gun owners/sellers.
The Kosovo character made a statement, while snickering, that FFL were all easy to fool as most of them are "...extreme rightwingers who hate communists. We just tell them we are buying the weapons to fight against communists. They are happy and give us discounts..." They went to some gunshow and talked to two sellers - one of them was going on about how he carries 24/7 and that he does not practice heart shot "...cause if you shoot somebody in the heart they have 9 seconds to live and shoot back. But if you shoot them in the head..."He helped raise a lot of $ for John Kerry and at one point was shown righting a contribution check to Democrat senetor Hyde at a fund raising event. It is beyond me how someone can come out of the opression of socialism and communism, profess to have nothing but hate and disgust for communists and yet support Democrats here in the US :banghead:
The reporter could not resist and asked a couple of anti type questions such as "Do you think Americans are being killed by their own guns?" The guy brought up Columbine to answer affirmatively and then justified his countrymen's ownership of weapons all in the same breath. He said that no one would ever be able to disarm Albanians due to their history of war.
The program ended by stating that after learning of the smuggling efforts and activities the UN tried to find and confiscate them but found none. The UN also devised a program to confiscate an estimated 140,000+ firearm and ended up finding and taking only 155. Either the UN's plan must have really sucked or those guys are extremely good at hiding their firearms.
Well, all in all it was a very interesting program. Anyone else see it?
Found this too...here is how the reporter/film maker describes this character...
"He's full of tricks and you can easily see it. He has a sense of humor, he's a very engaging character, and the story was amazing. On the one hand he's a great guy, he's very sympathetic. He's a big charmer. He's a Brooklyn roofer and he's a father of three kids. And on the surface, he lives a totally normal life. On the other hand, he actually has a double life, because he is a gun runner. And during the Kosovo war in the late 1990's, he raised $30 million dollars and he bought thousands of weapons and brought them to Kosovo to fight a war there. And he bought them all here in the United States. He's ruthless."
Nik
