Arms and the Dudes by Guy Lawson

Author:Guy Lawson [Lawson, Guy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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I. Gates described his dealings with the “amazingly corrupt” Kyrgyzstan government as one of the most despicable experiences of his career—but still the American government did business with Kurmanbek Bakiyev, because it had no choice: Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War (Knopf, 2014), 194–95.

Chapter Eight

GJAKMARRJA

President George W. Bush arrived in Albania on June 10, 2007. It was the only foreign trip the president dared to take to mark the end of his second term. Fear of mass protests and social unrest had kept Bush from going to even the friendliest nations. Not Albania. It was a quasi national holiday as Bush swept down Rruga Demokracia in Tirana, cheered on by tens of thousands of jubilant Albanians, many dressed in Uncle Sam costumes and waving the Stars and Stripes. Giddy at the genuine affection of his admirers, Bush leaped from his limousine and posed for snapshots—to the dismay of the Secret Service. But no place on earth was safer for an American president than in the ecstatic embrace of the Albanian people as the nation neared the historic milestone of joining NATO.I

Alex Podrizki watched the parade in wonder. He’d never witnessed such fevered pro-American sentiment—not even in the United States on Super Bowl Sunday. Through the crowd he caught a glimpse of Bush’s waving hand. Standing in a sea of Albanians, Podrizki felt that he had truly embarked on a great adventure—one of many to come, he hoped.

In early June, Podrizki was enjoying a rare break from the frantic pace of acting as AEY’s agent in Albania. The repacking effort had been stopped days before Bush’s arrival. The Secret Service and representatives of the US military had come to the airport and demanded that the ammo be moved to a hangar farther from the area where the president would be arriving. The Albanian military had complied, shifting the AK-47 ammo to a hardened shelter to the west of the airfield, where it was determined the rounds no longer represented a risk to the president.

That American officials had open access to the repacking operation provided Podrizki with yet more comfort that nothing was seriously amiss with shipping “Chinese” rounds to Afghanistan. The military section of the airport had been teeming with federal agents before Bush’s visit. No one had said a word about the giant stack of old crates with Chinese markings on the tarmac or AEY’s repacking operation.

After returning to Miami, Diveroli had come to an agreement with the Albanians. AEY would receive a discount of two-tenths of a penny on each round of ammo, reducing the price to 3.8 cents. In return, Diveroli had agreed to cut Trebicka out of the repacking job, which was now being done by a company called Alb-Demil,II an entity seemingly controlled by the prime minister’s son and Mihail Delijorgji. The process was now moving much more quickly and efficiently. A short, stocky tough guy named Tony was in charge at the airport. As many as 7 million rounds were being unpacked, inspected, and repacked every week, enough for three or four planeloads to fly to Kabul.

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