MOSCOW, August 14 (RIA Novosti) - The United States hired L-3 Communications, a military contractor, to train and profile armed personnel in Ukraine, who were then to work with NATO forces against their own country, Daniel Zubov from Rossiya Segodnia’s Center for International Journalism and Research said.
“In the year prior to the March 2014 coup in Kiev the American Justice Department gave a contract to an American firm, L-3 Communications, a military contractor based just outside Washington, to train and profile armed personnel who would work with NATO forces against their country,” Zubov said.
“Technically L-3 received $178,571 in November 2012, and another $138,571 a year later to conduct ‘Police Instructor Development’ in Ukraine,” he added.
At the same time, NATO is closely linked to the whole story, as Military Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI) – a unit of L-3 that specializes in such training – has been headed since 2010 by US General Bantz Craddock, the former supreme allied commander of NATO from December 2006 until June 2009.
“L-3 is packed with former high-ranking US military generals and other officers, including several L-3 board members: Gen. Richard A. Cody, former vice chief of staff of the US Army; former four-star General Ann Dunwoody, from 2008 to 2012 head of US Army Materiel Command; and Gen. Henry Hugh Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1997 to 2001, and former commander-in-chief of the Special Operations Command,” Daniel Zubov said.
L-3 Communications is one of the major contractors for the Defense Department and intelligence agencies. The company was founded in 1997 and acquired MPRI in 2010. In 2013, L-3’s revenues exceeded $12 billion.
MPRI was founded in 1987 and has bases in Newport News, Virginia; Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; Baghdad, Iraq; Kuwait City, Kuwait; and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The company is infamous for working with Croatian forces in 1994.
“United Nations Resolution 713 called for an arms embargo against Croatia, so the American government referred the Croatian military to MPRI for training and strategy. The MPRI-trained Croatian forces launched Operation Storm, where upwards of 350,000 Serbs were forced to flee their homes and thousands were killed. Later, several MPRI-trained Croatian generals were accused of war crimes by Serbians, but never convicted by the US-dominated International Criminal Court,” Zubov explained.
Shortly after, the firm was hired by the Bosnian government, later by Kosovo. The contracts were regularly paid for by other nations including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Brunei and Malaysia, making it hard to find traces of US budgeting.
“Some of the contracts for MPRI in Ukraine may have come directly from the Ukrainian government from funds allocated by the US or other NATO countries, or from private corporations or Ukrainian oligarchs,” Zubov said.
Zubov added that following the Orange Revolution “from the public records, MPRI has received 192 contracts from the US Justice Department in Ukraine since 2005, 55 of which have come since 2010, when Craddock took control.”
