Annabella's GAOC: Arms Dealer Jailed for 30 Years"

“Arms dealer jailed for 30 years”

Subtitle: “A Syrian-born arms dealer has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for conspiring to sell millions of dollars of weapons to Colombian rebels.”

GAOC # 3

Annabella Sherman

Region: Central America, Mexico and West Indies

Partner: Dayton Gentry

Core: Y

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7909411.stm  

            When “Monzer al-Kassar” was spoken, people recognized the name to belong to a man living a lavish life in Spain. Monzer al-Kassar is a sixty-three year old man who was known as the “prince of Marbella” due to his extravagant lifestyle. No one knew that Monzer al-Kassar was a very dangerous man who was planning to sell weapons illegally.

            Monzer al-Kassar was born in Syria and was living in Spain at sixty-three. He was said to be a “sophisticated person that was motivated by money” by judge Jed Rakoff.

            A New York court found al-Kassar guilty of planning to sell arms, including dangerous missiles and grenade launchers. He and his associate Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy were caught operating when undercover officers filmed the operation while pretending to be Farc contacts. They were going to sell large quantities of horrible weapons to a terrorist organization that would then use those weapons (along with other things) to kill Americans. (However, al-Kassar said that he was not against Americans or America).

            It has been decided that Monzer al-Kassar will go to jail for thirty years, while his associate Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy will be in jail for twenty-five years.

            Before this incident, the US Embassy in Madrid reported that al-Kassar had been selling weapons to many clients in countries such as Bosnia, Croatia, Iran and Iraq since the 1970s. He was discovered to be selling them to the Palestinian Liberation Front as well. In addition, in 1995 he was found guilty of supplying weapons that were used in the Achille Lauro cruise ship hijack in 1985. This attack happened off the coast of Egypt, and an American named Leon Klinghoffer died from it.       

            Judge Rakoff reported al-Kassar to be “a man of many faces.” He also said, "it's a tragedy that a person as intelligent has spent so much of his life in activities that were certainly not calculated to advance the human race."

         This article really made me think about who people really are versus who we think they are. From the outside, Monzer seemed to be an ordinary rich man living in Spain, when really he was planning to sell a ton of weapons. It made me scared to think about how innocent he seemed, and to think about how many people probably trusted him. This article made me scared to trust anybody! You never know who they really are.

         This article is important because it teaches us that not everything is what it seems. People that seem to be normal may actually be very dangerous. When reading this article, you can also become more aware of the people around you, and take extra precautions to make sure you are safe. I hope that people are educated about the dangers of people by my doing my GAOC on this article! I know it really opened up my eyes!