Austrian Don't Ask Don't Tell

No Pasaran has found out more of the interesting history of those Austrian sniper rifles that were sold to the Iranians yet magically wound up in Iraq.

The Austrian interior ministry defended the sale of about 800 sniper rifles to Iran by an Austrian arms manufacturer as "unimpeachable".

Austrian interior ministry spokesman Johannes Rauch said the sale of sniper rifles to Iran by arms manufacturer Steyr-Mannlicher had been approved and controlled by the government before it was completed in August.

The guns had been supplied for the use of Iran's elite anti-drugs operatives, he said.

I wonder if they wanted use the Steyr .50 HS rifles against those "narcotic smugglers" we keep hearing about in Iranian Balochistan of late.

At least the Austrians are taking responsibility for their actions...

"We checked the proposal very thoroughly," Austrian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Astrid Harz said, noting that the situation in Iraq and the region in 2003-2004 was very different then than it is today.

"What happened to the weapons then is the responsibility of the Iranians," Harz said.