The House Oversight Committee is holding a hearing today to determine how in the hell 22-year-old Efraim Diveroli got a $300 million contract to supply ammunition to Afghanistan, Andrew Tilghman reports:


The story of arms dealer AEY Inc., run by the 22-year-old Miami man who was indicted last week, is getting worse by the minute.

I know you Peeksters love the Efraim Diveroli AEY arms trader scandal. So, here's your fix for today.

Four government officials are testifying on Capitol Hill today about how the company ended up with a $300 million U.S. military contract
providing unusable and probably illegal weapons to the Afghan Army.

So far, the officials haven't discussed the alleged State Department cover-up yet. But they are delving into AEY's previous contracts with the government  and it doesn't look good.

In his opening statement, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) revealed a series of previous problems that the military had with AEY. [TPMM]
Read documents from today's hearing here. One of the more remarkable revelations comes in Oversight Committee Chair Waxman's opening statement. "It appears that the Army agreed to pay $300 million for ammunition it could have gotten for free," he writes. Apparently, AEY sold ammunition that the originating countries were trying to give away for free.

More TPMM coverage of L'Affaire Diveroli is available here.

Please note: Anti-semitic comments are not welcome here. This is a defense procurement scandal, not a opportunity to burden us with your pathetic paranoid screeds about the International Jewish Conspiracy. Got it?