Douglas Bernhardt
Douglas Bernhart is an American arms dealer.
Blowpipe missile deal
Bernhart was arrested in a Paris hotel room in April 1989 along with three members of the UDA; Noel Little, Samuel Quinn, and James King, and a South African diplomat, Daniel Storm, to whom they were delivering parts for a Blowpipe missile launcher. Storm was released owing to his diplomatic immunity but the others were question by the French DST counterintelligence agency. The RUC said that a dummy Blowpipe missile had been stolen from a Territorial Army base in Newtownards, Co. Down on 8-9 April, but that it contained no working parts.[1]
United Press International described Bernhart as "an arms dealer with an office in Geneva, Switzerland" and cited unnamed intelligence sources on his role in the deal:
- The sources said agents had been tracking the UDA men for weeks. The Protestant militants had made contact with the South African diplomat via Bernhart to try to sell the missile parts for money or arms, the sources said.
- The sophisticated missile was stolen in Northern Ireland, the sources said, adding the three UDA men had been in contact with Bernhart since late last year trying to set up the deal.
One part of a Blowpipe's electronic guidance system was stolen from Shorts missile manufacturer in Belfast about a year ago. At the time, Shorts officials said the piece stolen was ineffective without other parts of the missile.[2]
Loyalist arms shipment
- DOZENS of lives were spared because a massive loyalist weapons cache, smuggled in from the Middle East in the late 1980s, included hundreds of rounds of faulty ammunition.
- The ammunition smuggled into Northern Ireland in the Lebanese arms consignment was of Chinese origin, and of poor quality.
- The weapons, which were divided between the UVF and the UDA and Ulster Resistance, have been reported to have been from South Africa, but the haul came from the Lebanon; the only South African connection was the arms dealer, Douglas Bernhart, who set up the deal between the loyalists and Lebanese businessman, Joe Fawzi.[3]
References
- ↑ Irish Militiamen, U.S. Businessman Arrested in Arms Delivery, Associated Press, 22 April 2009.
- ↑ John Phillips, French arrest four in alleged arms deal, United Press International, 22 April 2009>
- ↑ Loyalists at war: Duff ammo saved lives, Sunday Life, 26 September 2004.
