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 (the Ulster Defence Association, a loyalist paramilitary organisation in Northern Ireland): 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.

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.

According to the Times, the South Africans were interested in the Blowpipe as a preliminary to obtaining the more advanced Starstreak system. It also reported the following details about Bernhart:

The Journal du Dimanche yesterday said Mr Bernhart was known to the DST as a self-styled 'adviser' on the sale and purchase of arms. The newspaper said, without citing sources, that in addition to Blowpipe missile parts, the three were also in possession of sections of a Javelin missile when arrested.

The Times also reported that successful arms deals had taken place before the meeting:

British security sources believe Ulster Resistance, the Ulster Defence Association and the Ulster Volunteer Force have been buying weapons, including AK47 assault rifles, rocket launchers, grenades and pistols, from contacts in South Africa for the past few years.

It is understood that many of the weapons bought had been captured in Mozambique, Angola and Namibia. Security sources said the contacts with South African intelligence had until last week been restricted to purchasing arms.

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.