About Those Sniper Rifles
Well, the MSM rushed to report on the US seizing sniper rifles in Iraq that an Austrian company had sold to Iran. Too bad they didn’t think to ask the Austrian company about the report.
Agence France-Presse in Vienna reports ‘No Proof’ That Arms Found In Iraq Were Austrian: Weapons Firm
Austrian arms manufacturer Steyr-Mannlicher insisted Feb. 13 that there was no proof that sniper rifles recently seized by U.S. troops in Iraq were the same ones it had sold amid controversy to Iran in 2004.
“We have not been contacted by the Americans. Usually one would ask us to verify the origin of a weapon through its serial number, something that is not the case here,” Franz Holzschuh, the new owner of the more than 100-year-old weapons company, told AFP.
They are subject to being copied. The serial numbers would tell the tale, but no one from the US government checked them. So far, the media only has the word of unidentified US officials and has not seen the weapons, which are extremely exotic looking and very expensive. Your average Iraqi could live very well, for a very long time, selling a rifle that costs thousands of dollars when purchased legally.
There are a lot of less expensive sniper rifles available that are not as distinctive looking, nor as easy to trace as an HS50.
