SINISTER TRANSNISTRIA

CBNNews.com It’s an all-too-familiar scene — Islamic insurgents attacking U.S. troops near Baghdad. But where are these radicals getting their support to take on the American military machine? While much of the world blames Iran and Syria, evidence points to help coming from thousands of miles away. Ariel Cohen of the Heritage Foundation said, “Of course, we see a large number of small weapons turning up in Iraq in the hands of Hezbollah, and in other places in the Middle East - and, of course, we recognize that the source of many of these weapons, unfortunately, are the countries of the former Soviet Union.” One source is a pro-Russian regime in an area called Transnistria. It is a province of Moldova, a U.S. ally. But Transnistria declared itself a separate republic, and Moldova authorities exercise no control over this lawless region. “The regime is illegal — so, of course, to survive, they should maintain a shadow economy and shadow trade operations,” said Moldovan parliament spokesman Oleg Serebreneau. Part of the shadow trade is a continued stream of weapons that have fueled a worldwide Islamic insurgency. Serebreneau said, “We have another kind of terrorism, which is connected to the so-called Russian Mafia. The Russian Mafia is practically the former KGB.” Many former KGB operatives have become involved in organized crime. They live on money laundering, sex slavery, and arms trafficking. “In Soviet times,” Cohen said, “the Soviet KGB had connections with all kind of terror groups in the Middle East and these connections remain in place till this day.” Many of the trafficked arms are finding their way to Iraq and Islamic trouble spots via Transnistria. “Big stocks of arms, all the armament from the former German democratic republic and Czechoslovakia and the Soviet armament is located there,” Serebreneau said, “at a big depot in the north part of Transnistria.” CBN News got a look at a factory where weapons are being manufactured. International monitors have been denied access to the plant. Amnesty International reported that 200,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles were delivered to Iraqi insurgents last year on planes like this one. Cohen said, “There is a connection, but it is up to the intelligence community to track down specifically what kind of connections the Russian special services may have.” The weapons travel two main routes to the Middle East: By boat, they go through ports in the Ukraine, then to Syria and Iraq. By land, they eventually enter Turkey, where they cross the borders into Iraq or Syria. The U.S. is putting pressure on Iraq’s neighbors — mainly Syria, Turkey and Saudi Arabia — to stop the flow of weapons. Despite that effort, observers say that Russian support of the Transnistria regime is only helping to facilitate the arms trafficking. They say that more pressure from Russian President Vladimir Putin and the European Union could bring an end to the trafficking of arms to the Islamic insurgents — not just to benefit American troops, but to stop the bloodshed in the streets of Baghdad and build a better future for all Iraqis.