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| Greek Army Vehicle 6 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Digital Journal
Even while facing imminent bankruptcy the Greek government was reluctant to curtail its massive arms purchases programs. Now, an unnamed source has revealed "every arms procurement program is currently being probed for kickbacks and political money."
According to Ekathimerini up to eight arms deals signed by the Greek government since the late 1990's are under investigation by judicial authorities for bribes and kickbacks. An investigating magistrate is currently probing the purchase of US-made Patriot missiles and the Greek army’s Hermes program, whilst other investigations are at a preliminary stage.
The issue of extravagant Greek arms purchases has long raised eyebrows. Despite the economic crisis that threatened to engulf the country, massive arms purchases continued until 2010. The Jerusalem Post reported "Greece funnels billions of euros into its military, spending more of its gross domestic product — 2.8 percent in 2008 — on it than any other European Union country, and second only in NATO to the United States."
As Digital Journal reported Greece was pressured to buy German armaments with bail out loans. Spectrazine summed up the arms situation succinctly when it said "It is thus clear that the ever-increasing bail-outs are in reality, directly or indirectly, consecrated to the purchase of arms."
With Greek elites' tax evasion at the top of the agenda since the revelation of the existence of the Lagarde List, it comes as no surprise to learn that senior Greek officials may be implicated in a bribes scandal connected to armaments purchases.
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/335716#ixzz2AsysPiLT
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