ANCAPS

A FORMER Australian Army officer who stole 10 rocket launchers that ended up in the hands of terrorists has been sentenced to seven years' jail.

As Judge Jonathan Williams handed down the sentence in Sydney District Court yesterday, Shane Malcolm Della-Vedova, an army munitions expert, looked over at his family who sat crying in court.

Della-Vedova, 46, of Wattle Grove, south-western Sydney, was arrested in April last year after selling the Australian Army rocket launchers to a former family member. The weapons were then sold along a chain that led to an alleged Sydney terrorist cell.

Della-Vedova had pleaded guilty to stealing the weapons during his time as an army ammunition technician officer between 2001 and 2003.

He had told police that the rocket launchers were not functioning properly and were in a batch he was meant to destroy.

When he realised 10 of them were still in his possession he "didn't know what to do" and in deciding to pass them on "just had a failure in utter logic".

He also told police he had not thought the weapons would reach terrorists' hands but would end up in "some stupid person's house up in the boondocks" as a trophy on their wall.

Judge Williams said Della-Vedova could have handed back the weapons to the army, without significant recourse, or disposed of them another way.

The fact that Della-Vedova had not believed the weapons would end up in the hands of terrorists was "wholly unbelievable, given that the world was still reeling from 9/11 terrorism", he said.

Nor did he believe all 10 weapons were sold for $5000.

Judge Williams noted the nine rocket launchers still missing posed a serious terrorist threat, and said: "It's difficult to imagine the use of such a weapon other than for the uses of terrorism."

LNK
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Three cheers for Shane Malcolm Della-Vedova!!!

Cheers

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"Taking money without permission is stealing unless you work for the IRS then it's taxation. Killing people en masse is homicidal mania unless you work for the Army then it's National Defense. Spying on your neighbors is invasion of privacy unless you work for the FBI then it's National Security. Running a whorehouse makes you a pimp & poisoning people makes you a murderer unless you work for the CIA then it's counter intelligence." R. Wilson. ANCAPS Forum Headquarters, Ancapolis

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ANCAPS declaration of war: "Aquarchy rules... liquidate the reds!"

ANCAPS Forum, Ancapolis, Aqua-Terra Atlantis Division.