A story today that an anti-Mafia force in Italy stopped a sale 105,00 rifles to Iraq. The sale was organized by someone in the Iraqi Interior Ministry who said it was needed fore the Iraqi police force.  Sources from the US-led coalition said the Iraqi police force have received plenty of arms .All sales have to approved by the US military. This one was not.

The Interior Ministry has been a mess, with competing departments and political factions. There are indications that Moqtada Al Sadr controls aspects of the Ministry and it might be that these weapons were intended for his Mahdi Army. An LA Times story from two weeks ago details the chaos that exists in the Ministry.

This story will give the US coalition the ammunition it needs to prompt Maliki to clean up the Ministry which he is certain to desire to do. One look at the LA Time article and its easy to understand how someone in the Ministry could attempt to make an illegal sale.