Darth Vidar
11-16-2004, 03:44 PM
I don’t think I have seen this article posted here before……….?
Interesting article from Jerusalem post. Dated Jun. 13, 2004
By Arieh O`sullivan.
Ever wonder what happens to all those weapons belonging to slain or captured enemy and terrorists? Are they just rounded up and tossed in a cupboard? Left broken in the field? Handed out as trophies, or taken home on the sly by soldiers despite the rules against looting?
If you answered "All of the above," for most of the IDF's history you wouldn't have been far off the mark. But 20 months ago, the army activated a permanent unit to collect the plethora of weapons and materiel confiscated during the conflict with the Palestinians. Known as Shalal – or by the acronym "Yachpash" (booty collection unit) – it roams the country gathering up everything from the bloodied machine guns of terrorists killed the night before, to rocket-making machinery, and sometimes even cash confiscated in raids of enemy hide-outs.
"Our mission is to get this weaponry into our hands so that the enemy doesn't get hold of it, or other groups either, and so that soldiers don't take it," says Capt. Meir Gutman, the only officer in the brigade on active duty.
"We aren't on the front. We're sort of mop up. We're like flies on, umm, you know whats," chuckles the captain, his huge belly bouncing before him.
Nearly every morning, Gutman and his driver Cpl. Amit set out in their armored Sufa jeep on collection rounds. Today it is Gaza and bases in the Negev. Tomorrow is Nablus and the Samaria district. So far, they've logged 26,000 kilometers this year.
Pulling up to a brigade headquarters in northern Gaza, Gutman parks next to a makeshift museum of Kassam rocket remnants, a 20mm anti-aircraft gun and a pair of mortars.
"I've got to come and collect this stuff one day. It's forbidden for them to have it," he says as he enters the office of a demolitions officer.
Gutman collects three weapons: two damaged AK-47 Kalashnikovs and the pieces of a makeshift M-16. They were taken from two Palestinians killed last week trying to fire a rocket-propelled grenade at a civilian convoy on the Karni-Netzarim road. He writes down their serial numbers with his meaty hand.
"Made in China," he says, noting its markings.
These guns were damaged when sappers detonated the unexploded RPG rounds. They'll probably be sold for scrap or parts to weapons dealers. If in good shape, the army cleans them and re-issues them to units or sells them through the Defense Ministry.
"Sometimes these weapons are covered with the blood, and even the flesh of the terrorists," the captain says.
Back on the road, the duo heads to a nearby base to collect the RPG and another Kalashnikov that unexpectedly appeared in the office of the base's resident sergeant-major. Gutman says he likes to know the history of the weapons collected, but it isn't required. According to Gutman, many of the weapons are given to the police for forensic tests to link them to other attacks. The army then collects them from the police, sometimes years later.
Shalal first operated in the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
The unit's aim then was to collect the huge amounts of armor, weapons, and materiel captured from the Egyptian and Syrian armies. Israel renovated hundreds of T-55 tanks, renamed them "Tiran," and set up its own new tank brigades.
Shalal was originally intended as a reserve unit activated only during times of war. But during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, OC Technology and Logistics Maj.-Gen. Udi Adam noted the mounds of weapons rounded up from the Palestinians and decided to set up a permanent force to collect booty.
Gutman, 29, a former Armored Corps officer, was brought back into active service to command the unit. He and his corporal are the most active members of the unit. Actually, they are the unit.
They have been compared by their comrades to the wise-cracking 1970s TV detectives Starsky and Hutch – but up close they appear more like Abbot and Costello. Zooming around the territories, they keep each other entertained, with Cpl. Amit impersonating various commanders in the IDF, and Meir swatting flies on the windshield as he coordinates the next weapon pick up on his mobile phone.
The collected weapons are tossed haphazardly into the back of the jeep, resting on flak vests and webbing. One time, Gutman recalls, they had stuffed the back with 120 Kalashnikov assault rifles that had been collected over the years at the police station in Ariel.
Another time, they received a call from a Golani base near Haifa asking them to come pick up "some old gun". It turned out to be a Browning automatic, belt-fed machine gun circa 1942, complete with base. Not wanting to drive the armored jeep to Haifa, they took the train and garnered lots of curious looks as the weapon sat in the seat next to them.
Many of the weapons they collect are contraptions handmade by Palestinians, including bullets assembled from straws filled with gunpowder and fired from pipes.
"The strangest weapon we ever collected was a homemade three-barreled shot gun," says Amit, launching into an animated debate with Gutman on whether another weapon, a double-barreled pistol, was silver or chrome. Then there was that crossbow and the sword hidden in a walking cane. And don't forget the working pistol from 1917. The list seems endless.
Besides weapons, Gutman also collects uniforms and, increasingly, possessions from terrorist offices confiscated by the IDF. These include cash and gold, making his armored jeep like a Brink's van. As a sort of barometer of the conflict, Gutman said they didn't go into the territories at all during last summer's hudna cease-fire.
Shalal works closely with an intelligence unit called Amshatz, a Hebrew acronym for the unit assigned to collect "technical" booty – i.e., intelligence documents and data. According to military historian Benni Michelsohn, many armies have similar booty-collection units attached to large formations. The IDF, he said, is the only army that has just one such central unit. Its symbol is an eagle holding a commando knife in its talons.
Shalal's work raises the question: Just what is booty, the rightful spoils of war, as opposed to looted goods? In the past, it was almost de rigueur for soldiers returning from wars to bring home enemy weapons as souvenirs or trophies. US President George W. Bush reportedly now keeps in the Oval Office one of Saddam Hussein's old pistols to show off to guests.
The very existence of Shalal serves as a brake on the soldiers' natural tendency to reward themselves for victory over their enemy by claiming trophies. The army regulation authorizing Shalal serves to make a clear distinction between what is and is not permitted. Soldiers caught with looted weapons face court-martial – although Gutman could not immediately recall any such cases in the IDF. Often the matter is quietly settled through pressure from Military Police.
Gutman is a zealot when it comes to pillaging military equipment.
"It is not nice to say, I know, but it happens. We don't want to appear to be an army that pillages. That's why we want to collect these weapons as quickly as possible, so we can prevent them slipping into the wrong hands. But we are a small unit," he says.
According to Gutman, confiscated weapons can be given back to units upon request. In the old days, these included items such as cannon and tanks lining the entrance to bases. Today, requests are often more personal – for example, if the unit wants to reward an officer who foiled a terrorist attack by giving him that terrorist's pistol.
Gutman and Amit wind up their day dropping off the collected weapons at the IDF's main arsenal at a base near Ramle. It was here that weapons from the Karine A and Santorini arms ships were delivered, and where they are sorted for destruction or renovation.
"I don't really care what happens to these weapons. I'm a soldier and our mission is to get these weapons into our hands," says Gutman as he wheels his catch of the day into the warehouse.
"Even if there is a Palestinian state one day, we'll still have a job. Won't there still be terrorists? There will always be weapons to collect. And don't forget, you can never rule out the possibility of a war breaking out," he says, winking.
I would guess a lot of people here would like to sign up for service in this unit...... ;)
Interesting article from Jerusalem post. Dated Jun. 13, 2004
By Arieh O`sullivan.
Ever wonder what happens to all those weapons belonging to slain or captured enemy and terrorists? Are they just rounded up and tossed in a cupboard? Left broken in the field? Handed out as trophies, or taken home on the sly by soldiers despite the rules against looting?
If you answered "All of the above," for most of the IDF's history you wouldn't have been far off the mark. But 20 months ago, the army activated a permanent unit to collect the plethora of weapons and materiel confiscated during the conflict with the Palestinians. Known as Shalal – or by the acronym "Yachpash" (booty collection unit) – it roams the country gathering up everything from the bloodied machine guns of terrorists killed the night before, to rocket-making machinery, and sometimes even cash confiscated in raids of enemy hide-outs.
"Our mission is to get this weaponry into our hands so that the enemy doesn't get hold of it, or other groups either, and so that soldiers don't take it," says Capt. Meir Gutman, the only officer in the brigade on active duty.
"We aren't on the front. We're sort of mop up. We're like flies on, umm, you know whats," chuckles the captain, his huge belly bouncing before him.
Nearly every morning, Gutman and his driver Cpl. Amit set out in their armored Sufa jeep on collection rounds. Today it is Gaza and bases in the Negev. Tomorrow is Nablus and the Samaria district. So far, they've logged 26,000 kilometers this year.
Pulling up to a brigade headquarters in northern Gaza, Gutman parks next to a makeshift museum of Kassam rocket remnants, a 20mm anti-aircraft gun and a pair of mortars.
"I've got to come and collect this stuff one day. It's forbidden for them to have it," he says as he enters the office of a demolitions officer.
Gutman collects three weapons: two damaged AK-47 Kalashnikovs and the pieces of a makeshift M-16. They were taken from two Palestinians killed last week trying to fire a rocket-propelled grenade at a civilian convoy on the Karni-Netzarim road. He writes down their serial numbers with his meaty hand.
"Made in China," he says, noting its markings.
These guns were damaged when sappers detonated the unexploded RPG rounds. They'll probably be sold for scrap or parts to weapons dealers. If in good shape, the army cleans them and re-issues them to units or sells them through the Defense Ministry.
"Sometimes these weapons are covered with the blood, and even the flesh of the terrorists," the captain says.
Back on the road, the duo heads to a nearby base to collect the RPG and another Kalashnikov that unexpectedly appeared in the office of the base's resident sergeant-major. Gutman says he likes to know the history of the weapons collected, but it isn't required. According to Gutman, many of the weapons are given to the police for forensic tests to link them to other attacks. The army then collects them from the police, sometimes years later.
Shalal first operated in the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
The unit's aim then was to collect the huge amounts of armor, weapons, and materiel captured from the Egyptian and Syrian armies. Israel renovated hundreds of T-55 tanks, renamed them "Tiran," and set up its own new tank brigades.
Shalal was originally intended as a reserve unit activated only during times of war. But during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, OC Technology and Logistics Maj.-Gen. Udi Adam noted the mounds of weapons rounded up from the Palestinians and decided to set up a permanent force to collect booty.
Gutman, 29, a former Armored Corps officer, was brought back into active service to command the unit. He and his corporal are the most active members of the unit. Actually, they are the unit.
They have been compared by their comrades to the wise-cracking 1970s TV detectives Starsky and Hutch – but up close they appear more like Abbot and Costello. Zooming around the territories, they keep each other entertained, with Cpl. Amit impersonating various commanders in the IDF, and Meir swatting flies on the windshield as he coordinates the next weapon pick up on his mobile phone.
The collected weapons are tossed haphazardly into the back of the jeep, resting on flak vests and webbing. One time, Gutman recalls, they had stuffed the back with 120 Kalashnikov assault rifles that had been collected over the years at the police station in Ariel.
Another time, they received a call from a Golani base near Haifa asking them to come pick up "some old gun". It turned out to be a Browning automatic, belt-fed machine gun circa 1942, complete with base. Not wanting to drive the armored jeep to Haifa, they took the train and garnered lots of curious looks as the weapon sat in the seat next to them.
Many of the weapons they collect are contraptions handmade by Palestinians, including bullets assembled from straws filled with gunpowder and fired from pipes.
"The strangest weapon we ever collected was a homemade three-barreled shot gun," says Amit, launching into an animated debate with Gutman on whether another weapon, a double-barreled pistol, was silver or chrome. Then there was that crossbow and the sword hidden in a walking cane. And don't forget the working pistol from 1917. The list seems endless.
Besides weapons, Gutman also collects uniforms and, increasingly, possessions from terrorist offices confiscated by the IDF. These include cash and gold, making his armored jeep like a Brink's van. As a sort of barometer of the conflict, Gutman said they didn't go into the territories at all during last summer's hudna cease-fire.
Shalal works closely with an intelligence unit called Amshatz, a Hebrew acronym for the unit assigned to collect "technical" booty – i.e., intelligence documents and data. According to military historian Benni Michelsohn, many armies have similar booty-collection units attached to large formations. The IDF, he said, is the only army that has just one such central unit. Its symbol is an eagle holding a commando knife in its talons.
Shalal's work raises the question: Just what is booty, the rightful spoils of war, as opposed to looted goods? In the past, it was almost de rigueur for soldiers returning from wars to bring home enemy weapons as souvenirs or trophies. US President George W. Bush reportedly now keeps in the Oval Office one of Saddam Hussein's old pistols to show off to guests.
The very existence of Shalal serves as a brake on the soldiers' natural tendency to reward themselves for victory over their enemy by claiming trophies. The army regulation authorizing Shalal serves to make a clear distinction between what is and is not permitted. Soldiers caught with looted weapons face court-martial – although Gutman could not immediately recall any such cases in the IDF. Often the matter is quietly settled through pressure from Military Police.
Gutman is a zealot when it comes to pillaging military equipment.
"It is not nice to say, I know, but it happens. We don't want to appear to be an army that pillages. That's why we want to collect these weapons as quickly as possible, so we can prevent them slipping into the wrong hands. But we are a small unit," he says.
According to Gutman, confiscated weapons can be given back to units upon request. In the old days, these included items such as cannon and tanks lining the entrance to bases. Today, requests are often more personal – for example, if the unit wants to reward an officer who foiled a terrorist attack by giving him that terrorist's pistol.
Gutman and Amit wind up their day dropping off the collected weapons at the IDF's main arsenal at a base near Ramle. It was here that weapons from the Karine A and Santorini arms ships were delivered, and where they are sorted for destruction or renovation.
"I don't really care what happens to these weapons. I'm a soldier and our mission is to get these weapons into our hands," says Gutman as he wheels his catch of the day into the warehouse.
"Even if there is a Palestinian state one day, we'll still have a job. Won't there still be terrorists? There will always be weapons to collect. And don't forget, you can never rule out the possibility of a war breaking out," he says, winking.
I would guess a lot of people here would like to sign up for service in this unit...... ;)