SOVIETS TO SAUCIER TO SCRAP YARD
By GEOFF PENDER
GULFPORT, MISSISSIPPI -- The Soviet Bloc military vehicles that for so
many years stirred nationwide intrigue among conspiracy theorists --
and even once drew a visit to the Coast from since-executed terrorist
Timothy McVeigh -- are being piled unceremoniously into a heap at a
metal scrap yard on Canal Road.

Alter Metal Recycling of Gulfport isn’t just cleaning up an eyesore.
It’s closing one of the weirder chapters in Coast history, which spans
the globe from Saudi Arabia to East Berlin to Saucier.

“We bought them, and we’re going to cut them up, then send them to a
shredder in Mobile,” said Michael Goldstein, manager of Alter Metal
Recycling in Gulfport. “They’ll be recycled. One person’s trash is our
treasure.”

Goldstein quipped: “And we’re helping prevent a Communist overthrow of
the government,” after he heard of the bizarre rumors the rusty old
vehicles garnered over the years in fringe Internet and print
publications.

Neither past nor recent owners of the Russian- and German-made
vehicles could be reached for this article. But over the years, the
Sun Herald and many other publications interviewed them and wrote
reams about them.

Here is their story.

A jailhouse friendship

Fred Koval, a retired Air Force colonel from Biloxi, met Egyptian
businessman Charles Chawafaty while the two were in a Saudi Arabian
jail in the 1980s.

Koval had been working for a contractor in Saudi Arabia, teaching
electronics.

He had become friends with a New Orleans businessman who had a
conflict with a Saudi company. He said the Saudis often jailed
foreigners until business disputes were settled, so he helped the man
flee the country.

The Saudis jailed Koval, where he met Chawafaty, also jailed over a
business dispute. The U.S. Embassy secured Koval’s release. He
returned to Biloxi and over the next five years worked to get
Chawafaty released.

“(Chawafaty) came here to Biloxi to visit me after that,” Koval once
told the Sun Herald. “We got involved in a couple of business things.
We tried one time to sell Egyptian paper, papyrus. … One day
(Chawafaty) called and told me he was shipping all this equipment to
Gulfport, and that I had to find some land to put it on.”

The two men created a partnership, Airmar Resources Inc. Chawafaty in
1993 had bought 1,000 Soviet Bloc military trucks, most of them water
tankers, for $1.4 million at an auction in Berlin.

Their plan was to refurbish the vehicles into ambulances, garbage and
dump trucks and public-works vehicles and sell them around the globe,
perhaps even to the United Nations.

Chawafaty stored a few hundred in England, but spent about $1 million
to ship the bulk of them here and parked them on a lot on U.S. 49
between Gulfport and Saucier.

The arrival of the trucks emblazoned with the Soviet hammer-and-sickle
and German hammer-and-compass made local news, and Koval and Chawafaty
explained their business plan.

But their plan was flawed. Nobody wanted to buy the poorly made
vehicles and many countries, the U.S. included, had environmental,
trade and transportation regulations that would prevent their use.
Koval once told the Sun Herald his main investment in the venture was
buying the land on which to park the trucks.

“What a waste of money,” he said.

From the banana file

So the vehicles sat on the sparsely wooded lot by the highway,
collecting rust and, very soon, rumors.

Dozens of reports in fringe magazines and on the Internet were that a
communist or multinational U.N. force was being gathered to overthrow
the United States government.

The U.S. 49 stockpile was often cited as evidence of this plot, with
its contents exaggerated to include “Soviet attack helicopters and
tanks” and chemical-warfare equipment.

One report claimed a large road had been built from the U.S. 49 depot
to NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Hancock County.

Mike Blair, a correspondent for The Spotlight, a Washington-based
publication, wrote one of the first articles about the trucks in 1994,
headlined “Secret Military Maneuvers Concern to Loyal Americans.”

He later told the Sun Herald although it became clear the trucks were
just rusty water tankers, he believed he and others were justified in
their suspicions.

“Several hundred Russian and East German vehicles appear in
Mississippi behind a chain-link fence, at a time when the Cold War had
still not completely softened, and they planned to sell them to the
U.N.?” Blair said.

“Am I satisfied now as to their plans? One thing I could point out is
that there has been sufficient publicity that it might have blown
anything they planned before. There have been all kinds of foreign
troops training in this country and foreign equipment arriving. We
were posing the question: Is this all part of some U.N. scheme? A lot
of people in this country don’t like the U.N.”

Koval over the years said he got a chuckle out of the reports about
the vehicles. He sold his interest in the vehicles in 2000.

“I used to keep a file on all this stuff,” he told the Sun Herald in
2001. “I called it my banana file.

“I’ve always gotten a laugh about it. I’m not trying to overthrow the
government. I’m a former World War II bomber pilot, with lots of
medals. I bombed all of Germany, including Berlin …. We did give four
of the trucks to Feed the Children. They modified them and cleaned
them up and took them to Mexico to help poor people.”

McVeigh checks out rumors

The last major headlines the trucks made where after the release of
“American Terrorist,” a best-selling book about Oklahoma City federal-
building bomber Timothy McVeigh.

The book, which was based on hours of interviews with the since-
executed McVeigh, recounts a cross-country trip he took months before
the bombing in 1995 to check out reports of government conspiracies
and cover-ups.

He wanted to see firsthand whether U.N. troops and equipment were
being gathered near Gulfport for a takeover.

The book said McVeigh climbed over the fence and checked out the
equipment, noting the trucks lacked armor or weapons mounts.

The book said McVeigh moved on, debunking other rumors because, “as
concerned as he was about the New World Order, he also saw a danger in
the increasing spread of mystified paranoia in the Patriot community.”

That guy in South Mississippi who had those Roosky vehicles for sale,
they were leaking fluids into the ground.The County made him get rid of
that Roosky crap.I know an elderly guy who used to go to some
Mississippi Gulf Coast places.He is the guy who first told me about
those Roosky vehicles.

Gee, I always wanted to own a Russian GAZ Jeep! I guess I can't now.

http://www.devilfinder.com
GAZ Jeeps

It'a a GAZZZZ,,,,,,
cuhulin

Yeah, in fact of the business,,,, You can believe me if you want to, you
don't have to believe me if you don't want to.I have known about those
Russian vehicles in Mississippi for at least eleven or twelve years,
maybe more.
T'aint new news to me.After all, I live in Mississippi.

Don't let them rumors and fiction and bullsh!t gitcha.

http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com...nd_fiction.htm
cuhulin, not a bullshi!!er

That Roosky vehicles article is making the rounds.
http://www.GulfCoastNews.com

Lets me check http://www.tsna.org
and see if there are any new Photo of the Month on there.
cuhulin

On Dec 4, 6:15*pm, wrote:
That guy in South Mississippi who had those Roosky vehicles for sale,
they were leaking fluids into the ground.The County made him get rid of
that Roosky crap.I know an elderly guy who used to go to some
Mississippi Gulf Coast places.He is the guy who first told me about
those Roosky vehicles.

Gee, I always wanted to own a Russian GAZ Jeep! I guess I can't now.

http://www.devilfinder.com
GAZ Jeeps

It'a a GAZZZZ,,,,,,
cuhulin

They are still around.You can buy a brand-spanking-new UAZ-469 today.

I sort of kind of doubt there are any Russian vehicles rolling around,
being driven around) in backwater hick Mississippi, but what do I know?

Jesse Ventura and the water conspiracy - Vid
http://www.rense.com

A song I used to hear on local backwater hick radio back in the 1960's,
1970's, whenever it was,,,,

Keep ah moving Dan, don't you listen to him Dan, hes' a devil, not a man
and he spreads the burning sand with water, cool clear water, (chorus,
waterrrrr) Oh, land at night is broke and dry, for water, (waterrrrrrr)
cuhulin

On Dec 5, 11:01*am, wrote:
I sort of kind of doubt there are any Russian vehicles rolling around,
being driven around) *in backwater hick Mississippi, but what do I know?

Jesse Ventura and the water conspiracy - Vidhttp://www.rense.com

A song I used to hear on local backwater hick radio back in the 1960's,
1970's, whenever it was,,,,

Keep ah moving Dan, don't you listen to him Dan, hes' a devil, not a man
and he spreads the burning sand with water, cool clear water, (chorus,
waterrrrr) Oh, land at night is broke and dry, for water, (waterrrrrrr)
cuhulin *

Past posting history show you don't know very much..........

You once said "Unquote" Those russian vehicles have black helicopters
hovering over that area etc. , etc. You must have been listening the
"Mark of the Michigan Militia" on 7415 along with the rest of the
wackos (of which there are hundreds of thousands of in Mississippi)
along with you living in that hovel in the "quarters" of
Jackson...........need I say more?

Say, did you ever get on of those wimmens to take their clothes off
for you?

That wouldn't be purty, would it? Neither you nor the wimmen.