Murder of the Defense Minister

Yugoslav Minister of Defense, Pavle Bulatovic was murdered on February 7 at 55 minutes past 6 p.m. as he was sitting in the restaurant of Football Club Rad with the Director of YU Garant Bank, retired General Major Vuk Obradovic and the restaurant owner, Marko Knezevic.  Unofficial information indicates that a fourth individual was sitting at their table: a man with an artistically ornamented gusle, a Montenegrin folk instrument.  The lethal shots were fired from outside, from a restaurant window facing the completely dark football pitch.  All that was heard were three short burst of automatic rifle fire from AK-47's ("Kalashnikovs").

The victims of this assassination were all sitting at the same table, it could be said that this was a meeting between friends in the early evening hours, neither at dinner time, nor at lunch time.  The table at which Pavle Bulatovic was sitting is located at the corner of the restaurant, facing the window through which the lethal shots were fired.  Bulatovic was sitting with his back facing the wall and his face toward the window, while his long-time bodyguard was standing in front of the restaurant.  This restaurant is reputed for being a quite place where one can eat and discuss things in peace, a place where politicians often came.  Some say that it was a favorite place for "Belgrade politicians of Montenegrin descent," with Bulatovic having been a frequent guest there.  The fact that he had been Minister of Defense for seven years already (since 1993), having been Minister of Police during the three previous years, did not cause Bulatovic to change his habits greatly   he freely moved through Belgrade and Podgorica without any bodyguards.  He went for the new year's celebration at the famous restaurant "Tri sesira" ("Three Hats") in Belgrade's ancient Skadarska Street, better known as Skadarlija.
ACROSS THE RIVER AND INTO THE WOODS: As in the case of the assassination of Radovan Stojcic Badza, Serbian Deputy Minister of Police, that took place on April 11, 1997, in the restaurant Mama Mia, a restuarant which is very close to both the federal and republican ministries of police, it could be said about the Minister of Defense that he was murdered in a place which is surrounded by several military buildings.

Even though most newspaper reports refer to Neznanog junaka Street (Street of the Unknown Soldier - tr.), the stadium of Football Club Rad is in fact located in Crnotravska Street, across the Military Medical Academy.  Neznanog junaka Street is several hundred feet away from that location, near the trolleybus station.  To the right of the football stadium is the Sports Center Banjica, and to the left are army barracks.

ACCORDING TO PLAN AND INSTRUCTIONS: The late minister was certainly being followed for a while.  In this way it was probably ascertained that one of Bulatovic's regular watering holes is the restaurant of the Football Club Rad.  Those who planned his murder probably studied the arrangement of the rooms in the restaurant, surveyed the neighborhood closely, worked out getaway plans for one or more assassins, and ensured their safety and getaway.  After this, all they needed was to wait for Bulatovic to show up...

All those who were shot were quickly transferred to Military Medical Academy (VMA) across the street.  Obradovic was supposedly "only grazed by a bullet on the side of his head and around the chest area," but was kept at VMA less because of any read danger to his health, than because of the stress he endured; as the Glas javnosti daily reports, the restaurant owner, Mirko Knezevic had a bullet wound through the shoulder which was treated surgically on the spot and is in stable condition and in full possession of his faculties.

According to the Glas javnosti report which cites a source from the VMA, following the attack Bulatovic was brought to the emergency medical center "practically dead."  "Bulatovic was brought in with many bullet wounds to the head, neck, hear and lung areas.  Several bullets ended up in the area of the liver and there were also injuries to the spleen.  The bleeding from the neck could not be stopped.  We tried everything, but we could not bring him back to life because there was a direct hit to the head," the Glas javnosti reported.  Politika ekspres daily reported that Bulatovic passed away at the VMA, surrounded by his family, his wife, son and mother.  Bulatovic had two daughters and a son.  Supposedly his son, Balsa, had a wedding date set for February 26.

VOCIFEROUS CRITIC: Pavle Bulatovic was 52 years old.  He was born on December 13, 1948 in Gornji Rovci, close to the Kolasin Mountain in Montenegro.  He graduated from and worked as an assistant at the economics faculty in Podgorica.  He held the position of editor in chief of the university magazine "Univerzitetska rijec" (University Word - tr.), which also published articles by the current Federal Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic, who is not related to the deceased, despite the fact that Belgrade's political squabbles frequently resorted to the catch phrase "the 3 B's."  The friendship between the two Bulatovic's dates from those university days, which could also be seen from the visible tears in Momir's eyes during Pavle's funeral.  Their opponents wrote that Pavle Bulatovic "greeted the anti-bureaucratic revolution as an assistant at the economic's faculty in Titograd (i.e. Podgorica - ed.) and as the editor of the Univerzitetska rec magazine."

At the time that "young blood" came to power in Montenegro in 1988, Bulatovic was vociferous in his criticism of the Montenegrin police because of its battering of the people.  He became Minister of Police and began a cleanup of police ranks   his opponents say that for each place he made vacant, he appointed a friend, a colleague, or someone who he was instructed to appoint.

WAR YEARS: It could also be said that the late Minister had his hand in the arming of Serbs in Eastern Herzegovina in 1991/1992.  At the time that Pavle Bulatovic was Minister of Police in Montenegro, Mihalj Kertes, "minister for the people," was constantly in the headlines concerning the weapons which were heading for Bosnia and Herzegovina across Montenegro...  A mysterious fire in the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Montenegro, along with the fact that the police could never adequately explain how it came to pass that several weapons warehouses of the Podgorica Police Department disappeared without trace, were all issues which gave rise to political accusations...  The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina frequently intercepted truckloads of weapons whose origin was in Montenegrin weapons warehouses.
As Minister of Police at the time, Bulatovic assigned the Montenegrin Police to wage battle in Dubrovnik.

His role during the Bosnian war is testified to by a decree he issued for the arrest of all Muslim refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina and their deportation to Republika Srpska and into the hands of the army and the police headed by Ph.D. Radovan Karadzic, General Ratko Mladic and Mayor of Trebinje Bozidar Vucurevic.  All those arrested according to this decree ended up in the prisoners camp in Foca...  In the beginning of May of 1992, military and civilian police in Plavno arrested some twenty youths originally from Bosnia and Herzegovina who had completed their army training in Plavno and were heading back home.  While they were waiting for their the police picked them up.  As early as July 21, 1992, Pavle Bulatovic admitted that a dispatch had been sent from Serbian Republic in Bosnia and Herzegovina demanding that all individuals between the ages of 18 and 60 be returned to the territory of that Republic.  Pavle Bulatovic stated later that "some of those persons were returned at the border, and some were returned from Montenegro itself; the Serb side behaved correctly toward them, so long as they had not committed any criminal acts."  Pavle Bulatovic, who was the top policeman in Montenegro at the time, claimed that only those persons who were known to have committed criminal acts had been arrested and handed over, but that this practice was discontinued after only two, three days.  At that time Momir Bulatovic was President of Montenegro, Milo Djukanovic was Prime Minister, Pavle Bulatovic was Minister of Police and Vladimir Susovic was the state prosecutor.  Later, when Bulatovic and Djukanovic parted ways, Susovic threatened Pavle Bulatovic with indictments...

STOICISM AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL: Pavle Bulatovic was "rotated upwards" to the position of Yugoslav Federal Minister of Police: in July of 1992 he moved to Belgrade where he was initially appointed Federal Minister of Internal Affairs in Milan Panic's government.  Pavle Bulatovic was minister of internal affairs in Panic's government, but while he headed that ministry, the federal police was evicted from its offices.

During that takeover of the federal police building, Pavle Bulatovic, Minister of Police at the time and later Minister of Defense, was conveniently "on vacation."  He held up stoically in this entire takeover affair.  He negotiated twice, both times unsuccessfully, with the Serbian Minister of Police at the time, Zoran Sokolovic, and than silently moved his cabinet to the federal government building in New Belgrade.  The public was bursting with conjecture, with "state coup" being a very frequent term at the time.
Following this takeover, at a meeting of Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs meeting in Belgrade's Center Sava Minister Bulatovic accused the Serbian police of indulging in lies and political machinations instead of protecting the state and the law: "vital elements are alive, but it is not important where the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs will conduct its business."  It was clear that he made a deal with his colleague Sokolovic and with the sinister figure of Radmilo Bogdanovic.  The Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs took over the archives of the Federal State Security Service dating from 1944 to the present, which encompassed activities on the foreign and local levels (these were raw files prior to being modified by leaders   authentic reports from the ground, networks of associates at home and abroad, codes, true identities of agents, details and histories of various operations), preventing Panic from putting together a functional police force for ground work.  In this deal, however, Bulatovic managed to secure himself a position in the post-Panic period, which ensued after the 1992 elections.

In 1999 there was considerable discussion about the reconstitution of the federal police, but the Djukanovic faction was against this.
During the stay of the FRY delegation at the Conference on Yugoslavia in London in August of 1992, a wiretapping scandal broke out: when Prime Minister Panic found out that wiretapping equipment was being used, he quickly removed Bulatovic's assistant at the time, Mihalj Kertes from the London Conference.  In November of 1992, VREME sources announced that FRY president at the time, Dobrica Cosic was being wiretapped.  At one of the last meetings between the acting Serbian President at the time and the chief of the Yugoslav state, Milosevic quietly told Cosic several sentences which the letter had spoken to his friends in a park.  The obligation of every federal minister is to deny such allegations, a close associate of Prime Minister Milan Panic told a VREME reporter.  Pavle Bulatovic, the Federal Minister of Internal Affairs at that time, soon after confirmed this.  When we inquired into the affair, we got a cool response from his office that "the Federal Minister knows nothing about wiretapping."  "Is it true that Kertes tapped wires in London?"  a VREME reporter asked a man who is close to President Cosic, in response to which he took a deep breath and merely shrugged his shoulders: "his superiors deny everything."

ELECTION SQUABBLES: It appears that in the election battles, Pavle Bulatovic acted with the least amount of restraint   supposedly his people prevented Ante Markovic from having lunch in Virpazar during his 1991 election campaign.  Apparently the police was unable to remove the barricades erected by Serbian patriots.  In the meantime, policemen unloaded garbage from a truck all along the road from Virpazar to Bar which the Federal Prime Minister at the time was taking.  As they later bragged and as newspapers reported, the entire scherade was organized by Pavle Bulatovic and Nikola Pejakovic, the man that succeeded Bulatovic and was Chief of State Security for Bar at the time, later having also been the FRY Ambassador to Bielorussia...  It is claimed for Bulatovic that he personally congratulated every policeman on the DPS election victory.  On Christmas of 1992 Bulatovic prohibited the Liberals from holding the ceremonial burning of the oak branch in Cetinje.  The fact that policemen undid their belts and threw them away, refusing to disband the gathering when several women lay in front of the police vehicle, was considered a great defeat of Pavle Bulatovic in Montenegro at that time.
Pavle Bulatovic was considered one of the main supports of the Milosevic regime in Montenegro...  In the various showdowns between the Montenegrin leadership that began in 1997, Pavle Bulatovic was always on the side of Momir Bulatovic and claimed that Montenegrin officials who are giving statements against Milosevic are merely doing a disservice to Montenegro.  News leaked that Pavle Bulatovic had made threats with a war scenario in Montenegro as a session of the Supreme Security Council, the Head DPS Committe at the time.  There were also rumors that following the interview Djukanovic gave for VREME in which he called Milosevic a "spent politician," the Security Council had immediately took up Djukanovic under consideration.  During this rift it was claimed that in June of 1997 Pavle Bulatovic, with Milosevic's support, had demanded that the Army prevent motor boat transit in our territorial waters.  There were even reports about fired rockets in the direction of motor boats, showing that the Army had symbolically responded to such requests.

He opposed Milo Djukanovic's supporters in government and spoke in Kolasin that "this proud people had defeated the Turks, the Italians and the Germans and will deal with Them also."  He was probably the most important member of Momir Bulatovic's election team.  He claimed about their opponents "that they resort to everything, even teaching kids how to steal personal i.d.'s from their parents so they would be unable to vote."  In October of 1997 he symbolically turned his back to the cameras in a statement that echoed the heckling of the crowd in the streets: "Milo (Djukanovic), the Thief, will not be allowed to come into this building."  Several hours after, the Montenegrin Election Committee officially confirmed Milo Djukanovic as the new President of Montenegro, with a margin of 6:3.

ASANIN: At that time the Montenegrin Government acted against a group of activists from Novi Sad and Belgrade who came to Montenegro to monitor election boxes.  It was claimed that these activists had been organized by Pavle Bulatovic and his close relative Darko Asanin, who was evidently under indirect protection from Bulatovic.  In his book "The End of the Serbian Fairy Tale," Slavoljub Djukic claims that the Minister of Defense Pavle Bulatovic had contacted Dusan Mitevic and begged him to intercede in freeing his close relative Darko Asanin from a Greek prison, where he was being held for deportation to Belgium for suspicion that he had murdered the Albanian Enver Hardija.  Mitevic carried out this task successfully.  Asanin returned to Belgrade to continue his career as a businessman but was killed in 1998 from a burst of fire from a Kalashnikov as he was watching a football game with his bodyguard in his establishment in Dedinje.  At his funeral the Yugoslav anthem was played and many JUL officials attended as Asanin was their staunch supporter.

MILITARY I.D.: Speculations that the change of power in Montenegro in 1997 would be prevented by force did not prove true, although judging by statements made my General Perisic, it could hardly be said that plans for this were not being forged.  President of the Montenegrin Parliament, Svetozar Marovic stated on January 10 in an interview he gave for Montenegrin Television that he is in possession of reliable information regarding pressures exerted on FRY President Radoje Kontic for adopting a decision that proclaims the Montenegrin elections to be invalid, and that the involvement of the Yugoslav Army was being sought in resolving the political crisis in this Republic.  FRY Minister of Defense Pavle Bulatovic stated for the Vijesti daily newspaper of Podgorica that the Yugoslav Army will not get involved in resolving the political crisis in Montenegro.

Stories about the Army in Montenegro were raised once again in February of 1999, when the Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic stated that he will not respect the decision by the Government of Montenegro on taking all legal measures in preventing the territory of that Republic from being used in any eventual conflict with the international community.  The Yugoslav Premier and the Minister of Defense Pavle Bulatovic spoke in Podgorica at that time with the commanders of the Second Yugoslav Army and of the Navy who all agreed that the decision adopted by the Government of Montenegro is unconstitutional, but it remained at that, with protests from Djukanovic's supporters about the terrorizing of the people.  During the NATO war against the FRY, perhaps there were some arguments about the use of the Army, given that the state of war was practically declared in one republic and not in the other, Zorica Radovic, a lawyer and Associate with the IES explains.  However this did not go very far.  After the war, Vuk Draskovic claimed that as Vice-President of Federal Government he had prevented the Army from taking over Montenegrin Television.

Reports indicate that Pavle Bulatovic was the President of the Stockholders Committee of YU Garant Bank (President of the Head Committee was Nikola Sainovic, and now it is Tomica Raicevic), and there are speculations that after his ministerial chair came to an end, he was supposed to replace Obradovic as General Director of the YU Garant Bank, which used to be part of the Army.

MILITARY ECONOMIC SERVICE: Vuk Obradovic, who was lightly wounded in the shooting, is said to have shaped up "in the Army into an expert for finance and banking," that the YU Garant Bank was known as a bank through which 15 billion dinars of the total Yugoslav Army budget of 22 billion dinars had passed last year alone.  This bank was created "in the transformation of the military economic service in 1997, and only began to operate as a bank in 1998.  Its manner of operating is assessed as very conservative in financial circles (weak marketing).  The initiator of the transformation was Vuk Obradovic himself, having spent virtually his entire working life in military finance."  Referring to sources in the world of finance, the Blic daily also reports that Obradovic "is a very successful private businessman, but that his business dealings are unrelated to any funds passing through the YU Garant Bank."  Sixty percent of the funds held by the bank belong to the Army, and the rest are funds from commercial sources.  The founder of the bank is the Federal Government, but it is unclear what its control over the bank is.

Not much is known about the commercial dealings of the Army and it is even more difficult to find out anything about this.  However, it can be safely assumed that during the period of sanctions, all such dealings were in the realm of the shady, with possible abuses, privileged suppliers, middlemen with protection, both foreign and domestic...
CENTAUR: Pavle Bulatovic could understand what kind of dangerous business he was getting into already in 1993.  The Supreme Security Council (Milosevic, Bulatovic and Cosic) appointed the State Committee made up of authorized personnel (Minister of Defense Pavle Bulatovic, Chief Purchasing Agent for the Yugoslav Army, General Aleksandar Radovic and the Serbian Head of the Tax Department, Djura Novkovic) in the case of the "Panic and son" or the Centaur Company, whose owner was the son of General Zivota Panic, Goran Panic, who was a privileged supplier for the Army.

Despite the fact that General Panic is neither the founder of owner of the Centaur Company, the Committee carefully considered all facts.  It concluded that there were no documents which could support his appeal, and upheld the decision reached by the Serbian Tax Department which concluded that the Centaur Company did not pay taxes for 1992 and 1993.  According to this decision the Public Prosecutor of Belgrade was advised that the state was not paid 96,645 DEM in taxes.

The Committee did not find any evidence to support the accusations about the appropriation of 450 passenger vehicles in Vukova, and observed that according to evidence given by Veselin Sljivancanin, the Guard Brigade in the time of the Vukovar operation had appropriated 150 vehicles from the enemy and had handed them over to the local authorities, which is what the Committee concluded in the absence of any documents.

Many problems must have coincided in the Ministry of Defense regarding military production.  In 1995, in Lucani there was an explosion; the place of the explosion was inspected by Pavle Bulatovic, with the main result of the investigation being "an unhappy set of circumstances," but there is also mention of "unprofessional and careless handling of explosives."  The debts owed by the state to Zastava occasionally resulted in union unrest.  Last year's protests by reservists must have resounded loudly in Bulatovic's cabinet last year.  Criticism came from the Serbian Government.  In the annual report Pavle Bulatovic submitted to the Government as Federal Minister of Defense, he pointed out that all member of the Yugoslav Army had their salaries paid out in full and that "there were no outstanding debts in this regard."

THE HAGUE, RUSSIANS, NATO: Bulatovic's assassination is only one in a series of unsolved murders which is shaking the FRY, an ORF reporter pointed out, noting the recent murder of Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan.  The ORF report emphasizes that Bulatovic was not involved in the planing of any military operations during the wars in the territories of the former Yugoslavia, and that he remained a minister for a long time because he was loyal to President Slobodan Milosevic, and that he has not been indicted by the Hague.
The Hague Tribunal Spokesman Jimmy Lendale stated for the Beta Agency that a sealed indictment against Bulatovic exists.

Pavle Bulatovic stated for the Belgrade Vecernje novosti daily that the FRY is ready to cooperate with the Hague Tribunal, but only in terms of gathering information and supplying documents.  When he was asked what the Minister's attitude is toward the three Hague Tribunal indictments against Yugoslav National Army officers who took part in the fighting in Eastern Slavonija, Bulatovic responded: "As far as these three officers are concerned (one of who, Veselin Sljivancanin, is presently a member of the professional army corps), they will be dealt with according to the law.  If it is proved that they took part in war crimes, they will have a trial here, before our officials and in our courts."  When New Democracy gathered several retired generals who argued why FR Yugoslavia should become part of NATO, Pavle Bulatovic commented in 1997 that he has nothing against that initiative.  He also actively supported closer ties with Russia and China.  One humorous journalist reported that during one visit to China, Bulatovic "managed to kiss the entire Chinese Army."  As FRY Minister of Defense, together with the Russian Minister of Defense, Igor Sergeyev, he signed a joint protocol in December of 1998 regarding military-technical and scientific-technical cooperation.

Pavle Bulatovic had a dangerous job, even though he was outside of the direct chain of command and it could be concluded that he adapted well.  It is rumored that he demonstrated loyalty even in Panic's cabinet.  He was essentially a loyal realist.  Our information indicates that Milosevic once criticized Bulatovic at a closed session of the State Security Council that he does not behave like the chief of police because he does not have any security personnel in his attendance, merely accepting to have a porter.
It could be said that Pavle Bulatovic appeared like an individual who was ready to drop the ball every time things got too hot.  In 1993, while the debate on replacing Dobrica Cosic was being expected, Igor Mirovic, Serbian Radical Party MP, stated in the Council of the Republics that Supreme Headquarters of the Yugoslav Army is overstepping its authorizations and is passing opinion on issues over which it has no jurisdiction.  And when he began to instigate stories about eventual attempts of a coup d'etat by Yugoslav generals, Pavle Bulatovic, Federal Defense Minister at the time, responded to Mirovic's insinuations by stating that inappropriate activities are indeed taking place in the Supreme Headquarters.  A little later, when he was asked whether the replacing of the supreme commander would strengthen his position as Minister of Defense, Bulatovic merely smiled.

When the time came for that, Pavle Bulatovic made a proposal for a law on amnesty for persons who were indicted for avoiding the army in the period between 1991-1995, which included 12,455 individuals.

The wording of the document on the state of war ("conditions have been met..."), indirectly adopted in the fall of 1998 and which came into force in the spring of 1999, appears to have been written by Pavle Bulatovic, even though its diction is also not past Momir Bulatovic, either.

He called for a general conscription and proposed amnesty.  He was the top quartermaster of an army which was in a difficult position, an army which was neglected for a long time, a hungry, degraded army...

TERRORISM: The Federal Government concluded that the assassination of Pavle Bulatovic constitutes a terrorist act.  At the commemoration attended by the highest officials in Yugoslavia and Serbia, Vice-President of Federal Government, Nikola Sainovic, announced that "the battle against terrorism is our holy and state duty and obligation, and we will sharpen it.  This evil must simply be rooted out."  Federal Minister for Information, Goran Matic, drew attention to a statement he gave last fall regarding a series of assassinations and terrorist acts being prepared against this country from abroad with the objective of destabilizing the situation in Yugoslavia.

Ph.D. Budimir Babovic, expert for police studies, entirely agrees that this is an act of terrorism.  He does observe, however, that a terrorist act must have a political background and that this has not been noted in this case   as a rule terrorist want to be heard, they always leave a message.

President of the Government of Montenegro, Filip Vujanovic, that he agrees with the conclusions of the Federal Government that the assassination of Pavle Bulatovic is an act of terrorism, and that he is "glad" that the Federal Government has expressed a determination to apprehend the perpetrators of this act as quickly as possible.

Ruling parties also agree that Bulatovic is the victim of a classic act of terrorism: in it reaction JUL accuses that Americans; the Serbian Radical Party accuses the American, British and French secret services and offers the services of its entire membership.

BLOODY FRUITS: The opposition found further proof  in this assassination of the political and security crisis which has gripped the country.  Coordinator for the Alliance for Changes and Leader of the Democratic Christian Party of Serbia, Vladan Batic, stated that the assassination of Pavle Bulatovic is "totally tragic" and concluded that it proves that there is no law in Serbia.  There is merely chaos and anarchy.  Tragic policies are yielding their bloody fruits...

After the assassination of Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan, many people said that the bloody spree will continue.  "This seems likely because the government is not willing to grapple with the sources of crime," Batic stated for the Beta Agency.  Journalists Aleksandar Tijanic appears to have made the most accurate prediction in his article for the Nezavisne daily of Banja Luka, at least as far as this case is concerned: "If I appear unclear, then here is a definition: there will be no election unless a victory by Milosevic's people can be secured ahead of time; if they lose the election despite this, the results will not be acknowledged and the opposition will be arrested and prosecuted for rigging, subversive activities, treachery and sycophant behavior.  The first rehearsals for both scenarios will be held in February; one newspaper will be closed, one editor will be sent to jail, a leader of a large party will be taken to court, one famous person must go into the next world in order for the ever growing rumors about those who ordered the assassination against the SPO leadership and against Arkan to be silenced..."

Bulatovic worked with three prime ministers (Panic, Kontic and Bulatovic) and with three FRY presidents (Lilic, Cocis and Milosevic).  He learned a lot in his long term of public service and he avoided many dangerous pitfalls.  The varied speculations regarding his assassination range greatly, encompassing diverse theories.  Particularly worrisome is the fact that the Federal Government and the ruling political parties are making statements and passing judgements with the investigation not having yielded any results yet.  This is never good and usually leads to exploiting of an assassination for settling scores with political opponents or for sweeping the entire incident under the rug.  Therefore, all that remains is to conclude that Pavle Bulatovic fell by the second hand of Adam Smith (market regulation), the long hand of Niccolo Machiavelli (the art of keeping power), the sinister nature of an assassin like Carlos (international origins) or the sticky hand of a military supplier.