Wayne Merry Quotations

We did not buy these planes to increase American military capacity -- we bought them to prevent them from being a threat in some other part of the world and to help Moldova when they needed it.

What we're dealing with is a government in Chisinau (the Moldovan capital) with one hand slapping the United States and with the other, digging in the pockets of the United States.

The accusation is that the amount offered by the third party black-market purchaser, later revealed to be Iran, was an additional $55 million to the sum offered by the United States.

The United States in my view has a responsibility in this case -- it is about the relationship between us and Moldova and the accusation that the United States took advantage of a small and weak country -- which is not the case.

In essence, my concept was to offer an exchange to Moldova -- we would offer them a large single sum payment in cash in exchange for getting this equipment permanently off the market.