re: Question About Weapons Acquired By Terrorist Groups

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It's easier and cheaper to just drop a JDAM on them instead of having to install tracking and monitoring equipment.

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Those do cost approx. $25k per - and that's just the cost of the ordinance. Delivery systems and delivery itself is considerably more expensive. If the CIA, working with the Mossad, could create and implant Stuxnet to destroy Iranian industrial PLCs, seems like they could come up with a fix on that, too. Of course, enemy combatants taking control of serviceable US military equipment wasn't really something that would have been considered until recently.

In terms of how they handle the arms transactions off the battlefield, though, this is an interesting question. They simply can't be doing it without the assistance of legitimate state operators. The money has to move through some kind of financial institution at some point and without the direct involvement of a state financial/intelligence agency, they couldn't hide those transactions indefinitely. Beyond the financial issues, they have to move that shite. That means trucking, rails, port services, and sea transport. Again, hard to do on a regular basis without some state support from somewhere. I suppose the Iranians do their banking?

Worth noting - friend of mine from years ago was SF (later killed in Iraq working for Blackwater) - and he said that they were intercepting shite on the high seas, on roadways in desolate places, at the docks, etc., all over the world, operations that were never reported publicly.