Pentagon loses track of weapons for Iraqi forces

[Vheox]

Originally Posted by Tapir

I just cannot see how the hell you are going to loose so many military gear.

I stole it.

[Kage]

Bad guys make even worse allies
A notorious arms dealer was the wrong person to enlist in the U.S. war effort in Iraq.

THE UNITED STATES seems to be missing some guns in Iraq. Somehow, the U.S. military has lost track of 110,000 AK-47 assault rifles and 80,000 pistols that were supposedly delivered from our caches to Iraqi security forces.

It was classic bureaucratic bungling, the Government Accountability Office concluded last month in a report criticizing the Pentagon's failure to keep proper records and track weapons flows. But there may have been another factor -- the government's dangerous and bumbling use of bad guys.

Consider the case of one particular bad guy, Viktor Bout -- a stout, canny Russian air transporter who also happens to be the world's most notorious arms dealer.

When the U.S. government needed to fly four planeloads of seized weapons from an American base in Bosnia to Iraqi security forces in Baghdad in August 2004, they used a Moldovan air cargo firm tied to Bout's aviation empire. The problem is that the planes apparently never arrived. When Amnesty International investigators tried two years later to trace the shipment of more than 99 tons of AK-47s and other weapons, U.S. officials admitted they had no record of the flights landing in Baghdad.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedi...ck=1&cset=true

[Vheox]

Well that's just awesome... If you can't trust a russian arms dealer, who can you?

[zapionics<alt>]

Originally Posted by Vheox

Well that's just awesome... If you can't trust a russian arms dealer, who can you?

[3 of 7]

Am I the only one here that's wondering what the heck the US govt. is doing supplying their allies with AK47's in the first place?...
Are they so bent on killing their own economy that they'd rather give the money to Russia rather than American manufacturers?
This is just wrong on so many levels.

[Vheox]

Originally Posted by 3 of 7

Am I the only one here that's wondering what the heck the US govt. is doing supplying their allies with AK47's in the first place?...
Are they so bent on killing their own economy that they'd rather give the money to Russia rather than American manufacturers?
This is just wrong on so many levels.

It seems these weapons were remnants of the Bosnia conflict... so I guess they would rather give Iraq "free" weapons than actually manufacture/purchase some.

[3 of 7]

Originally Posted by Vheox

It seems these weapons were remnants of the Bosnia conflict... so I guess they would rather give Iraq "free" weapons than actually manufacture/purchase some.

I see..

So, capture the arms from the enemy and then give them back to the enemy in a different part of the world..(Saving them the expense of transporting them)...

Makes sense to me

[k0NG0]

Originally Posted by 3 of 7

I see..

So, capture the arms from the enemy and then give them back to the enemy in a different part of the world..(Saving them the expense of transporting them)...

Makes sense to me

Maybe the Pentagon needs frequent flyer miles. Dress up a couple of AK47s in baggy clothes, put a monkey under the wig and it'll go through airport security no problem.

[johnrr6]

Bad situation...

Who knows if we are making a difference or not....

I lived in the region ---with Arabs----for 15 months. My take is that it would require us to be there for at least two generations to see any kind of real progress-----at least what we Americans would define as progress....

I feel sorry for----and yet have the greatest admiration for those kids over there....

Doing their duty because their country says so....

In almost all cases with restraint, honor and self sacrifice.....

NO ONE could ask for more.

Me-----I lived in simpler times----for the most part----I KNEW who my enemy was----he usually had a different colored uniform......

All this terrorism stuff....war is already horrendously ugly-----its getting worse....