U.S. Taxpayers Paying For Iraqi Insurgent Arms

[thatguyoverthere]

Sorry to double post this, but I'm outraged. I'd like to know why this has generated no discussion. I find this disturbing on multiple levels. is it possible that I am I really the only one who feels this way?

MercuryNews.com | 10/30/2006 | Audit: U.S. military has lost track of weapons in Iraq

Originally Posted by NYT via Mercury News

Audit: U.S. military has lost track of weapons in Iraq

NO SERIAL NUMBERS RECORDED FOR ARMS PROVIDED TO IRAQIS

By James Glanz

New York Times


The U.S. military has not properly tracked hundreds of thousands of weapons intended for Iraqi security forces and has failed to provide spare parts, maintenance personnel or even repair manuals for most of the weapons given to the Iraqis, a federal report released Sunday has concluded.

Thousands of handguns and hundreds of assault rifles and other weapons.

Originally Posted by NYT via Mercury News

The answers came Sunday from the inspector general's office, which found discrepancies in U.S. military records on where thousands of 9mm pistols and hundreds of assault rifles and other weapons have ended up. The U.S. military did not even take the elementary step of recording the serial numbers of weapons provided to Iraqis, the inspector general found, making it impossible to track or identify any that may have fallen into the wrong hands.

Thousands of handguns and hundreds of assault rifles and other weapons, most likely used against our own guys and gals. WHY is no one outraged that we are arming the insurgents? How can we win if we do that?

And we're paying for it!

Originally Posted by NYT via Mercury News

Because the inspector general is charged only with looking at weaponry financed directly by the U.S. taxpayer, the total numbers of lost weapons could end up being still higher. The General Accountability Office and the Pentagon inspector general are expected to take a broad look at weapons financed by all sources, including the Iraqi government.

Just great, is there anyone who wasn't bringing in weapons and losing them in Iraq?

One of the few things we seem to agree on here is that we don't like our taxpayer dollars wasted, right? This is also enormously revealing as to the true progress of how the training of the Iraqis is going:

Originally Posted by NYT via Mercury News

...

Warner, who warned that the situation in Iraq was ``drifting sideways,'' sent his request in May to a federal oversight agency, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. He also asked the inspector general to examine whether Iraqi security forces are developing a logistics operation capable of sustaining the hundreds of thousands of troops and police officers the U.S. military says it has trained.

(snip)

Bowen found the U.S. military was not able to say how many Iraqi logistics personnel it has trained -- in this case because, the military told the inspector general, a computer network crash erased records. These problems have occurred even though the United States has spent $133 million on the weapons program and $666 million on building up Iraqi logistics capabilities.

...

A LITTLE PLAY

DUDE: Hey man, I gave you 666 million dollars to train those dudes, right?

MAN: Yeah.

DUDE: How many didya train?

MAN: Dunno.

(scene)

WTF?!?! Arming the insurgents with our money, wasting the rest? This is outrageous, and I am curious as to why no one seems to even care.

[WickedLou9]

I think you should add Haliburton to your play. Have a guy drive up in a Bently. Hey what are you doing with all the reconstruction money?

[AVengeance]

It reminds me of an episode in the Transformers. The later gen 1., where the Quintessons were arming both sides of a planetary conflict, in order to profit. Iraq is a microcosmic scene of that right now.

[KatKanPlay]

Does the war machine live happily ever after in this play?

[thatguyoverthere]

If we can't/won't discuss this, then please, let's discuss exactly WHY we're not discussing it. I see a lot of endless and useless bitching over John Kerry's words, but this story is about sticks and stones.

What This Article Says:
- The U.S. military is bringing weapons into Iraq, and not tracking them.
- The U.S. military is bringing U.S. taxpayer purchased weapons into Iraq, and losing them.
- The U.S. military is arming the new Iraqi military, but not giving them repair manuals or letting them know how to obtain spare parts.
- The U.S. military has spent $666 million to train Iraqi logistics personnel, and cannot say how many that they have trained.

Some Weapons Confirmed Missing In Iraq:
- 13,000+ semi automatic pistols.
- 700+ M1-F assault rifles.
- Nearly 100 MP-5 machine guns.

This is completely OUTRAGEOUS!

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/30/wo...construct.html

Originally Posted by New York Times

U.S. Is Said to Fail in Tracking Arms Shipped to Iraqis
By JAMES GLANZ
Published: October 30, 2006


The American military has not properly tracked hundreds of thousands of weapons intended for Iraqi security forces and has failed to provide spare parts, maintenance personnel or even repair manuals for most of the weapons given to the Iraqis, a federal report released Sunday has concluded.


The report was undertaken at the request of Senator John W. Warner, the Virginia Republican who is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and who recently expressed an assessment far darker than the Bush administration’s on the situation in Iraq.


Mr. Warner sent his request in May to a federal oversight agency, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. He also asked the inspector general to examine whether Iraqi security forces were developing a logistics operation capable of sustaining the hundreds of thousands of troops and police officers the American military says it has trained.


The answers came Sunday from the inspector general’s office, which found major discrepancies in American military records on where thousands of 9-millimeter pistols and hundreds of assault rifles and other weapons have ended up. The American military did not even take the elementary step of recording the serial numbers of nearly half a million weapons provided to Iraqis, the inspector general found, making it impossible to track or identify any that might be in the wrong hands.


Exactly where untracked weapons could end up — and whether some have been used against American soldiers — were not examined in the report, although black-market arms dealers thrive on the streets of Baghdad, and official Iraq Army and police uniforms can easily be purchased as well, presumably because government shipments are intercepted or otherwise corrupted.


In a written response to the inspector general’s findings, the American military largely conceded the shortcomings. The military said it would assist the Iraqis in determining the spare parts and maintenance requirements for the weapons. The military also said it has now instituted a “process to accurately issue weapons by quantity and serial number listing.”


Because the inspector general is charged only with looking at weaponry financed directly by the American taxpayer, the total of lost weapons could end up being higher. The Government Accountability Office and the Pentagon inspector general are expected to look at weapons financed by all sources, including the Iraqi government.


The inspector general’s office, led by Stuart W. Bowen Jr., also a Republican, responded to Mr. Warner’s query about the Iraqi Army’s logistical capabilities with another report released at the same time, concluding that Iraqi security forces still depended heavily on the Americans for the operations that sustain a modern army: deliveries of fuel and ammunition, troop transport, health care and maintenance.


Mr. Bowen found that the American military was not able to say how many Iraqi logistics personnel it had trained — in this case because, the military told the inspector general, a computer network crash erased records. Those problems have occurred even though the United States has spent $133 million on the weapons program and $666 million on Iraqi logistics capabilities.


The report said that although the United States planned to scale back its support for logistics and maintenance for Iraqi security forces in 2007, it was unclear whether the Iraqi government had any intention of compensating by allocating sufficient money to the Ministries of Interior and Defense.


Mr. Warner confirmed through his spokesman, John Ullyot, that he was reviewing the reports over the weekend in advance of a scheduled meeting with Mr. Bowen on Tuesday.


Mr. Warner “believes it is essential that Congress and the American people continue to be kept informed by the inspector general on the equipping and logistical capabilities of the Iraqi Army and security forces, since these represent an important component of overall readiness,” Mr. Ullyot said.
Mr. Bowen said in an interview that he was particularly concerned about whether the Iraqi government intended to allocate enough money to support the logistics and maintenance needed for the Iraqi security forces to operate effectively.


“There’s a couple of red flags,” Mr. Bowen said. “Most significantly, is the Iraqi Ministry of Interior properly preparing to take over the mission and sustain it?”


“We don’t know because we don’t have adequate visibility into their budgeting,” he said, “and to a lesser extent the same red flag is up for the Department of Defense.”


Another report unrelated to Mr. Warner’s request was also released by the inspector general on Sunday, on the so-called provincial reconstruction teams that the United States is creating for the next phase of rebuilding Iraq’s infrastructure.


While some of the teams, intended to be scattered in each of Iraq’s 18 provinces, are functioning, security problems have severely hampered work in others, the report says. As a result, the inspector general recommended, the United States should consider reassigning its personnel in six provinces — including Basra in the south and Anbar in the west — to other places where effective work can be done.


The western province of Anbar is a central focus of the Sunni insurgency, and power struggles between Shiite militias have made Basra increasingly violent. The other four provinces that the inspector general recommends essentially abandoning are also in the Shiite south.


In its assessment of Iraqi weaponry, the inspector general concluded that of the 505,093 weapons that have been given to the Ministries of Interior and Defense over the last several years, serial numbers for only 12,128 were properly recorded. The weapons include rocket-propelled grenade launchers, assault rifles, machine guns, shotguns, semiautomatic pistols and sniper rifles.


Of those weapons, 370,000 were purchased with American taxpayer money under what is called the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund, or I.R.R.F., and therefore fell within the inspector general’s mandate.


Despite the potential risks from losing track of those weapons — involving 19 different contracts and 142 delivery orders — the United States recorded serial numbers for no more than a few thousand, the inspector general said.


There are standard regulations for registering military weaponry in that way, governed by the Department of Defense small-arms serialization program. The inspector general’s report said that when asked why so many weapons went to Iraq with no record of serial numbers, American military officials in Baghdad replied that they did not believe the regulations applied to them.


Still, in their response to the report, military officials said they would keep track of serial numbers for weapons shipped or issued in the future, but in a database outside the small-arms serialization program. They did not present a plan for identifying or monitoring weapons that had already been issued.


The inspector general’s report also found that money for spare parts was allocated for only 5 of the 12 different kinds of weapons sent to Iraq — and when the inspector general contacted units of the Defense and Interior Ministries, none actually knew how or where to requisition spare parts.


There were also significant discrepancies in the numbers of weapons purchased and those in Iraqi warehouses. While 176,866 semiautomatic pistols were purchased with American money, just 163,386 showed up in warehouses — meaning that more than 13,000 were unaccounted for. All 751 of the M1-F assault rifles sent to Iraq were missing, and nearly 100 MP-5 machine guns.

I think that everyone should bookmark this link, and post it as often as possible. Anyone claims that others would not be serious about winning the war in Iraq needs to see how THEY'VE been going about it.

If you want to win in Iraq, don't arm the insurgents!

If you want the Iraqis to stand up so we can stand down, get them repair manuals, spare parts, and let them know how to requisition those parts!

If you want the American public to support the war in Iraq, don't take our taxpayer dollars and use them to buy weapons that will be lost in the very place where insurgents are trying to kill our troops!

If you want the American public to support the war in Iraq, hold someone accountable for spending $666 million dollars to train an unknown number of logistics personnel!

These lost weapons have most likely been used against our own troops and civilians. That's the bottom line. I am NOT okay with having my taxpayer dollars going to arm the insurgents against American troops.