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Why worry about Iran or Syria arming the jihadists? We're taking care of that ourselves.
"Weapons Given to Iraq Are Missing: GAO Estimates 30% of Arms Are Unaccounted For," by Glenn Kessler for the Washington Post (thanks to Jen):
The Pentagon has lost track of about 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, according to a new government report, raising fears that some of those weapons have fallen into the hands of insurgents fighting U.S. forces in Iraq.The author of the report from the Government Accountability Office says U.S. military officials do not know what happened to 30 percent of the weapons the United States distributed to Iraqi forces from 2004 through early this year as part of an effort to train and equip the troops. The highest previous estimate of unaccounted-for weapons was 14,000, in a report issued last year by the inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.
The United States has spent $19.2 billion trying to develop Iraqi security forces since 2003, the GAO said, including at least $2.8 billion to buy and deliver equipment. But the GAO said weapons distribution was haphazard and rushed and failed to follow established procedures, particularly from 2004 to 2005, when security training was led by Gen. David H. Petraeus, who now commands all U.S. forces in Iraq.
The Pentagon did not dispute the GAO findings, saying it has launched its own investigation and indicating it is working to improve tracking. Although controls have been tightened since 2005, the inability of the United States to track weapons with tools such as serial numbers makes it nearly impossible for the U.S. military to know whether it is battling an enemy equipped by American taxpayers.
"They really have no idea where they are," said Rachel Stohl, a senior analyst at the Center for Defense Information who has studied small-arms trade and received Pentagon briefings on the issue. "It likely means that the United States is unintentionally providing weapons to bad actors."
"Bad actors." They have to say things like this because the PC fog enveloping us all has led to a prohibition on their saying "enemy." But this sounds as if the U.S. has been unintentionally providing weapons to Hayden Christensen, Robert Downey, Jr., and Vin Diesel.
Posted by Robert at August 6, 2007 8:25 AM
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"Loses track"? Or is there something more sinister here (along the lines of the Russians selling weapons to the Chechens, etc.)? I highly doubt it, but still, it seems strange that they would just lose all this weaponry.
Posted by: GetBornAgain![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at August 6, 2007 8:38 AM
Total and complete lack of accountability. No checks and balances - just spend, spend, spend.
The Iraqis have molded their government after ours to a fault. Why should they account for anything? Who really cares? The Americans will just give us more.
Nobody has "lost" anything. Like so many of the billions pissed away there, the weapons have simply been stolen.
If WE had accountable administrators there, we could jerk up Maliki by the short hairs. But that would take someone who cares. Right now, there is too much money to be made.
Consider this, why would we supply AK-47s to a country that is awash in AK 47s? Why were the AKs that were rounded up not re - distributed? Why were brand new weapons purchased with American tax payer funds and handed out? Were there lobbysists for weapons manufacturers involved?
Why are the IPs given new Glocks, while our service men have the pos Berettas?
Posted by: infidel! at August 6, 2007 9:12 AM
...every time we kill a few Islamic militant terrorists..we get a few of these rifles back....
Posted by: exsgtbrown at August 6, 2007 9:16 AM
OK - my kids lose track of their shoes and socks. So we made a "shoe shelf" to help them. But, it blows my mind (oops it's blown now) how someone can "lose track" of almost 200K worth of firearms. Maybe we need to make a huge "Firearm shelf" to help these folks out. :-)
Posted by: Bess at August 6, 2007 9:17 AM
It was like this. Me and my bud Mohamed were sitting around shooting the crap at Saddam Palace #911. Mohamed asks me what I am doing here anyhow. I say I got a security gig guarding all these rifles. Mohamed says "What rifles?". I say "those rifles in the boxes behind me" and as I turn to look I say "WTF?, where are the boxes? They were here a minute ago." mohamed says "look there is a guy outside loading up a truck with boxes that say AK-47 and M-16. could those be the boxes?" I say "of course not you silly Mohammedan, the boxes would have Rifles printed on them not some obscure alpha-numeric codes". So me and ol Mohamed hit the trail before we get blamed for losing these rifles. But first I must stop off at the paymasters office and pick up my paycheck.
Posted by: TheOmegaMan at August 6, 2007 9:29 AM
I would disagree with Mr. Spencer about categorizing Robert Downy Jr. among bad actors. He's really good and he's academy award nominated for his role in Chaplin. Now, he IS bad in terms of some of his behavior with drugs and what-not, but then you couldn't lump him in with Vin Diesel and Haydn Christensen who are truly terrible actors, but don't have bad personal lives.
Regardless, giving weapons to actors like Diesel, Christiansen, and Downy Jr. could mean a whole new era of bad actors. Lindsey Lohan is good example. She's a terrible actor and she's into drugs. She probably has an AK-47.
Posted by: Tomilio at August 6, 2007 9:40 AM
What are the chances those AKs are already "back home" in the USA, having been smuggled over the border to equip the Jihadis who can't get their hands on a Russian suitcase nuke?
Next time you are stuck waiting on a train to clear your local crossing, glance at the shipping containers on those flatbed cars, as they go past by the hundreds. How many of them are packed with AKs, or worse, headed for Your Islamic Military Surplus Outlet?
"Hey, Mo! Want to beat those high prices and that endless paperwork at your local gun shop? And who needs "semi-auto," anyway? Come on down to Your Islamic Military Surplus Outlet, and pick up your free, full-auto AK, and enough ammo to kill a whole crowd of unarmed Infidels at the mall or your local high school! COME ON DOWN!!!"
RSI
Posted by: RedStateInfidel at August 6, 2007 9:57 AM
Wait, his personal life is a wreck, but Robert Downey, Jr. is not that bad an actor.
There would seem to be more than enough AK-47s in th'e world already - shouldn't we make terrorists buy their own?
I know how we solve this problem. Start a rumor in Iraq that the AK-47s were treated with a compound that produces sterility and impotence in men.
They'll bring 'em back......
Posted by: tanstaafl at August 6, 2007 10:13 AM
Just another episode in the 8-year Bush administration reality horror show “Watch Us Fuckup Again!”
If our generals can let bin Laden give them the slip (practically on foot), losing 190,000 assault rifles to the enemy shouldn’t be too surprising.
Posted by: FM at August 6, 2007 10:19 AM
Why is anyone surprised?
Remember, the Bush Administration also lost more than $11 billion in cash (170 pallet loads) that were shipped into Baghdad and dissapeared after the invasion.
Is there anyone at all left to be surprised by Bush incompetence? Or the fact that, in addition to fighting the insurgents, we are equiping and paying for them as well?
at August 6, 2007 10:40 AM
Why is anyone surprised?
Remember, the Bush Administration also lost more than $11 billion in cash (170 pallet loads) that were shipped into Baghdad and dissapeared after the invasion.
Is there anyone at all left to be surprised by Bush incompetence? Or the fact that, in addition to fighting the insurgents, we are equiping and paying for them as well?
at August 6, 2007 10:41 AM
Ya mean we gotta wear body armour to protect ourselves from our own bullets ?
Dr. Spock: this does not compute.
Posted by: dgene at August 6, 2007 10:41 AM
Funny-I always thought the M-16 was the American weapon. Why are we giving these guys AK-47's? Tell me they're less reliable (even though I've heard the opposite).
Posted by: ISLAMSFORLOSERS at August 6, 2007 11:14 AM
Right. The AK-47 is a Ruszki weapon. How were these part of our inventory?
Posted by: CapitalistGig at August 6, 2007 11:22 AM
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Most gunmen with ties to President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement have given up their weapons as part of an amnesty deal that seeks to improve ties between Israel and Abbas's moderate Palestinian leadership, a senior Palestinian security official said Sunday.
Guess they will be getting new weapons from Iraq.
Posted by: TheOmegaMan at August 6, 2007 11:33 AM
AKs are mot part of our inventory. They are made in many of the post commie countries and China.
The Romanian iterations are about the best. I believe the ones missing were made in Poland.
Maybe a deal to provide a few troops to look like another country is part of the "willing."
Posted by: infidel! at August 6, 2007 11:52 AM
Key Stone Cop America
Posted by: CaptainGrevious at August 6, 2007 11:52 AM
"The United States has spent $19.2 billion trying to develop Iraqi security forces since 2003, the GAO said, including at least $2.8 billion to buy and deliver equipment. But the GAO said weapons distribution was haphazard and rushed and failed to follow established procedures, particularly from 2004 to 2005, when security training was led by Gen. David H. Petraeus, who now commands all U.S. forces in Iraq."
-- from the article above
The whole worshipful cult of Petraeus, as the Great Uniformed Hope, is utterly misplaced. It is he who seems to take seriously, or perhaps even originated, the utterly unhelpful idea that "in general, insurgencies last ten years." This is a pointless, even silly, notion, for it ignores the nature of insurgencies. When they are directed at, say, a colonial power (the MauMau), or against the local government because of its perceived injustice (the Greek Communists), and there are ways to satisfy demands at the same time that military defeat is inflicted (Jomo Kenyatta came to power -- in other words, the English gave up; in Greece there was, presumably, some attention to winning the hearts and minds of the impoverished who might be most vulnerable to Communist propaganda). But in Iraq there is not one insurgency, but many, and while they are all conducted by various groups of Muslims against each other, they are also -- to varying degrees depending only on what temporary use they may have for the Infidel Americans -- all hostile, permanently hostile (temporary smiles and wiles are transparent, or should be), to the Infidels.
What would you think of me if I were to write an article, or promote a doctrine, in which it was maintained that "in general, civil wars last 6.7 years." A pointless, silly notion, isn't it? You would make fun of me for such a thing. You would say, that such a statistic has no ability to help us in a particular situation. Why then do we applaud Petraeus, whose previous term as a supposedly successful "trainer" of Iraqi forces did not train up a great many loyal, true-blue Iraqis, nor did the area he suppoosedly pacified remain pacified?
Of course he is of thoughtul mien. Of course he is very brave, and not only brave but mediagenic. But so what? Someone who starts using the pronoun "we" to include Americans and Iraqis as one group, with identical interests -- Infidels and Muslims do not have, anywhere, identical interests -- and who furthermore has continued to think that "hearts and minds" matter, is not someone whose thoughtful demeanor and bravery (shot in the stomach in an accident during training, insisting on going right back to active duty as soon as he could, etc.) should cause us, desperate for a hero on a horse, some General Beranger, to put Petraeus on a pedestal or pediment.
Furthermore, he has not dropped any hints that he understands that in the larger Jihad, the one which consists of all the local Jihads (which cannot be reduced to merely "local" and "non-Islamic promptings, as either he, or possibly Kilcullen, or possibly both, seem to think), the one that relies mainly on the Money Weapon, and campaigns of Da'wa, and demographic conquest, and whose theatre is now Western Europe -- will not be affected in the slightest by bringing some kind of temporary harmony to Iraq.
Far better to let Iraq be a source of constant internal strife within the Camp of Islam. But how can a general, his entire effort spent in fulfilling this or that task, and not seeing beyond that hideously difficult task, to ponder why the task itself, and its fulfillment, makes no larger strategic sense, possibly turn himself into a real strategist, a Halford Mackinder, who sees just how trivial Iraq is in the larger scheme of thiings, except as a place where American lives, and money, and war materiel, have been and are being squandered for all the wrong reasons, for a policy based on a lack of understanding of the forces at play in Iraq and potentially outside Iraq, and most of all, a lack of understanding, by most of those who love Bush, and most of those who hate him, of Islam, its texts, its tenets, its attitudes, its atmospherics, that guarantee that there will never be a settlement between Sunnis and Shi'a in Iraq that will look anything like what Infidels, people of reason, people used to comprpomise and not schooled up in a victor/vanquished view of the universe as are Muslims, with the victors being the Believers, and the vanquished being the Infidels -- but the attitude carries over to the Sunni view of Shi'a and, to some extent, vice-versa -- would think is possible.
It won't happen in Iraq. And if it did, it would be of no help in weakening the Camp of Islam.
Does Petraeus even think in such terms? Has he realized what the demographic conquest of Western Europe would mean -- first for a change in foreign policy, then to the weaponry of NATO, and then to the very nature of the societies that form, along with North America, the heart of the West?
Does he? Or is he merely a general? Because this war is too important to be left to mere generals. Even quiet, mediagenic generals such as David Petraeus.
Posted by: Hugh at August 6, 2007 1:46 PM
Surely there must be a FedEx waybill number for this shipment!
Posted by: Shy Guy at August 6, 2007 4:32 PM
Just a thought....If the U.S. is arming Iraqi's why with AK47's?
As I recall, Russia and China are the only authorized producers of AK47's. Russia has now allowed Hugo Chavez to start producing them too, but no other countries. So why are we purchasing weapons from Russia or China, instead of American made weapons and American factories and labor?
Obviously, Russia and China have not had a problem with making money from these sales.
And don't say we don't supply anyone with our U.S. made weapons, the Palestinians are running all over the place flashing our guns in the streets.
Posted by: alaskan1000 at August 6, 2007 4:37 PM
It's been said often and by many that to prevail in this battle against Islam, we need to win the hearts and minds of the muslims. But the way to win hearts and minds is not to make completely outrageous and uncalled for ad hominem attacks on Vin Diesel. Let there be no more of this. Let this stop now. Come on now.
COME ON!
Posted by: november1981 at August 6, 2007 5:18 PM
Oh yes the "bad actors" take on many shapes and sizes and i think we have been watching many bad actors on the screen for years.
This show is a flop,a bust,no rave,no stars awarded.
A get up and walk out of the theatre show.
We can shoot things out into space,perform brain surgery but we can't for the life of us keep track of ANYTHING.
with all the technologies we should be able to tell the age ,blood type and what kind of underwear the enemy is wearing while holding anything given to them by us.
Ever hear of tracking devices?
Posted by: Dar al-harb at August 6, 2007 5:20 PM
>q>We can shoot things out into space,perform brain surgery but we can't for the life of us keep track of ANYTHING.
With the possible exception of a mad cow. We can track the exact spot where it was concieved, born and weaned.
Why don't we give them a cow along with an AK47? Then we could keep track of them.
at August 6, 2007 5:39 PM
LMAO LMAO LMAO LMAO LMAO
*************ALARM BELLS*******************
BULLSHIT ALARM GOING OFF
STOP RIGHT THERE!
The source is WHO???
Center for Defense Information????
Chaired by former "Admiral" and King Kook (which was why he was forcibly retired to begin with) Eugene Laroque????
Here's a clue...HE'S A SUPPORTER OF LYNDON LAROUCHE!!!
Cross-reference phrases:
"center for defense information"
"eugene laroque"
"lyndon larouche"
It speaks for itself
STRIKE THREE, YOU'RE OUT!!!
(and I haven't gotten into the fact we don't make ak-37s, nor do we finance them...if we do have that many, it's old war booty we captured...but that's another subject I'll get into later)
Kessler better start checking his sources before printing stories like this...but what else is expected from one of the same folks who also bought the "stunning" story that somehow "650,000 iraqis have been murdered in iraq" implying we murdered them...using a fallaciously bogus "study" only for those missing folks (and them some) turn up in such places like Jordan (almost 700,000 of them...all alive and well, just escaping while they could).
I wouldn't put anything into this bogus and militant lunatic kook source at all...and anyone who does risks their own credibility.
This is a hit piece...a mass distortion at BEST, a LIE at worst.
at August 6, 2007 6:22 PM
2001 leon the pig farmer was a citizen of the UK, a country led by morons.
2007, leon the pig farmer became a US citizen, in other words he became a citizen of another country led by morons.
Posted by: leonthepigfarmer at August 6, 2007 7:58 PM
oh and , if US citizens are not allowed to own AK47's, then why are we giving them away like candy to jihadist extremists?
Posted by: leonthepigfarmer at August 6, 2007 7:59 PM
I've read that AKs are less accurate than M16s, but so durable that you could bury one in sand or mud for a week, dig it back up, and it'd still be capable of being fired (with a little bit of maintenance, of course). Unlike our own army's SA80s.
Could be wrong of course as I'm not a gun nut, although my girlfriend's from South Carolina and most of her family own enough guns to give a tyrannosaurus rex a nasty shock. Kind of worrying as they don't approve of our relationship (she's 19, I'm 36).
Maybe they chose to buy kalashnikovs from another country because they're already standard issue for the Iraqi Army and they were thinking about standardised ammunition for logistical reasons? The US has sometimes provided foreign-made arms to provide plausable deniability.
Whatever the reason, I badly hope that jcom972 is right and this isn't true. If not, this was definitely a fuckup of gigantic proportions.
Posted by: Infidelandlovingit at August 6, 2007 8:04 PM
well, leon...that's one thing that is beyond dispute, lol.
Only thing is...ownership of ak-47s vary by state, and 41 states don't prohibit them. They're rather cheap even for here (flea markets sell 'em for as little as $125 for an old 1940s red army issue-but average is about $4-600), a new model M-16 is well over $2,000 each (and that the public CAN'T get at all in any state).
If they're being given away like candy (good description), it's not with our knowledge or willfulness...something's definitely up, and we'll find out evetually...despite the WaPo & CDIs own agendas.
Posted by: jcom972 at August 6, 2007 8:07 PM
Oh, infidel...
I didn't say it wasn't TRUE, per se...I question the sources, as they've proven their own agenda in distortions, and in some cases, outright lies...and it's a good bet that at very least, it's taken completely out of context, and for the wrong reasons (remember the BS "jenin! jenin!" fraud?-they jumped right on that the same way too), just like they screeded rabidly about the recent NSA "story" which was classified, and also taken completely out of context, and alluding to accusations aginst their political enemies.
...in short, they're notorious for making mountains out of molehills, and at times, making something out of nothing (as the "murdered 650,000 iraqis" BS story turned out to be fraudulent).
Bottom line position...always screen sources first, especially if they've had a history of distortions and political agendas.
Posted by: jcom972 at August 6, 2007 8:15 PM
Is there anyone at all left to be surprised by Bush incompetence? Or the fact that, in addition to fighting the insurgents, we are equiping and paying for them as well?
Posted by: Philadelphia Steve at August 6, 2007 10:40 AM
Is it time to impeach Bush yet?
Posted by: Alert at August 7, 2007 12:32 AM
Is there anyone at all left to be surprised by Bush incompetence? Or the fact that, in addition to fighting the insurgents, we are equiping and paying for them as well?
Posted by: Philadelphia Steve at August 6, 2007 10:40 AM
Is it time to impeach yet?
Posted by: Alert at August 7, 2007 12:33 AM
"Assumptions are the mother of all f**kups"
Exibit A, antics of WaPo (and they're just one of many false accusors)...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/27/AR2007072700037.html
Of course, Kurtz NOW desperately distances himself from this turned-out-to-be-massive-fraud (with gnashed teeth to have to bite the bullet at that) to divert from the fact he, and his peers at WaPo, revelled in such things as if God-given fact...only to have it blow up in their equally fraudulent faces.
(you'll notice all the kook-fringe web sites quickly and desperately trying to save face by putting distance between this lying assclown and them, who have revelled in such lies, fraud and deceit since its inception)
These kinds of outrageous acts, by media, who've been actively aiding and abetting the enemy, let alone their acts of the same against a sitting President for almost 2,500 days, and above all, the soldiers that have been falsely accused of things they never committed as a result of these fraudulent lies (read that as POLITICAL PRISONERS).
This is one of many reasons why it's best to wait until the investigators do their jobs before A-S-S-U-M-I-N-G yet again...grown people should know better by now...but some never do, as if evidenced above.
"Assumptions are the mother of all f**kups"
and the hate-filled infestations masquerading as legit journalists continue to assume a great deal.
Let's wait until the report comes out, in PROPER context, and in PROPER perspective.
at August 7, 2007 2:54 AM
The Pentagon has lost track of about 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, according to a new government report, raising fears that some of those weapons have fallen into the hands of insurgents fighting U.S. forces in Iraq.
---------------------
I never understand why any of us Americans believe that Muslims will make it better over there.Maybe a handful want freedom...but other's will fight us before they fight their brothers and cousins.
Why should we trust the Iraqi Security Forces? How many are "terrorists"? Why we handing weapons over to them...we need to clean house's ourselves and maintain those weapons. It is proven...we go through hell trying to change a country to democracy. I tell those Iraqi Security Forces to shape up or ship out! Means get the hell of of our troops way! Then clean house. So many weapons and so much money is being poured into this war...let our troops do their job(They are the lean , mean , fighting machine)...let them take control without a bunch of hippocritical government trying to give orders...not knowing their @zz from a hole in the ground.
One Muslim told me this:" I can look at you with a smile and shake your hand with my right hand...make you think I am your friend! With my left hand, I cut your throat." (so America gives Iraqi Security Forces our weapons. In mean time the Iraqi Security Forces (part of them) is doing a reverse...oh boy..such intelligence from our government...
Good night all. Hope to wake up to a brighter day and good news instead of bad news.
at August 7, 2007 3:22 AM
Definitely one to file under "So sad it's funny"
And I'd like to bet that no one but no one gets the axe for this monumentally monumental F up.
I remember reading somewhere that the AKs came from Bosnia and Serbia who had to reduce their arsenals.
Remember that we were told time and time again that we'd be greeted as liberators, so the logic went - if this can be called logic - any AK47 given out would never but never be used against us because everyone just loves us so much.
That's how naive the genises who dreamed up this "Operation Crap-o-fest" are.
And it's taken about four years to realise that 100s of 1,000s of guns have gone missing.
We could equip about 10 divisions with all that.
Who knows , maybe some tanks have gone AWOL too.
Anyone been counting the attack helicopters lately?
AWACs?
Okay, it's that time again........gets out coin........heads I laugh tails I cry.
Posted by: ewha1 at August 7, 2007 3:57 AM
Well, it's no surprise.
1. How many "Iraqi" troops are on Iran's or A.Q.'s payrolls? Hey, two paychecks are always better than one.
2. The Bush administration doesn't seem to be bothered by all the weapons that they gave to Abbas in the Palestinian Authority that are now in the hands of Hamas. After all, they're giving tons of hardware to Abbas again. I bet Hamas will get these new goodies too, and soon.
At least the weapons Israel was forced to provide her enemies with were carefully cataloged prior to distribution. So the Israelis can tell when one of their soldiers or citizens is killed with guns supplied by themselves or the U.S.; it sounds like our forces in Iraq can't even determine that! I wish I could live 500 years so I could read history books. They will, no doubt, be stupified by the West's efforts to arm its enemies during wartime.
Posted by: bondmanp at August 7, 2007 11:14 AM
Tomilio
Sorry, but in some wretched hotel room once I happened to catch Downey in some wretched modernist version of a Shakespeare play. Macbeth, maybe. I don't remember. Anyway, he was...wretched. I've always remembered it.
Cordially
Robert Spencer
at August 7, 2007 1:01 PM
"wretched" is spot on...sad, too.
(I can't picture him playing MacBeth, or Duncan, or any other role for that matter)
He didn't look like he just got done eating a powdered-sugar doughnut (like when I saw him coming out of Whiskey-a-go-go one night in L.A.), did he?
Just wondered.
at August 7, 2007 10:54 PM
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