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U.S. loses tracks of 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles in Iraq

Aug 6, 2007 8:25 am By Robert Spencer

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.

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