Archive for the 'Arms Deals' Category

190,000 Guns Go AWOL in Iraq

Posted in AK-47, Arms Deals, Guns, Iraq on August 6th, 2007 by RottingNation
According to the July 31 report, the military “cannot fully account for about 110,000 AK-47 assault rifles, 80,000 pistols, 135,000 items of body armour and 115,000 helmets reported as issued to Iraqi forces.”
The phantom weapons were issued to to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005. They magically disappeared from the governments records sometime between June 2004 and September 2005.

During that time period the military was attempting to rebuild Iraqi forces that had recently disbanded amid increasing attacks from Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias.

Since 2004 the military “has not consistently collected supporting records confirming the dates the equipment was received, the quantities of equipment delivered, or the Iraqi units receiving the items,” the report said.

“Since 2006 the command has placed greater emphasis on collecting the supporting documents. However, GAO’s review of the January 2007 property books found continuing problems with missing and incomplete records.”

The US government has, in the past, accused countries like Iran of supplying weapons to enemy militia groups in Iraq yet they can not locate 190,000 weapons of their own. Weapons that may be in use by the aforementioned illegal militias against American soldiers.

The government of Turkey has recently expressed concern over cross-border raids from enemy forces who used US issued weaponry.

Is the US government selling these arms to countries that are hostile towards us and our allies? Are the Iraqi soldiers selling the weapons? Why is the US government not watching what the Iraqi special forces are doing with US issued weaponry?

The answers to these questions are beyond me, but they need to be answered. Hopefully, someone will be held accountable.

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