More thousands of missing US weapons - this time in Afghanistan
By Steve Hynd Friday Feb 13, 2009 11:00am
ONE THIRD of all the weapons procured for the Afghan security forces are missing and can be presumed sold onto the black market. Worth roughly $40 million at wholesale cost (and weighing in excess of 200 tons) to the Pentagon, would anyone like to guess at the black market value? The report has been compiled by congressional auditors, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO).
It found that, in the four years up to June 2008, the US military failed to keep complete records on some 222,000 weapons entering the country.
The report will be discussed in the US House of Representatives on Thursday.
It states that weapons supplied by the US to the Afghan military "are at serious risk of theft or loss".
The report says:
- US military officials failed to keep proper records on about 87,000 rifles, pistols, mortars and other weapons sent to Afghanistan between December 2004 and June 2008 - about a third of all the weapons sent
- There was a similar lack of management of a further 135,000 light weapons donated to Afghan forces via the US military by 21 countries
- The military failed even to record the serial numbers of some 46,000 weapons, making it impossible to confirm receipt of weapons or identify any which had fallen into the hands of militants
- The serial numbers of 41,000 weapons were recorded, but US military officials still had no idea where they were
"Lapses in accountability occurred throughout the supply chain," concludes the report, which is due to be discussed on Thursday at a panel hearing of a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee.
In response, the Pentagon agreed that it needed more people to help train the Afghanistan government to track the weapons, the AP news agency reported.
Which is to say the Pentagon didn't figure that much out after the first time this happened.
Haven't we heard this tune before, in Iraq while General Pet was in charge of keeping track of US arms shipments and 110,000 AK47s and 80,000 Glock pistols walked out the door? That came out in a GAO report in 2007. Indeed, Iraq was awash in "missing" weapons. One of Petraeus' closest aides eventually pled guilty to taking bribes for looking the other way while they were being stolen for re-sale on the black market. No-one in the mainstream has ever been interested in seriously asking how high the graft goes among US officers and officials as billions of dollars are swallowed by corruption and greed in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
"What if we had to tell families [of U.S. soldiers] not only why we are in Afghanistan but why their son or daughter died at the hands of an insurgent using a weapon purchased by the United States taxpayers? But that's what we risk if we were to have tens of thousands of weapons we provided washing around Afghanistan, off the books," Rep. John Tierney, D-Massachusetts, chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, said at the start of a congressional hearing on the report.
This, folks, is a "fighting machine" too incompetent or too corrupt to be allowed to "surge" in Afghanistan. They can't even keep a couple of hundred tons of their own weaponry out of militant hands - how is that good COIN practise? Even if they have the best of intentions and the best of shiny-new COIN colonialism tactics, thinking such mismanagement will suddenly come good and get things right is too much like clapping for faeries.
Crossposted from Newshoggers
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Unintentional I'm sure.
You can't fight an enemy without weapons. Really sucks that the American taxpayer has to buy the weapons for both sides.
No kidding!
The question to ask: who benefits from persistent, systemic "lack of accontability"? Could it be the US military (or contract) personnel who were responsible for shipping, storing and distributing these weapons?
The guns didn't just disappear. Someone transferred them to the Afghans. For cold, hard cash, in all likelihood.
It's Afghanistan, for chrissake. A wide open war zone run by medieval warlords. The whole country is one big black market, fueled by drug money, American gov't cash and Saudi slush funds.
Anybody out there believe the guns and ammo were "lost", or "misplaced", or "given away"? That someone on the US side wasn't selling to the highest bidder?
I wish I didn't believe it could be possible.
You nailed it Canuck. Too many people in this country (and on this thread) get caught up in the artificial world of political pundrity. They forget the reality of the theater of war our troops operate in. When I took political geography in college, we talked about Afghanistan being a "basketcase country". A place that is so internally screwed up, no matter how many troops or bundles of cash you pump in there, nothing will really improve. The medieval Afghan society is corrupt to the core and its people so isolated from civilization for so long, nothing functions there like we would expect. National government? That's as foreign to them as durian fruit is to us. Dump weapons into a "national army"? What a joke. Those guns were as good as sold as soon as they arrived. Stupid Westerners. Afghanistan is called the "graveyard of empires" for a reason. Leave. Leave now.
An Afghan policeman gets paid $40 a month, which means their gun is worth over a year's wages on the black market. A US infantryman's basic kit - without weaponry or armor - is worth $1,000. That's more than an Afghan judge earns in a year. A few bucks in a soldier's pocket goes a very long way in Afghanistan and the temptation is certainly there.
But half these weapons went "off the grid" before they ever reached Afghan hands. 100 tons, say $120 million minimum at black market prices. There's no way that's petty corruption at pfc and sgt level.
Regards, C
"Theatre of war"? How "Theatre of an invading army -- a.k.a., the US -- being repulsed by the freedom fighters for the invaded sovereign state -- a.k.a., Afghanistan"? If those pre-Enlightenment tribes want to kill each other, that's their prerogative, however lamentable that may be in our view. Perhaps a weak analogy, but I don't recall any other nation stepping in during the US civil war. Now, a humanitarian justification for a UN force to go in and block the potential slaughter is a more serious proposition.
Except the French, the Spanish and as always the Brits.
So true.
Precisely! Well stated.
You mean Reslugs fucked up AGAIN and don't give a shit????
This isn't about Repubs. Your user name shows your shallow and silly
mode of thinking. Try a little critical thinking.
The uber corrupt puppet government we set up sold the weapons.
A government funded by votes from both parties.
and appointed you God?
We choose our user names to suit ourselves.
The first time I remember running into this person, Leadership, he/she jumped on me for my user name. Something about user names gets under his/her saddle.
Jo, go back to watching your soap. Ben is about to leave Linda
for Jenny.
[Aside from the insults, (based on your apparent disapproval of users' handles), do you think that you'll be able to add MEANINGFUL contributions to the conversation, as in 'meaningful as it relates to the topic of the thread,' "More thousands of missing US weapons - this time in Afghanistan?"
And since you seem to think a users' handle is indicative of their personality and/or abilities, you may want to go through a name change, 'Leadership.' Sitemonitor]
no tv.
Yeah, they have a thing against such jokes on this site.
of your insipid whining...please stop it.
[Deleted. Off topic-Sitemonitor]
Well to use a little critical thinking you should've wrote, "Your user name shows YOU'RE shallow and silly..."
I'm working on grammar and spelling...but I'm at work, I have to type fast.
Selling $60,000 custom kitchens to people that don't cook is tough.
pick on people, then, as just a hobby?
He's just another right whiner a-hole.
Who the hell needs $60,000 kitchens?
Just give me this:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1284/104005969...
One of these
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2214/226372448...
Some of these:
http://www.andfam.net/kimblog/blogpix/soupbea...
And s**t-loads of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6dm9rN6oTs
...Limbaugh proud. Change your moniker to "Rush's Suppository".
Forget the grammar knock off the Kitchens and set up a franchise in Afghanistan!!!!!!
I'm so tired of you lying trolls attempting to pull Progressives down with you in the toilet of shame and guilt. One thing is certain these last eight wretched years...your party created and owns this genocidal catastrophe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPPBnciNAqI
I don't like the Repubs either. But you forget that the Dems
are right there with them. Yell and call names all you want, but
I am no lockstep Democrat. The party of Biden, Feinstein and
Pelosi have worked hand in hand with the Repubs to marginalize
American workers. The neverending war the overclass is waging
on us is only helped by your bullshit.
A Republican didn't hand over those guns to black marketeer, a corrupt Afghani official of a corrupt Afghani puppet State did, and no Democrat policy would change anything about that.
Repubs are blameless.....maybe one day if you say it enough....it will be true....NOT.
Stop the whining already!!!!
Pelosi could have held them all accountable and didn't.
Spineless Dems enabled bloodthirsty Repubs in 2 failed
invasions and occupations. THE ENTIRE POINT is for
progressives to avoid stupid blame game attacks and
address the fundamental failure of OUR foreign policy. I am sure all of you were in favor
of invading Afghanistan.
...,warmonging mercenary murderers from your party, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
That's funny, I was going to suggest to look for the nearest Republican that was hired by the WarPigs also.
Maybe the pentagon is just getting ready for when "the enemy" switches sides and we're buddies again.
Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia!
...there, Old Billy. Like when the Chinese decide they may need something from Afghanistan (maybe gas, oil, or just a pipeline),
we may be hookin' up with them Talibanese ......against those mean old Commies.
Not those Commies... yeah, those Commies - I feel like I'm in a Woody Allen movie.
always losing something...
12billion dollars here...few hundred thousand weapons there
good thing the repubs are out and obama can appoint some competent people..oh wait thats right.
he left gates (of iran contra fame, might i add) in.
our new messiah sure works in mysterious ways
Not only Mr. Gates.
Please check the various financial institutions federal,state, and private. The same mob still runs the shop.
Funny thing most of this mob worked with or under Mr.Made-OFF for years. Good training I am sure.
Maybe Mr.O. can't do anything unless he is told by the powers that be.
The more weapons the "bad guys" have, the more weapons the arms merchants get to sell to the "good guys" ..
It's been that way since World War One, at the very least.
Read the Nye Committee Report.
Not to beat a dead horse (although I did bring my beating stick and there happens to be a stinking carcass still in eyes' view) but who else can we blame for this?
Why not blame the failed policies of the Bush Administration? We all remember the shady dealings of the administration (http://tv1.com/playlists/123) and what those policies did for our country. This lack of oversight (economy, what?) extended through all of our country's dealings...including the (failed) Iraq and Afghan wars.
Thanks, Mr. Bush. Now, let's see if Obama can clean this mess up.
Democrats voted to invade Afghanistan and have continued to fund the
fiasco. Biden and Clinton included. The CIA flew heroine out of the
Golden Triangle during the Vietnam War...they continue in the "Stan".
Wall Street launders the money. American junkies die.
Brown people get killed. It's a win win for the overclass.
Repubs are blameless and you lick them clean...we get it already.
the CIA's heroine - Jane Fonda?
It is true.
No party is innocent. Nothing will change unless a lot of Democratic voters and liberals realize and act on this fact.
Republicans are surely 100% corrupt, while Democrats are, what only 70% corrupt. Which I guess makes them the "good guys" in "the world's greatest democracy". Yaaaaaaay!
.
this has gone on for years.....stolen by insiders and sold on "black market".
Black market is when others corner the market.
When the Brits forced the Chinese to buy opium from them in the 19th cent. it was called fair trade.
The bush administration seemed to have a jones against responsibility and accountability. They didn't like keeping records or finding out where money was spent and on what.
I just sitting here shaking my head and wondering how the hell all of this is going to ever play out.
Every way imaginable these blood drinkers profit off this murderous, mercenary adventure.
the surge consisted of paying insurgents to stop killing us for a few months while we waited out the bush term and kept the contractor money flowing to cheney's homies and blackwater.
if obama wants to do that in afghanistan (which seems to be what he's said he wants to do) he should have his head examined.
Rep. Tierney states that "What if we had to tell families [of U.S. soldiers] why we are in Afghanistan..." Bingo. The truth, of course, is that there is absolutely no valid reason whatsoever for U.S. soldiers to be occupying Afghanistan and to be dropping 500 lb. American bombs on innocent Afghan civilians. The United States is most loath to tell its military personnel that they [as I was in Viet Nam] are not fighting for their country. On the contrary, the soldiers are grinding their heels down on an oppressed people in order to justify the lies that they were given by their corrupt government. And that includes Barack Obama, who continues to thank American service members for their "sacrifice" when, if he had an ounce of courage and truth, would be thanking those service members who have refused to participate in the brutalization and terrorization of the Afghan people.
Afghans-resist- the American Empire.
American soldiers-say NO to the occupation of Afghanistan.
You are wrong my friend.
What are you going to do with so many bombs, guns etc.?
They are paving the way for MacDonald, Walmart, Subway, the different Pizza franchises and other upstanding and above reproach US corporations.
Andrew G.
It is unclear if your comments are intended as irony or are supposed to be taken seriously. I fail to understand how America's lethal weapons are supposed to "... pave [ing] the way for MacDonald [sic], Walmart, Subway,..." The United states does not belong in Afghanistan killing Afghan civilians. The quicker America leaves [which, unfortunately, does not appear to be anytime soon] the more Afghans that can be spared the news that their loved ones have been blown apart by American bombs. If your comments are intended as humor, I find, as a former Vietnam veteran, no humor at all in seeing the United States once again committing war crimes, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity.
Sven Lindqvist makes this point quite effectively in his book A History of Bombing. If only Barack Obama, the former [alleged] antiwar candidate, would take the time to read this most important and relevant book [as well as Marilyn Young's Bombing Civilians].
Errol: Irony should never be confused with humour.
As for your former condition I understand, but others have also gone through different but similar Hells.
In any event if you feel so strongly may I ask you what have you done to prevent your government from once again embarking on this path, and I would ask you further, have you publicized the American crimes in Vietnam and elsewhere, since you were a participant???????
Please note that the upstanding U S corporations which I mentioned earlier are already doing a fair business in Iraq, another victim of the United States.
I would like to say that the purpose of these writings is not a slanging match but rather a way of tossing ideas and perhaps
seeking clarity in power politics.
Americans trying to police Afghanistan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZBdxvego1E&fe...
The article is about guns gone missing, not driver's training. Besides, Afghanistan is landlocked.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lOyZKmRRuI
So??????????????????????
Don't worry! They'll show up eventually on our streets. This is Republican Christian terrorism in action, lovely, isn't it?
You are probably right!
Their supposed 'incompetence' sure does benefit the industrial military complex an awful lot. As long as there is any easy narrative for weak and timid Americans to swallow. Investigative Journalism is hard to come by. Connecting the dots is almost non-existent among the paid journalists of this Country. Sad state of affairs and look where its getting us. Shameful. Ignorant.
Mr. Marley was not only a fine artist but also a wise man!!!!!
We've been hearing a lot lately about we no longer manufacture things here in the US, and for the most part we sure don't. But it seems the one thing we do manufacture is war, or I should say wars. We make wars in other countries and then hell, we can't even run those right. My grandmother would say this whole country needs a good talking to.
...that will be used to blow you up tomorrow. What a pathetic excuse for responsibility.
Heads should be rolling, court martials ought to be flying through the word processors as fast as they can be made.
We wonder how Mexico has 90% of their weapons from the US? NO GUN CONTROL of any sort, at any level of use. Just keep stamping 'em out, and we'll be sure the rest of the world is able to kill each other and US.
This looks like a job for:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq9jSCkuYfw
Or even
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdmbQ3DRZ1M
"ONE THIRD of all the weapons procured for the Afghan security forces are missing and can be presumed sold onto the black market."
That is one heck of a damning statement to begin this post. Unfortunately, if you follow the links, it is also not a statement justified by those links. There is no report or even quotes that indicate 1/3 of the weapons were even sold, much less on the black market. The report indicates our military did not always keep proper track of what they did with weapons arriving in Afghanistan and when they did the Afghans to who the weapons were turned over did not. That is bad enough in itself. But it is a bit of an overstaement to say the weapons are missing and presumed sold in the black market.
I enjoy the game of offbeat commentary when the issues are politics, but when the issue is torture or killing people I rarely kid around. Unfortunately I am finding that it is important to follow the links on these issues because they reveal a lot more than do the posts.
http://www.achievement.org/achievers/how0/lar...
http://img.diariodelviajero.com/2008/04/barne...
There's your dots fer ya.
were never in question there. Just Aunt Bea's culinary skill.
http://www.tvland.com/photogallery/photos/Bar...
Sounds to me like you wanna see Aunt Bea in a transparent nightgown.
http://www.sfgate.com/blogs/images/sfgate/par...
but don't want to end up in a pickel with the site-monitor.
The very same thing happened in Iraq, as I noted and linked. Most of the missing weapons did indeed turn up in the black market, sometimes because of local corruption but sometimes because senior US officers in the region took money to look the other way.
You think they're all in lost-n-found at Bagram Airbase, maybe?
Regards, C
Their dawgs ate them.
I found it interesting that different outfits of the US military
felt compelled to race to the airport in Baghdad on hearing rumors of arriving weapons just to make sure they got their share.
A whole lot of this is Josesph Heller stuff that has been a problem with military procurement since time began.
Since the Afghan economy feeds on the drug trade I would say the war on drugs and terror are an endless do loop of death and corruption that would be funny if it were not so sick.
Here ya go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dL7v3A2uKk
used that clip before. It would never be totally off thread
here if you just wait until three have commented.
Whose more corrupt?
The ill fed poor Afghanis or the well fed rich American officers?
I fully appreciate the second are trying to save the first and show them the western way forward but this is ridiculous.
I am sure that their philosophy is that guns do not kill people only people do that.
Take note: It's the bargain basement in the same location.
Cheers
Perhaps you should connect a few more dots. It seems odd that as happened in Iraq and countless other war scenarios, the U S Military once again lost track of many of its weapons.
Paraphrasing Oscar Wild: To have lost them once is a tragedy, to do so more times........
Pray tell me where your presume these weapons ended??
I presume everything going to Afghanistan is going into a black hole. Whether is ends up on the "free market" or the "black market" is immaterial. Nothing good is coming of it. But I offer that as a mere comment with no pretense that it is accurate.
Si señor. Presumption like Occupation is 9/10's of the Law.
Agreed.
Correction-Last sentence in connecting dots: For YOUR read YOU.Thank you.
I don't want to end up selling $60.000. kitchens.
although I am a damn fine cook.
Is that a a hint?
The house passed the stimulus bill without one single republican voting for it.
As we have seen in the past, the republicans always know what is best for the country. Just ask them about the invasion of Iraq, the crazy assed spending that war has costed our country. Yeah, they are amazing when it comes to finances.
Seems this scenario is oft repeated. Still recall something about things going "missing" in Vietnam too. And Korea. And everywhere else US soldiers seem to go. Now why would that happen? They wouldn't want to prolong violence and justify future bloodshed? Naw, I must be just being cynical. LOL.
Maybe they really sold the weapons, and "i lost them" is just their excuse. These are the "Contra Afair" guys running the show still. They'll keep getting us in trouble until they are prosecuted.
Business is business!
Democracy, free market and other American values.
The American forces are teaching the Afghans the finer points of commerce.
Never engage in a land war in Asia?
..W!
Soon there will be Burger Kings and McD's all over Afghanistan, with teenage Taliban asking if you would like fries........or else.
Looks like a job for:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuxEwEZv3sw
to wonder if incidents like this, and the trillions in transactions that rummy claimed couldn't be accounted for in the pentagon, along with the missing billions in Iraq, might be the result of the titans of the shadow financial system creating their own little shadow military. Or does it?
I've seen so many things come to light and proven to be true in the past few years that I never would have expected, that I don't see much difference between a so-called conspiracy theorist and a down-right realist any more.
How can the Military Industrial Complex justify the Afghan war unless they create more enemies? Why else would the Pentagon be bombing weddings and giving away small arms to the survivors?
because we can't trust those pesky Afghans to bomb their selves.
What infuriates me is that this has been going on for years. Petraeus (and plenty of others) should be in the hoosegow, not running the show.
More indications that the purpose of the "War on Terror" is to create more terror.
want to see Bush Administration officials investigated and prosecuted for breaking federal laws.
This article is a REALLY GOOD REASON for why people feel that way.
The war in Afghanistan is about control of the heroin trade. There is nothing else of value there to foreigners.
Your title states 'US Weapons", but ins't the picture you show a foreign handgun? It appears to be a copy of a Makarov.
Property has nothing to do with origin.
How many Americans were "made" outside US territory?
Regards
But the 110,000 missing AK-47s in Iraq were paid for by Us taxpayers' dollars
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