US commander [Petraeus] says 190,000 missing US guns went to Iraqi forces

[rodeodance]

Source: afp




US commander says 190,000 missing US guns went to Iraqi forces

2 hours, 1 minute ago

BAGHDAD (AFP) - US commander in Iraq David Petraeus said Tuesday he believes 190,000 unaccounted-for pistols and AK-47 assault rifles were issued to Iraqi police and soldiers.


"We believe those weapons all certainly were given to Iraqi units," he told Fox News Radio.

However, the US military has no record of where they went, he conceded, according to an advance transcript of his interview with the Alan Colmes show to be broadcast later Tuesday.

"We weren't going to stay there in the dark and make guys do a serial-number inventory and sign them up and that is what happened," the general said

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070807/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestusweapons_070807233839;_ylt=AsPRGm_H1fnNUWYxpIY663.s0NUE

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Well, I BELIEVE YOU?-----no records of where they went!

[saigon68]

1. The Iraqi "Resistance" Forces

LOL

[MadMaddie]

2. Can you say cover up? Bullshit...if this is true they should be

able to go to every Iraqi soldiar and trace each weapon to a manifest.

<snip>
"We believe those weapons all certainly were given to Iraqi units," he told Fox News Radio.
<snip>

I don't want what he thinks happened I want the documented proof. They just keep getting away with this bullshit. He should be court martialed for deriliction of duty, He is ultimately responsible.

He goes on Fox news because he knows they will not ask tough follow up questions.

[MannyGoldstein]

3. Well What Happened To The MILLIONS Of Pounds Of Iraqi Explosives...

That we chose to not guard or destroy?

I guess we're finding that out each day.

[Ian David]

4. In the dark? Oh, yeah. I forgot. The Iraqi police station has no electricity.

"We're not going to stand there in the dark with untreated sewage falling on our heads while we check serial numbers outside the safety of our Mall of America style embassy."

[TheCowsCameHome]

5. This should be treated as a MAJOR scandal

Those weapons are being probably being used against the US.

How do 190,000 AK's "disappear"?

[gulliver]

6. On whose orders were the weapons distributed that way?

I thought the military did things with orders. So is Petraeus saying that it was OK, and he's going to keep on just handing out AK-47s to Iraqis and not even bothering to keep notes?

[stillcool]

7. I found some of them...

US Arming Sunnis in Iraq to Battle Old Qaeda Allies
By John F. Burns and Alissa J. Rubin
New York Times
June 11, 2007

With the four-month-old increase in American troops showing only modest success in curbing insurgent attacks, American commanders are turning to another strategy that they acknowledge is fraught with risk: arming Sunni Arab groups that have promised to fight militants linked with Al Qaeda who have been their allies in the past.

American commanders say they have successfully tested the strategy in Anbar Province west of Baghdad and have held talks with Sunni groups in at least four areas of central and north-central Iraq where the insurgency has been strong. In some cases, the American commanders say, the Sunni groups are suspected of involvement in past attacks on American troops or of having links to such groups. Some of these groups, they say, have been provided, usually through Iraqi military units allied with the Americans, with arms, ammunition, cash, fuel and supplies.

American officers who have engaged in what they call outreach to the Sunni groups say many of them have had past links to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia but grew disillusioned with the Islamic militants’ extremist tactics, particularly suicide bombings that have killed thousands of Iraqi civilians. In exchange for American backing, these officials say, the Sunni groups have agreed to fight Al Qaeda and halt attacks on American units. Commanders who have undertaken these negotiations say that in some cases, Sunni groups have agreed to alert American troops to the location of roadside bombs and other lethal booby traps.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But critics of the strategy, including some American officers, say it could amount to the Americans’ arming both sides in a future civil war. The United States has spent more than $15 billion in building up Iraq’s army and police force, whose manpower of 350,000 is heavily Shiite. With an American troop drawdown increasingly likely in the next year, and little sign of a political accommodation between Shiite and Sunni politicians in Baghdad, the critics say, there is a risk that any weapons given to Sunni groups will eventually be used against Shiites. There is also the possibility the weapons could be used against the Americans themselves.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/11/world/middleeast/11iraq.html?ex=1339214400&en=7c69d70a25a4828e&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[RamboLiberal]

9. If you saw the CNN report from Michael Ware a few weeks ago

these militias we're arming are nothing but murdering thugs. They showed video that had been smuggled out that showed them executing a prisoner and beating the crap out of others, kicking them, etc.

WARE: And this is Anbar.

Grainy video, posted two weeks ago, on an Islamist Web site shows U.S.-aligned militia unloading another al Qaeda prisoner from a police pickup. The man in charge asks his prisoner if he killed someone called Khalid (ph), and then, taunting, tells him, to say hi to Khalid for me.

Cursing their prisoner, the makeshift firing squad leads him to a spot near an embankment. And he's executed.

(GUNFIRE)

WARE: Why would these insurgents and tribesmen turn on al Qaeda to work with the Americans? The answer, power, money, contracts and control over their neighborhoods.

And while few mourn the deaths of al Qaeda fighters anywhere, summary executions and excessive force by militias, sponsored by the U.S., is not something American commanders say they condone nor seek.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0707/19/acd.01.html

[stillcool]

12. I can't imagine...

living in a war zone all these years...I think about the troops when they eventually come home, their lives, themselves.. forever changed by merely existing in such an environment...and all the lives they will touch that will have it's impact. The Iraqi's..I can't even go there.

[whistle]

8. The majority of these weapons and ammunition has gone to the private

...reThuglicon armies like Blackwater. The Iraqi security losses are a deflection!

[catnhatnh]

10. Horse F--k--g C--k...

As a private the US Army managed to charge me $13 two years later for an air mattress I lost in basic training.At the flaky end of Viet-nam a lost hand grenade in the states would cause a major inquery...Ignoring the stupidity and scope of the weapons lost-How the hell do you distribute 100,000 weapons in the dark? Were the rules "come see me when the lights go down???"

[0007]

15. The government is so good at the small stuff, they still inventory

paper clips and pencils.

[Az_lefty]

11. don't worry, the missing weapons are in good hands...

:puke:

[mcg]

13. The words "believe" and "certainly" do not go together. nt

[IndianaGreen]

17. except that General Petraeus believes in faith-based accounting

just as much as he believes in faith-based military doctrine.

He's a loser!

[caligirl]

14. how many Iraqi troops went awol? check their houses.they just never returned them.

[WCGreen]

16. Srgt. Shultz at the Ammo Dump.....