More Weapons for Iraq Security Forces Likely Missing, Amnesty International Says In Wake of GAO Rep

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Source: PRNewswire

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A recent Government Accountability Office report revealed that the Pentagon cannot account for 30 percent of the weapons that the United States distributed to Iraqi forces from 2004 to early 2007. According to Amnesty International research, additional hundreds of thousands of U.S. approved arms transfers from Bosnia to Iraq could also be missing. Amnesty International fears this shipment may be in the hands of human rights abusers inside or outside Iraq.

In a May 2006 report, Dead on Time http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engact300082006, Amnesty International revealed that Taos Inc., a U.S. company with multiple U.S. Department of Defense contracts, subcontracted to a Moldovian/Ukrainian company called Aerocom to transport hundreds of thousands of arms from Bosnia to Iraq between July 31, 2004, and June 31, 2005, for Iraqi security forces. U.S. military air traffic controllers in Iraq, however, said Aerocom never requested landing slots to touch down in the country. Aerocom smuggled weapons to Liberia in 2002 and was operating without a valid license in 2004, according to the U.N. Security Council.



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