The military can supposedly trace serial #s of Iranian weapons in Iraq but can't track their own

[bigtree]

They have the gall to change the subject and accuse Iran of arming and training insurgents. When are they going to be held accountable for flooding Iraq with weapons, igniting the violence and fueling Iraq's civil war? When are they going to be held accountable for the injuries and deaths which have come from those weapons they lost, and for the Iraqis they trained and armed that they've lost track of?


here's a NTY account from today: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/08/world/middleeast/08military.html?ei=5088&en=7de3578308651728&ex=1344225600&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print

General Odierno said Iranians had also provided Shiite groups with 107-millimeter rockets and the launchers for firing them, as well as 122-millimeter mortars.

American forces, he said, recently thwarted an attack at a military base used by forces from the Third Infantry Division. Fifty launchers equipped with rockets were discovered within range of the facility and struck by allied aircraft. Serial numbers taken from the rocket launchers, he said, indicated that they were made in Iran.


Weapons coming into Iraq from their next-door neighbor, Iran (and security partner with the new regime), are infinitely more understandable than the weapons deliberately proliferated into Iraq by the U.S..


US loses track of 190,000 weapons
http://www.brunei-online.com/bb/wed/aug8w9.htm

[babylonsister]

1. What a GREAT point, bigtree! Things that make you go hmmm. Rec'd. nt

[spanone]

2. the propaganda surge is on

iran iran iran......for the next month we will hear all the horror the white house can conjure.

[The Stranger]

3. You hit a home run with this one.

[screembloodymurder]

4. Great point!

What a bunch of hypocrites.

[Spazito]

5. Excellent point!!

Recommended.

[Help me help Earth]

6. To be fair, the US didn't lose 190,000 weapons,

the Iraqi government did. As soon as we hand them over, they are not our responsibility. Unfortunately, we handed them over to one of the least responsible governments out there.

[bigtree]

8. no. They were deliberately flooded into Iraq

I think, to some extent, to foment the chaos in Iraq which would justify Bush's posturing as liberator and protector

[babylonsister]

9. Who made the decision to hand them over? You talk about

an irresponsible government? You need look no further than your own back yard.

[daninthemoon]

7. What's going to happen to all the arms we're sending Saudi?

These bastards lit a fire in Iraq and now they're throwing on gasoline. They want this region to be at war, and will do anything to prolong it.

[zabet]

10. K and R

The 'lost' weapons were funneled to enemy factions to enable
Buschco to 'propaganderize' war with Iran. :tinfoilhat:

[lpbk2713]

11. Can they trace the serial numbers of those pallet loads of $100 bills ...

that disappeared after the BushCo regime sent them in to a hot combat zone?

[lazyriver]

12. The title of this post alone deserves a rec.

Wish I could recommend it twice.

[bigtree]

13. More Weapons for Iraq Security Forces Missing, Amnesty International Says In Wake of GAO Report

In Exchanges with Pentagon, Amnesty Notes Department of Defense Allowed
Subcontractor who Smuggled Arms to Liberia to Facilitate Arms Shipment to
Iraq

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 -- 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.

Colby Goodman, program manager for Amnesty International's child
soldiers and arms transfers program, is available to discuss the report and
give background information.

In a series of exchanges with the Pentagon, Amnesty International has
noted that various U.S. government department contracts contain a clause
stipulating that actors previously involved in criminal activities should
not be recipients of U.S. government funding. Amnesty International has
previously expressed concern about the U.S. Department of Defense's new
authority to train and equip security forces in Iraq and 16 other
countries. The latest system does not have the same level of controls as
other U.S. arms exporting mechanisms. Without similar safeguards, the
Pentagon runs the risk of facilitating illegal or irresponsible arms deals
to anywhere in the world.


Chronology of Correspondence with the Department of Defense

May 2006
AI released a report mentioning an episode in which Taos Inc.
subcontracted U.S. government-funded arms transportation contracts to
Aerocom. Four Aerocom flights departed Eagle Base, Bosnia & Herzegovina,
with flight plans filed for Baghdad International Airport, Iraq. Yet there
were no records of the flights landing. Taos Inc. executives told Amnesty
International that Aerocom did not appear on any U.S. government list that
forbid interaction with the company, placing the onus on the U.S.
government to determine whether an arms transporter/broker meets the
requisite security, integrity and ethical standards.

September 28, 2006
Amnesty International contacted the U.S. Department of Defense
requesting information on the current policies and regulations which
attempt to prevent arms transactions with actors with criminal records, as
well as measures currently under discussion which may assist in limiting
the involvement of such actors in future U.S. government contracts.

April 6, 2007
Amnesty International received a reply from the U.S. Department of
Defense to its September letter indicating the Pentagon's intent to
investigate whether the U.S. Department of Defense was involved in
contracting arms shipments from Bosnia to Iraq. The Pentagon indicated that
it had already conducted an assessment to determine whether controls
governing U.S. Department of Defense contracted arms shipments need to be
updated.

May 17, 2007
Amnesty International wrote to the U.S. Department of Defense
concerning oversight and control of several legal arms shipments to Iraq
and Afghanistan.

August 2007
Amnesty International is still awaiting a reply from the Pentagon
regarding its investigation into the Bosnia-to-Iraq weapons shipments and
steps the U.S. Department of Defense is taking to prevent similar
irresponsible arms transactions.

Amnesty International has asked the Department of Defense to determine
what happened to the weapons that Taos/Aerocom agreed to transfer to Iraq,
and to assure Amnesty International that the weapons are under a
responsible entity's control. Amnesty International has also asked the
Pentagon to ensure that it does not fund those in the arms brokering and
transportation industry that have violated a U.N. arms embargo or
participated in criminal activities.


http://news.amnesty.org/

[Phrogman]

14. Do you people really think those weapons were lost unintentionally?

And that the Iraqi army was sent home with their weapons "unintentionally"
And that 400 tons of high explosives were left unguarded "unintentionally"

And that the air cover over New York and Washington DC on 9/11 was "unintentionally" out of town for training.....