Pretty easy. They sell off their gear like crazy.
I had a special forces buddy, he worked on this mission called the African Response Initiative. Basically equipping and training a fast response brigade in Africa so foreign peacekeepers wouldn't be needed. Within a year year they had sold off their uniforms, weapons and commo gear. -----Original Message----- From: Tony [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, August 06, 2007 11:22 AM To: CF-Community Subject: Re: FW: Pentagon loses track of weapons for Iraqi forces tim, how hard would this be to happen? tw On 8/6/07, Larry Lyons <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > where oh where have my little guns gone. Oh where or where can they be... > > a few hundred possible but 190,000 rifles and pistols. that's extreme to say the least. > > http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2007-08- 06T044928Z_01_N06371111_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-USA-WEAPONS.xml > > Pentagon loses track of weapons for Iraqi forces > Mon Aug 6, 2007 12:49 AM ET > > By David Morgan > > WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon cannot account for 190,000 AK-47 rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, or about half the weapons earmarked for soldiers and police, according to a government report. > > The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress, said in a July 31 report to lawmakers that the Defense Department also cannot account for 135,000 items of body armor and 115,000 helmets reported to be issued to Iraqi forces as of September 22, 2005. > > The GAO said the Pentagon concurred with its findings and has begun a review to ensure full accountability for the program to train and equip Iraqi forces. > > "However, our review of the 2007 property books found continuing problems with missing and incomplete records," the GAO report said. > > The report raised concerns that weapons provided by the United States could be falling into the hands of Iraqi insurgents, just as lawmakers and policymakers in Washington await a September report on the success of U.S. President George W. Bush's surge strategy for stabilizing Baghdad. > > One senior Pentagon official told The Washington Post some weapons probably were being used against U.S. troops. He said an Iraqi brigade created in Fallujah disintegrated in 2004 and began fighting American soldiers. > > Many in Washington view the development of effective Iraqi army and police forces as a vital step toward reducing the number of U.S. troops in Iraq. > > Since 2003, the United States has provided about $19.2 billion to develop Iraqi security forces, the GAO said. The Defense Department has recently asked for another $2 billion to continue the train-and-equip program. > > Congress funded the program for Iraqi security forces outside traditional security assistance programs, providing the Pentagon with a large degree of flexibility in managing the effort, the GAO said. > > "Officials stated that since the funding did not go through traditional security assistance programs, the DOD accountability requirements normally applicable to these programs did not apply," the GAO report said. > > Military officials in Iraq reported issuing 355,000 weapons to Iraqi security forces from June 2004 through September 2005, including 185,000 rifles and 170,000 pistols, the GAO said. > > But the Defense Department could not account for 110,000 rifles and 80,000 pistols, the GAO said. Those sums amount to about 54 percent of the total weapons distributed to the Iraqi forces. > > The GAO quoted officials as saying the agency responsible for handling weapons distribution was too short-staffed to record information on individual items given to Iraqi forces. > > Accountability procedures also could not be fully implemented because of the need to equip Iraqi forces rapidly for combat operations, the GAO found. > > (c) Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world. > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Get involved in the latest ColdFusion discussions, product development sharing, and articles on the Adobe Labs wiki. http://labs/adobe.com/wiki/index.php/ColdFusion_8 Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:239610 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
