30 percent of arms are unaccounted for, GAO
estimates
The Pentagon has lost track of about 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles
and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005,
according to a new government report, raising fears that some of
those weapons have fallen into the hands of insurgents fighting
U.S. forces in Iraq.
The report from the Government Accountability Office indicates that
U.S. military officials do not know what happened to 30 percent of
the weapons the United States distributed to Iraqi forces from 2004
through early this year as part of an effort to train and equip the
troops. The highest previous estimate of unaccounted-for weapons
was 14,000, in a report issued last year by the inspector general
for Iraq reconstruction.
The United States has spent $19.2 billion trying to develop Iraqi
security forces since 2003, the GAO said, including at least $2.8
billion to buy and deliver equipment. But the GAO said weapons
distribution was haphazard and rushed and failed to follow
established procedures, particularly from 2004 to 2005, when
security training was led by Gen. David H. Petraeus, who now
commands all U.S. forces in Iraq.
The Pentagon did not dispute the GAO findings, saying it has
launched its own investigation and indicating it is working to
improve tracking. Although controls have been tightened since 2005,
the inability of the United States to track weapons with tools such
as serial numbers makes it nearly impossible for the U.S. military
to know whether it is battling an enemy equipped by American
taxpayers.
No idea where they are
"They really have no idea where they are," said Rachel Stohl, a
senior analyst at the Center for Defense Information who has
studied small-arms trade and received Pentagon briefings on the
issue. "It likely means that the United States is unintentionally
providing weapons to bad actors."
One senior Pentagon official acknowledged that some of the weapons
probably were being used against U.S. forces. He cited the Iraqi
brigade created at Fallujah that quickly dissolved in September
2004 and turned its weapons against the Americans.
Stohl said that insurgents frequently use small-arms fire to force
military convoys to move in a particular direction -- often toward
roadside bombs that target troops and vehicles. She noted that the
Bush administration frequently complains that Iran and Syria are
supplying insurgents but has paid little attention to whether U.S.
military errors inadvertently play a role. "We know there is
seepage and very little is being done to address the problem," she
said.
Stohl noted that U.S. forces, focused on a fruitless search for
weapons of mass destruction after Baghdad fell, failed to secure
massive weapons caches. The failure to track small arms given to
Iraqi forces repeats that pattern of neglect, she added.
The GAO is studying the financing and weapons sources of insurgent
groups, but that report will not be made public. "All of that
information is classified," said Joseph A. Christoff, the GAO's
director of international affairs and trade.
In an unusual move, the train-and-equip program for Iraqi forces is
being managed by the Pentagon. Normally, the traditional security
assistance programs are operated by the State Department, the GAO
reported. The Defense Department said this change permitted greater
flexibility, but as of last month it was unable able to tell the
GAO what accountability procedures, if any, apply to arms
distributed to Iraqi forces, the report said.
Iraqi security forces were virtually nonexistent in early 2004, and
in June of that year Petraeus was brought in to build them up. No
central record of distributed equipment was kept for a year and a
half, until December 2005, and even now the records are on a
spreadsheet that requires three computer screens lined up side by
side to view a single row, Christoff said.
The GAO found that the military was consistently unable to collect
supporting documents to "confirm when the equipment was received,
the quantities of equipment delivered, and the Iraqi units
receiving the equipment." The agency also said there were "numerous
mistakes due to incorrect manual entries" in the records that were
maintained.
The GAO reached the estimate of 190,000 missing arms -- 110,000
AK-47s and 80,000 pistols -- by comparing the property records of
the Multi-National Security Transition Command for Iraq against
records Petraeus maintained of the arms and equipment he had
ordered. Petraeus's figures were compared with classified data and
other records to ensure that it was accurate enough to compare
against the property books.
In all cases, the gaps between the two records were enormous.
Petraeus reported that about 185,000 AK-47 rifles, 170,000 pistols,
215,000 pieces of body armor and 140,000 helmets were issued to
Iraqi security forces from June 2004 through September 2005. But
the property books contained records for 75,000 AK-47 rifles,
90,000 pistols, 80,000 pieces of body armor and 25,000
helmets.
A military commander involved in the program at the time, speaking
on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss
the report, acknowledged in an e-mail, "We did issue some items,
including weapons, body armor, etc. to new Iraqi units that were
literally going into battle."
Not much of a choice early on
But, the commander argued, "there was, frankly, not much of a
choice early on: We had very little staff and could have held the
weapons until every piece of the logistical and property
accountability system was in place, or we could issue them, in bulk
on some occasions, to the U.S. elements supporting Iraqi units who
were needed in the battles of Najaf, Fallujah, Mosul, Samarra,
etc."
The GAO plans to look for similar problems in the training of
Afghan security forces.
During the Bosnian conflict, the United States provided about $100
million in defense equipment to the Bosnian Federation Army, and
the GAO found no problems in accounting for those weapons.
Much of the equipment provided to Iraqi troops, including the
AK-47s, originates from countries in the former Soviet bloc. In a
report last year, Amnesty International said that in 2004 and 2005
more than 350,000 AK-47 rifles and similar weapons were taken out
of Bosnia and Serbia, for use in Iraq, by private contractors
working for the Pentagon and with the approval of NATO and European
security forces in Bosnia.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20137021/