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F-14 Parts Sold Despite Sales Ban •
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US Cannot Account for 190,000 Guns in Iraq: Report
Agence France-Presse
Wednesday 01 August 2007
The US government cannot account for 190,000 weapons issued to Iraqi security
forces in 2004 and 2005, according to an investigation carried out by the Government
Accountability Office.
According to the July 31 report, the military "cannot fully account for
about 110,000 AK-47 assault rifles, 80,000 pistols, 135,000 items of body armour
and 115,000 helmets reported as issued to Iraqi forces."
The weapons disappeared from records between June 2004 and September 2005,
as the military struggled to rebuild the disbanded Iraqi forces from scratch
amid increasing attacks from Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias.
Since 2004 the military "has not consistently collected supporting records
confirming the dates the equipment was received, the quantities of equipment
delivered, or the Iraqi units receiving the items," the report said.
"Since 2006 the command has placed greater emphasis on collecting the
supporting documents. However, GAO's review of the January 2007 property books
found continuing problems with missing and incomplete records."
US commanders often accuse foreign powers such as Iran of supplying arms to
illegal militias fighting in Iraq, but the report shows they cannot fully account
for the hundreds thousands of weapons they brought in themselves.
Last month, Turkey raised concerns over reports that separatist Kurdish guerrillas
launching cross-border raids from northern Iraq had received US-supplied guns
supposedly destined for Iraqi security forces.
Brigadier General Kevin Bergner, spokesman for the US-led military in Iraq,
said the Americans were working hard with their Iraqi partners to improve accountability
and increase the security of weapons.
"We are working very hard with the government of Iraq and Iraqi security
forces at every level to increase the accountability and to increase the security
of the weapons that are provided to the Iraqi forces," he said.
The United States has spent 19.2 billion dollars (14 billion euros) on Iraq's
security forces since the 2003 invasion to oust Saddam Hussein, with 2.8 billion
dollars (2 billion euros) devoted to equipping them.
The report comes as US President George W. Bush is under intense pressure from
a Democrat-led Congress and critics within his own Republican party to show
progress on Iraq, with many in both parties calling for withdrawal.
But the ability of Iraqi forces to stabilise the country in the wake of a US
troop drawdown has been called into question, most recently by a mid-July progress
report issued by the White House.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government "has made unsatisfactory progress
toward increasing the number of Iraqi security forces units capable of operating
independently," that report said.
The report also found "no momentum in the government of Iraq toward developing
and implementing a comprehensive disarmament programme for militia members"
from Iraq's divided communities.
Four years after the 2003 US-led invasion the country remains in the grip of
several overlapping conflicts, and Iraqi security forces, particularly the police,
are widely believed to be infiltrated by rival militias.
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F-14 Parts Sold Despite Sales Ban
By Sharon Theimer
The Associated Press
Wednesday 01 August 2007
The Pentagon sold more than a thousand aircraft parts that could be used on
F-14 fighter jets - a plane flown only by Iran - after announcing
it had halted sales of such surplus, government investigators say.
In a report Wednesday, the Government Accountability Office, the investigative
arm of Congress, said the Defense Department had improved security in its surplus
program to prevent improper sales of sensitive items.
But investigators found that roughly 1,400 parts that could be used on F-14
"Tomcat" fighter jets were sold to the public in February. That came
after the Pentagon announced it had suspended sales of all parts that could
be used on the Tomcat while it reviewed security concerns.
Iran, trying to maintain its F-14s, is aggressively seeking components from
the retired U.S. Tomcat fleet.
The Pentagon's surplus sales division - the Defense Reutilization and
Marketing Service - told investigators the parts were sold because it
failed to update an automated control list and remove the aircraft parts before
they were listed on its Internet sales site.
The GAO's investigation focused on F-14 parts. Iran is known to be seeking
those, and if the parts were publicly available, it could endanger national
security, Greg Kutz, the GAO's managing director of special investigations,
wrote. Iran has managed to obtain U.S. spares in the past, he said.
Kutz said he does not know if any of the Tomcat parts sold in February made
it to Iran. The GAO forwarded details about some of the sales to federal law
enforcement for possible investigation, he said.
"Overall I think it's a positive report, but there are still things that
got out," Kutz said in an interview.
A Democratic senator said the report shows why legislation he proposed that
would ban the sale of all F-14 parts is needed.
"The Pentagon's system is still riddled with holes," Oregon Sen.
Ron Wyden said. "These are the very parts that they said they wouldn't
be selling and they still are and so you've got to make sure the changes are
going to actually have teeth and work."
The Defense Department said in January that it was suspending sales of all
F-14 parts, including those that could be used on multiple types of aircraft,
while the Pentagon reviewed security.
That announcement came a few weeks after an investigative report by The Associated
Press found weaknesses in surplus-sale security had allowed buyers for Iran,
China and other countries to obtain sensitive U.S. military gear including missile
components and parts for the Tomcat and Chinook helicopter.
The congressional investigators also looked at sensitive military leftovers
in general that were supposed to be destroyed rather than sold in Pentagon surplus
auctions.
In the first month of their inquiry, last September, they found the Pentagon
had sold 295 items to the public that were supposed to be destroyed. But after
that, though several items that were supposed to be destroyed were posted on
the surplus Web site as for sale, they were spotted and removed before they
were sold, the report said.
The military's surplus service told the GAO that between last August and May,
about 2.4 million individual pieces of sensitive surplus were removed from public
sale.
The new GAO report comes as a surplus dealer trade association accuses the
Pentagon of overreacting to security concerns and wasting taxpayer money by
junking thousands of items unrelated to the F-14. That includes leftover gear
the group says its members used to buy and sell back to the military when it
was needed quickly.
The Defense Department says the allegations are untrue. The surplus dealers
want Congress to force the Pentagon to do a better job separating sensitive
scrap from items that are safe to sell.
Wyden said he understands the group's concerns.
"I think our legislation speaks to some of their philosophy that the Pentagon
has bumbled to the point where they can't make the distinction" between
sensitive and innocuous surplus, Wyden said.
The F-14 legislation sponsored by Wyden and Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords
of Arizona has passed the House and is pending in the Senate.
Wyden said he will try to attach it to a defense funding bill that the Senate
is expected to consider next month. The lawmakers sponsored the bill in reaction
to the AP's story on surplus security.
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On the Net:
Government Accountability Office: http://www.gao.gov
Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service: http://www.drms.dla.mil/
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