.Report Cites Lax Control of U.S. Weapons in Afghanistan
Tens of thousands of assault rifles and other firearms in Afghanistan are at risk of being stolen because U.S. officials failed to keep proper track of them, according to a congressionally ordered audit that warns that some weapons may already be in Taliban hands.
The audit by the Government Accountability Office discovered that inventory controls were faulty or lacking for more than a third of the small arms donated to Afghan armed forces by the United States -- a stockpile that includes heavier weapons such as machineguns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. There were no reliable records for thousands of AK-47 assault rifles and other firearms supplied by NATO allies, the report said.
The report said the same lax controls were applied to night-vision goggles, some of which are known to have turned up in the hands of insurgent groups battling U.S. and NATO forces along the border with Pakistan.
A failure to perform simple accounting practices such as the recording of serial numbers has placed such weapons "at serious risk of theft or loss," said the GAO report, which is expected to presented Thursday to a House oversight panel. A copy of the report was obtained by The Washington Post.
Lawmakers have begun pressing the Pentagon for explanations in advance of the report's official release. Rep. John F. Tierney (D-Mass.) said the failures could lead to American soldiers being killed by insurgents using a weapon purchased by U.S. taxpayers.
"That's what we risk if we were to have tens of thousands of weapons we provided washing around Afghanistan, off the books," Tierney said in a written statement.
A Defense Department spokesman had no immediate response today to the GAO report.
A separate report by the Pentagon last October provides much of the explanation for the vulnerability of Afghanistan's donated weapons stocks: It said that U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan had basically ignored their mandate to ensure the "accountability, control and physical security" of the arms given to Afghan forces under the $11.7 billion aid program, and in particular had neglected to record the weapons' serial numbers so that their fate could be monitored.
The Inspector General's report, commissioned by then-Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, blamed the U.S. Central Command for failing to set appropriate standards and procedures for handling weapons imported into Afghanistan. "As a result . . . the misplacement, loss, or theft of AA&E [arms, ammunition, and explosives] may not be prevented" and Afghan forces may not be receiving what they need, it said.
The report also criticized commanders of the U.S.-led unit charged with training Afghan police and military forces for failing to issue appropriate directives to training teams and mentors.
It said further that the local U.S. office charged with overseeing the $7.4 billion foreign military sales program to Afghanistan is too small and its personnel lack sufficient rank, skills and experience to monitor whether associated arms are being diverted. Just nine persons, led by an Army major, were assigned to oversee a program that disbursed more than $1.7 billion in 2007, in contrast to a team of 77 persons led by a major general who oversaw a similar program in Saudi Arabia that disbursed 60 percent fewer funds.
None of the nine officers in Afghanistan had prior foreign military sales experience, a circumstance the report called improper "given the strategic importance to the United States military effort" of cultivating adequately armed Afghan forces.
The lack of adequate U.S. oversight left a gaping hole because Afghan security forces lack the capability to monitor the flow of military equipment, the Pentagon's inspectors found during their visits in October 2007 and April 2008. The head of the Afghan Army's logistics unit told them he had no idea what arms units had already received, when supplies were arriving or who was sending them.
The problems in Afghanistan mirror those in Iraq, where at least 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols imported into the country by the United States could not be accounted for, according to a GAO report in July 2007. That figure represented roughly 30 percent of all the small arms imported into Iraq for use by local forces in 2004 and 2005.
In that country as well, the U.S. military failed to set and follow appropriate accountability standards, the GAO said. Some of the arms, such as Glock automatic pistols, subsequently fell into the hands of the Kurdistan Worker's Party, or PKK, based partly in the country's north, which Turkey, the United States, and the European Union have labeled a terrorist group. Turkey complained to the Pentagon in 2006 and 2007 that arms diverted from Iraq were being used in crimes and assassinations inside its country.
But Turkey is "satisfied with the efforts of the United States for the time being" to control its arms in Iraq more closely, a Turkish diplomat said today. There is now "a close communication and dialogue" between the two countries on the issue.
In an official response to the Pentagon report, Ellen E. McCarthy, a senior security official in the office of the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, acknowledged that "the theft, sabotage, exploitation or misuse" of arms and explosives in Afghanistan would "gravely jeopardize the safety and security of personnel and installations worldwide." She also agreed that the U.S. Central Command needed to attach a higher priority to the problem.
WaPo
Just like Iraq
The audit by the Government Accountability Office discovered that inventory controls were faulty or lacking for more than a third of the small arms donated to Afghan armed forces by the United States -- a stockpile that includes heavier weapons such as machineguns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. There were no reliable records for thousands of AK-47 assault rifles and other firearms supplied by NATO allies, the report said.
The report said the same lax controls were applied to night-vision goggles, some of which are known to have turned up in the hands of insurgent groups battling U.S. and NATO forces along the border with Pakistan.
A failure to perform simple accounting practices such as the recording of serial numbers has placed such weapons "at serious risk of theft or loss," said the GAO report, which is expected to presented Thursday to a House oversight panel. A copy of the report was obtained by The Washington Post.
Lawmakers have begun pressing the Pentagon for explanations in advance of the report's official release. Rep. John F. Tierney (D-Mass.) said the failures could lead to American soldiers being killed by insurgents using a weapon purchased by U.S. taxpayers.
"That's what we risk if we were to have tens of thousands of weapons we provided washing around Afghanistan, off the books," Tierney said in a written statement.
A Defense Department spokesman had no immediate response today to the GAO report.
A separate report by the Pentagon last October provides much of the explanation for the vulnerability of Afghanistan's donated weapons stocks: It said that U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan had basically ignored their mandate to ensure the "accountability, control and physical security" of the arms given to Afghan forces under the $11.7 billion aid program, and in particular had neglected to record the weapons' serial numbers so that their fate could be monitored.
The Inspector General's report, commissioned by then-Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, blamed the U.S. Central Command for failing to set appropriate standards and procedures for handling weapons imported into Afghanistan. "As a result . . . the misplacement, loss, or theft of AA&E [arms, ammunition, and explosives] may not be prevented" and Afghan forces may not be receiving what they need, it said.
The report also criticized commanders of the U.S.-led unit charged with training Afghan police and military forces for failing to issue appropriate directives to training teams and mentors.
It said further that the local U.S. office charged with overseeing the $7.4 billion foreign military sales program to Afghanistan is too small and its personnel lack sufficient rank, skills and experience to monitor whether associated arms are being diverted. Just nine persons, led by an Army major, were assigned to oversee a program that disbursed more than $1.7 billion in 2007, in contrast to a team of 77 persons led by a major general who oversaw a similar program in Saudi Arabia that disbursed 60 percent fewer funds.
None of the nine officers in Afghanistan had prior foreign military sales experience, a circumstance the report called improper "given the strategic importance to the United States military effort" of cultivating adequately armed Afghan forces.
The lack of adequate U.S. oversight left a gaping hole because Afghan security forces lack the capability to monitor the flow of military equipment, the Pentagon's inspectors found during their visits in October 2007 and April 2008. The head of the Afghan Army's logistics unit told them he had no idea what arms units had already received, when supplies were arriving or who was sending them.
The problems in Afghanistan mirror those in Iraq, where at least 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols imported into the country by the United States could not be accounted for, according to a GAO report in July 2007. That figure represented roughly 30 percent of all the small arms imported into Iraq for use by local forces in 2004 and 2005.
In that country as well, the U.S. military failed to set and follow appropriate accountability standards, the GAO said. Some of the arms, such as Glock automatic pistols, subsequently fell into the hands of the Kurdistan Worker's Party, or PKK, based partly in the country's north, which Turkey, the United States, and the European Union have labeled a terrorist group. Turkey complained to the Pentagon in 2006 and 2007 that arms diverted from Iraq were being used in crimes and assassinations inside its country.
But Turkey is "satisfied with the efforts of the United States for the time being" to control its arms in Iraq more closely, a Turkish diplomat said today. There is now "a close communication and dialogue" between the two countries on the issue.
In an official response to the Pentagon report, Ellen E. McCarthy, a senior security official in the office of the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, acknowledged that "the theft, sabotage, exploitation or misuse" of arms and explosives in Afghanistan would "gravely jeopardize the safety and security of personnel and installations worldwide." She also agreed that the U.S. Central Command needed to attach a higher priority to the problem.
WaPo
Just like Iraq
posted by madtom at 9:00 PM
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