[NYTr] Iraq: US "loses" Another 12,000 Weapons and Trucks

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

The Herald (Edinburgh, Scotland) - Dec 17, 2007
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/other/display.var.1908328.0.US_Army_loses_another_12_000_guns_and_trucks.php


US Army loses another 12,000 guns and trucks

by Ian Bruce

The US military in Iraq has lost track of another 12,000 weapons,
including more than 800 machine-guns, and everything from 2100 new
electricity generators to half a dozen garbage trucks.

The latest gap in record-keeping follows a report by the US
government's accountability office in the summer which revealed that
190,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles and automatic pistols earmarked for
Iraqi government forces had gone astray in 2004 and 2005 and could be
in insurgent hands.

The US Defence Department said an audit between March and May this year
could trace only £41m-worth of armoured vehicles and other equipment
worth more than £500m which was supposed to be part of Iraq's police
and army training and outfitting package. advertisement

Items which had disappeared without leaving a paper trail included 2300
rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 7000 pistols and 18 heavy recovery
vehicles worth £5m.

More than 2100 of 2900 electricity generators - scarce and expensive in
a country where mains supplies have become erratic - have also
vanished. They cost £3.5m to buy.

Six modern garbage trucks from a delivery of 18 on Baghdad's
rubbish-strewn streets could not be located. They were valued at
£350,000.

The auditors said that the Multi-National Security Command Iraq could
not give reasonable assurance that money for the Iraqi forces was being
used properly and properly protected from "waste and mismanagement".