This is how Backlash happens
The U.S. finally suspended military aid to Ukraine today.
In one important way, this happened too late.
More than $1 billion worth of U.S. missiles, drones and other weapons and equipment sent to Ukraine have not been properly tracked by officials, according to a Pentagon report released Thursday.Of a total of $1.69 billion worth of items that require additional layers of tracking and monitoring thanks to their sensitive military technology, a little more than $1 billion — or nearly 60 percent — are not fully accounted for, the report found.
The Defense Department’s inspector general did not say if any such weapons had been misused or diverted after being shipped to Ukraine because “it was beyond the scope of our evaluation to determine whether there has been diversion of such assistance.”
Only recently has Congress taken the potential of U.S. weapons winding up in the hands of terrorists seriously.
In fact, this is an old story. Weapons sent to Syria and Iraq have been stolen for years.
U.S. military outposts in Iraq and Syria are plagued by thefts of weapons and equipment, according to exclusive documents obtained by The Intercept that show militias and criminal gangs are systematically targeting U.S. forces.Military investigations launched earlier this year found that “multiple sensitive weapons and equipment” — including guided missile launch systems as well as drones — have been stolen in Iraq. This follows hundreds of thousands of dollars in military gear that were purloined from U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria between 2020 and 2022, as reported earlier this year by The Intercept.
That's just since 2020. Before 2020 the Army put out this report.
A recent Defense Department inspector general report said the U.S. military did not properly account for or adequately store nearly $715 million in weapons and equipment for vetted Syrian partners fighting ISIS.
...The report did not indicate whether weapons intended for vetted groups may have found their ways into the wrong hands.
Whether a group was "vetted" or not doesn't appear to matter, according to this 2017 report.
Weapons the United States originally supplied to Syrian rebels have ended up in the hands of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), according to a study released Thursday.A 200-paged report by Conflict Armament Research analyzed more than 40,000 weapons retrieved from ISIS in the past three years, finding cases in which the weapons were originally supplied by the United States, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Libya.
Forget vetting (whatever that is), even when we created a military group from scratch the weapons still would up in the wrong hands.
(Reuters) - Syrian rebels trained by the United States gave some of their equipment to the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front in exchange for safe passage, a U.S. military spokesman said on Friday, the latest blow to a troubled U.S. effort to train local partners to fight Islamic State militants.The rebels surrendered six pick-up trucks and some ammunition, or about one-quarter of their issued equipment, to a suspected Nusra intermediary on Sept. 21-22 in exchange for safe passage, said Colonel Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, in a statement.
Comments
Sounds good until you read the fine print.
I am sure that the MIC is handing out sizable checks to their bought and paid for Congress critters as I type this.
When you have too many toys
-
some are inevitably destined for the 'wrong' hands. Weapons of war is no exception.
Does the Pentagon care? Doubt it. They get congress to fund more!
No balance sheets required. Money in, bombs out. Everybody is happy.
question everything
When you make money from war.....
The U.S. is the biggest exporter of weapons in the world by far. That's BEFORE we factor in weapons being stolen, like the examples above. And before we factor in small arms and military grade weapons from our private sector that fuels the violence in places like Mexico and Honduras.
Heh,
stingers,tows, javelins, and nlaws
all gone missing
go ahead get on that domestic flight
aside from pilots
falling out midflight
hahahahahahaha. . .
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
Items….
.
Most of the money never left the country because it was transferred to defense companies to build new equipment which costs much more than the old equipment that was sent to Ukraine. Kirby said that a few days ago and he also said that the money goes to creating jobs for Americans. Between defense companies, contractors, 3rd party companies and contractors and gawd only knows who else is involved there is a lot of wasted money that is also investigated and again gawd only knows how much of it makes its way into congressional pockets.
Blinken is taking sides in the Bosnian/Serbia war and he has sold one side billions in weapons. Those dollars go to defense companies too. And of course just think of how many million dollar weapons will be needed to replace the ones we are sending into Yemen.
Ehh?
Well whose job is it to find out? Or will anyone look to see where they are turning up? ISIS is active again in Syria stirring up sh*t as well in Iran and possibly in Yemen…or who knows where else they are needed since they are on our payroll.
Lol….
Syrian rebels = DAESH or in other words ISIS. Or Al Qaeda which keeps being rebranded as our rebel terrorists…it’s all good.
OT, but remember that 3 letter named person who got caught running a Ponzi scheme and donated a lot of money to democrats? Well it’s been decided that he won’t stand trial for any of it. Guess he’s been punished enough and of course we wouldn’t want to find out which democrats were breaking the law. Kinda reminds me of Ray Epps who only got probation for his fed role at the capitol. He didn’t even have to appear in court, but just used the telephone.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
The time to end aid to Ukraine
was back in early 2022, before the collective West told Zelensky it was okay to escalate the war. Ukraine could have obtained a much better deal with Russia then than anything they'll get now. What's the total death toll for the Armed Forces of Ukraine now? 300,000? 400,000? 500,000?
“The loyal Left cannot act decisively. Their devotion to the system is a built-in kill switch limiting dissent.” - Richard Moser
Some might call this backlash.
https://www.postandcourier.com/aikenstandard/news/thousands-converge-in-...
I think that Genocide joe is vacationing at Camp David and likely wont be informed of the protests.
The Houthis thank you Mr. Biden
I did not of course bookmark the following article. But an investigate group contacted a Ukrainian weapons dealer about a sale to Yemen--all US weapons--go figure. The seller was for real. The group ordered bunches of American M4s, ammo,and I think some anti-tank missiles. The seller was making arrangements to Yemen in oil barrels meant for humanitarian purposes. I would speculate that nearly all the smaller items allies sent over like night vision, body armour, medical kits, manpads, etc pretty much have been stolen and sold off to anybody with the money.
But of course not just weapons. Woman was selling market up food items to Ukr military and made enough money to buy three luxury vacation hotels in Croatia.
I would guess Ukr mafia, shysters, and their allies, are just chomping at the proverbial bit to get their hands on Russian foreign assets held in the West. The Western luxury markets for cars, jewelry, yachts, etc will go off the charts once the Russian money is stolen. For suffering everyday folk in Ukr, well, too bad no infrastructure, widow benefits, etc.