Border Vulnerable Few U.S. Troops Available To Protect Us (tags)
Gen. Richard A. Cody, the Army's vice chief of staff told Congress that the "Readiness of the army Is Dangerously Low." In a stark assessment a week before Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, was to testify on the war's progress, the Army's vice chief of staff, said that the heavy deployments are inflicting "incredible stress" on soldiers and families and that they pose "a significant risk" to the nation's all-volunteer military.
More Lost Weapons in Iraq (tags)
By all accounts, the businessman, Kassim al-Saffar, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war, did well at distributing the Pentagon-supplied weapons from the Baghdad Police Academy armory he managed for a military contractor. But, co-workers say, he also turned the armory into his own private arms bazaar with the seeming approval of some American officials and executives, selling AK-47 assault rifles, Glock pistols and heavy machine guns to anyone with cash in hand — Iraqi militias, South African security guards and even American contractors. “This was the craziest thing in the world,” said John Tisdale, a retired Air Force master sergeant who managed an adjacent warehouse. “They were taking weapons away by the truckload.”
Are Lost U.S. Weapons In Enemy Hands? (tags)
"And before we get carried away with what a great manager he is, let’s remember Petraeus’ last job. According to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office, the Pentagon has lost track of 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005. That represents 30 percent of all weapons distributed as part of our effort to train and equip Iraqi forces. The man in charge of security training at the time was Gen. David H. Petraeus." www.billpress.com/columns/090607.html CBS News has learned that the CIA has photographic evidence that Austrian-made Glocks intended for Iraqi security forces and paid for by U.S. taxpayers are now in the hands of Iraqi insurgents -- in numbers that the intelligence community believes are in the thousands.