Thursday, March 19, 2015

Pentagon says they may have lost 500 million in military weapons to Al-Qaeda

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/19/1371828/-The-Pentagon-Admits-It-May-Have-Lost-500-Million-in-U-S-Weaponry-To-Al-Qaeda?detail=facebook_sf#

Ever wonder where your where your tax money goes?:
The Pentagon is unable to account for more than $500 million in U.S. military aid given to Yemen, amid fears that the weaponry, aircraft and equipment is at risk of being seized by Iranian-backed rebels or al-Qaeda, according to U.S. officials. With Yemen in turmoil and its government splintering, the Defense Department has lost its ability to monitor the whereabouts of small arms, ammunition, night-vision goggles, patrol boats, vehicles and other supplies donated by the United States....[.]
In recent weeks, members of Congress have held closed-door meetings with U.S. military officials to press for an accounting of the arms and equipment. Pentagon officials have said that they have little information to go on and that there is little they can do at this point to prevent the weapons and gear from falling into the wrong hands.

The tragicomedy of the apparent loss of these weapons has shined a light on our counterterrorism policy in now-collapsing Yemen, a subject few in our media care about, judging from the lack of coverage compared to, for example, burning questions about Hillary Clinton's email server.  Our supposedly representative Congress held "closed-door" meetings with DOD officials last week, asking the Pentagon to account for all of this hardware. The Pentagon brass essentially shrugged its shoulders:

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