Stunning. Army cannot account for12,700 weapons and $560 milliongiven to Iraqi "security forces".

Yesterday, CBS News acquired the November 30th Inspector General

Report on Iraq, also known as the "Management of the Iraq Security

Forces Fund in Southwest Asia - Phase III.

Incredibly enough, cash isn't the only thing missing from Iraq. Turns

out those missing billions may have been driven away by fully armed

"Iraqi Security Forces" in dumptrucks and tractor-

trailers.....provided by the US Army. From Laura Strickler at CBS

News:

Auditors for the Inspector General reviewed equipment contracts

totaling $643 million but could only find an audit trail for $83

million.

The report details a massive failure in government procurement

revealing little accountability for the billions of dollars spent

purchasing military hardware for the Iraqi security forces. For

example, according to the report, the military could not account for

12,712 out of 13,508 weapons, including pistols, assault rifles,

rocket propelled grenade launchers and machine guns.

Simply stunning. The US military can account for less than 800 of

13,500 weapons they have supplied the "Iraqi security forces." I find

it very difficult to believe that there was any sort of accounting

system in place to track the dispersion of these weapons. Were the

Iraqi's able to just walk into the weapons depot and take whatever

they liked? Are they missing because these so-called "Iraqi Security

Forces" are now insurgents? If these weapons aren't being used to

secure Iraq, then isn't it safe to assume they are now being used

against our forces?

The CBS pieces goes on to note:

The report comes on the same day that Army procurement officials will

face tough questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee

regarding their procurement policies. One official, Claude Bolton,

assistant secretary for acquisition, logistics and technology has

already announced his resignation on the heels of sharp criticism of

army contracting. Bolton's resignation is effective Jan. 2, 2008. The

Army has significantly expanded its fraud investigations in recent

months.

The criticism has been going on for years and Claude Bolton has been

serving in that position since 2002, so he's hardly been rushed out

the door. I can only speculate that the fraud investigation alluded

to above is playing a larger role in his departure, but that remains

to be seen.

Who is Claude Bolton, Jr. and how did this turn into such a

disaster? Because that's what happens when you task Donald Rumsfeld

with picking appointees:

A retired Air Force major general, Bolton was an interesting pick for

the Army acquisition job. Stan Soloway, president of the Professional

Services Council, says it's "very unusual" for a service member to

retire from one branch of the military and then enter another as a

senior political civilian. Bolton is one example of Defense Secretary

Donald Rumsfeld's "effort to create a much more harmonized acquisition

corps across the services," says Soloway, who was deputy

undersecretary for acquisition reform at the Pentagon during the

Clinton administration and has worked with Bolton.

Before retiring in 2001 from the Air Force, Bolton was commander of

the Air Force Security Assistance Center at Headquarters Air Force

Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. He

managed multibillion-dollar foreign military sales in that job and was

heavily involved in acquisition reforms during the 1990s.

So long Claude. I'm sure that like many of the Bush and Rumsfeld

cronies before you, you'll end up at KBR or some other corrupt

extension of the DoD, where you'll continue being incompetent and

ineffective in countless other ways at our expense. But, for now?

Don't let the door hit you in the ass.