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Monday, June 1, 2015

PENTAGON "LOST" WEAPONS IN YEMEN

THEY'RE GONE, DISAPPEARED, MISSING... <POOF!>  AND WHERE DID THIS MASSIVE AMOUNT OF PENTAGON-DONATED WEAPONS, ETC, DISAPPEAR FROM? 

YEMEN! 
$500,000,000, HALF A BILLION BUCKS WORTH OF WEAPONS AND VEHICLES JUST FROM ONE WEE TINY NATION...YEMEN.
NOW, IN CASE YOU'VE FORGOTTEN, REMEMBER THAT THE DAY BEFORE 9/11 RUMSFELD TOLD US THE PENTAGON HAD "LOST" OVER $2 TRILLION.

AND THEN THEY LOST A FEW NUKES OUT OF MINOT, NORTH DAKOTA. 
The Mystery of Minot: Loose nukes and a cluster of dead airmen raise troubling questions

AND THEN THEY "LOST CONTACT" WITH 50 NUCLEAR MISSILES IN WYOMING IN 2010

OCTOBER, 2008, the Pentagon's inspector general reported that the military's accountants had misplaced a destroyer, several tanks and armored personnel carriers, hundreds of machine guns, rounds of ammo, grenade launchers and some surface-to-air missiles. In all, nearly $8 billion in weapons were AWOL.

IN 2013 REUTERS DID AN ARTICLE ON THE ABOVE AND MANY MORE INSTANCES OF THE PENTAGON "LOSING" THINGS.

Special Report: The Pentagon's doctored ledgers conceal epic waste

"Because of its persistent inability to tally its accounts, the Pentagon is the only federal agency that has not complied with a law that requires annual audits of all government departments. That means that the $8.5 trillion in taxpayer money doled out by Congress to the Pentagon since 1996, the first year it was supposed to be audited, has never been accounted for. That sum exceeds the value of China's economic output last year."

BUT THE FOLLOWING IS PERHAPS MOST DISTURBING?

60 years have passed since a damaged jet dropped a hydrogen bomb near Savanah, Ga. -- and the Pentagon still can't find it.

Moreover, a newly declassified 1966 congressional testimony of W.J. Howard, then assistant secretary of defense, describes the Tybee Island bomb as a "complete weapon, a bomb with a nuclear capsule." Howard said that the Tybee Island bomb was one of TWO weapons lost up to that time that contained a plutonium trigger.

YEAH, SO THE YEMEN MISSING WEAPONS IS A DROP IN THE BUCKET COMPARED TO PAST PENTAGON "LOSSES", AND IT WON'T BE THE LAST!


U.S. firearms supplied to the Interior Ministry in Yemen, which has received $500 million in aid from the United States since 2007 under an array of Defense Department and State Department programs. (Government Accountability Office)  

FROM THE WASHINGTON POST:  
March 17, 2015
"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. The situation has grown worse since the United States closed its embassy in Sanaa, the capital, last month and withdrew many of its military advisers.
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.
“We have to assume it’s completely compromised and gone,” said a legislative aide on Capitol Hill who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
U.S. military officials declined to comment for the record.
A defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon, said there was no hard evidence that U.S. arms or equipment had been looted or confiscated. But the official acknowledged that the Pentagon had lost track of the items.
“Even in the best-case scenario in an unstable country, we never have 100 percent accountability,” the defense official said.

As a result, the Defense Department has halted shipments to Yemen of about $125 million in military hardware that were scheduled for delivery this year, including unarmed ScanEagle drones, other types of aircraft and Jeeps. That equipment will be donated instead to other countries in the Middle East and Africa, the defense official said.  

[ OR...IS THIS FABRICATED BY THE PENTAGON BECAUSE SAUDI ARABIA GOT ITS PANTIES IN A WAD OVER THE U.S. WEAPONS FALLING INTO THE "WRONG" YEMENI HANDS?
YEMEN, WHOM THE SAUDIS HAVE BEEN BOMBING THE HELL OUT OF FOR MONTHS NOW, KILLING WOMEN AND 200 OR MORE CHILDREN? 

WHEN THE HOUSE OF SAUD WHINES AND COMPLAINS, IT'S JUST A HISTORICAL FACT THE U.S. BENDS OVER BACKWARD TO APPEASE THEM.
A KISS ON THE LIPS AND A HAND-HOLDING STROLL THROUGH THE ROSE GARDEN SUCH AS BUSH 2 OFTEN USED MIGHT DO THE TRICK.
MUST BE THAT OBAMA PUCKERED UP, TOO?]

Moreover, the U.S. government restricted its lethal aid to small firearms and ammunition, brushing aside Yemeni requests for fighter jets and tanks.

[HOLD ON! WE GAVE THEM HUMVEES AND OTHER MILITARY VEHICLES AS WELL AS A FEW HUEY HELICOPTERS! SAYS SO LATER IN THIS ARTICLE! THE POST SHOULD GET ITS STORY STRAIGHT!]


The Pentagon and CIA have provided additional assistance through classified programs, making it difficult to know exactly how much Yemen has received in total.
Just last year, President Obama touted Yemen as a successful example of his approach to combating terrorism.U.S. government officials say al-Qaeda’s branch in Yemen poses a more direct threat to the U.S. homeland than any other terrorist group. To counter it, the Obama administration has relied on a combination of proxy forces and drone strikes launched from bases outside the country.

[AL QAEDA IN YEMEN A THREAT TO US HERE?
REMEMBER THE ALLEGED "AL QAEDA" THREAT IN IRAQ?
IS THIS ANOTHER "WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, SHOCK AND AWE, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" MOMENT? CAN THE U.S. EVER COME UP WITH A DIFFERENT SONG AND DANCE WHEN THEY WANT TO GO BLOW UP OTHER COUNTRIES?] 


As part of that strategy, the U.S. military has concentrated on building an elite Yemeni special-operations force within the Republican Guard, training counterterrorism units in the Interior Ministry and upgrading Yemen’s rudimentary air force.

[ARE THOSE THE GUYS SAUDI ARABIA IS BOMBING INTO OBLIVION? ] 



In a 2013 report, the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that the primary unclassified counterterrorism program in Yemen lacked oversight and that the Pentagon had been unable to assess whether it was doing any good.
Among other problems, GAO auditors found that Humvees donated to the Yemeni Interior Ministry sat idle or broken because the Defense Ministry refused to share spare parts. The two ministries also squabbled over the use of Huey II helicopters supplied by Washington, according to the report.
A senior U.S. military official who has served extensively in Yemen said that local forces embraced their training and were proficient at using U.S. firearms and gear but that their commanders, for political reasons, were reluctant to order raids against al-Qaeda.
“They could fight with it and were fairly competent, but we couldn’t get them engaged” in combat, the military official said.
The stash included thousands of M-16 rifles, which are manufactured in the United States.
The list of pilfered equipment also included dozens of Humvees, Ford vehicles and Glock pistols, all of which have been supplied in the past to Yemen by the U.S. government. 

Although the U.S. Embassy in the capital closed last month, a handful of U.S. military advisers have remained in the southern part of the country at Yemeni bases controlled by commanders that are friendly to the United States."

WELL, THE POST DID ITS "REPORTING"...
AND ONLY TIME WILL TELL, MAYBE, WHAT REALLY HAPPENED. 

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