WASHINGTON - The United States military command in Iraq continues to talk about an alleged pipeline of Iranian weapons to Iraqi Shi'ites opposing the US occupation, implying that they have become dependent on Iran for indirect-fire weapons and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs).

But US officials have failed thus far to provide evidence that would support that claim, and a long-delayed US military report on Iranian arms is unlikely to offer any data on what proportion of the weapons in the hands of Shi'ite fighters are from Iran and what proportion comes from purchases on the open market.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JE24Ak02.html

Do I remember correctly that there were thousands of assault rifles that we could not account for that we shipped to Iraq?

This "Iranian" arms thing is nothing more than the Bush administration once again deflecting the real issue.

Bah, those assault rifles were just overstock for fulfilling a contract. They were safe in a container, waiting for paperwork to clear.

The american rifles to worry about were the ones that WERE accounted for, as the forces that were trained and armed with them seemed to have gone missing...or worse, borrowed at night and returned to the police station the next day.

The only "open market" for arms available is from Iran. It's not like we allow our arms suppliers to supply militias without consent.

Whenever you dive into these things, you find that the original story is completely wrong, and while the actual facts are worse, they tend to have been the least bad option.

Bah, those assault rifles were just overstock for fulfilling a contract. They were safe in a container, waiting for paperwork to clear.

The american rifles to worry about were the ones that WERE accounted for, as the forces that were trained and armed with them seemed to have gone missing...or worse, borrowed at night and returned to the police station the next day.

The only "open market" for arms available is from Iran. It's not like we allow our arms suppliers to supply militias without consent.

Whenever you dive into these things, you find that the original story is completely wrong, and while the actual facts are worse, they tend to have been the least bad option.



Bullshit!

Heh. Ok. I had the opportunity to meet an actual "international arms dealer" who lived in the trailer next to me while he was in the area.

When you supply an arms contract, you expect a certain percentage of the guns you send to not meet specifications. Settling, shipping damage, shrinkage (even retailers know this euphmism for theft), etc. So you have this contract to supply, say 1 million assault rifles. You send 1.2 million assault rifles, expecting a 16 percent failure rate.

Now, two things happen. First, you get a good batch, only an 10 percent failure rate, but you only get paid for the million guns. Second, of the failed guns, some can be easily refurbished into functionality. Now you are stuck with 100,000 extra functional assault rifles delivered in country. You can't sell them to just anyone, and worse, your supplier, to meet the deadline you set for him, cut corners in his paperwork leaving you without proper point of origin reciepts. You can't ship them. You can't sell them all. The only legitimate people you can offload these things to are the local defense contractors looking for guns, who, as the sharks they are, have researched your situation and are offering you pennies on the dollar, and they don't want enough of your guns to matter anyway.

In the meantime, you have to keep the local MP's out of your containers because of your paperwork problem until you can get it resolved, or they'll confiscate 'em and charge you with arming the bad guys. The point here, is that while arms dealers and local defense contractors are corrupt as all hell when it comes to making a buck, there is a line that doesn't get crossed, and that line is helping the other side.

"Proof" is a bit of a high hurtle to pass in a war environment, and usually comes about 6-12 months after the information is actually usefully actionable. Taking action on 70% accurate info is par for the course, any less and you are striking blind, any more and you are too late to do anything about it.

Bullshit

Bullshit

QFFE

I hate to sound so out of it but what does QFFE mean? Does it have anything to do with "fletch" ?

quoted for effing enphasis

yupper

Is that a good thing or bad thing?