WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — On Thursday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a new report — after a months-long probe ordered by Congress — the Pentagon could not prove $2 billion of Iraq Train-and-Equip Fund (ITEF) materials were delivered. The GAO ‘s findings contradicted an Amnesty International report, released on Wednesday, which claimed only $1 billion of equipment was improperly tracked.
"The armed forces have been plagued with equipment slippage. In some cases, it is just poor inventory management, in some cases, weapons systems have been written off as scrap and sold with kickbacks — big problem during the scale-down of the Vietnam War," International affairs analyst and historian Jeff Steinberg told Sputnik Thursday.
In some cases, systems are left behind to be used by host countries unofficially, or "off the books," Steinberg explained.
"It is not just one thing. Afghanistan was a nightmare in terms of equipment disappearing — in Iraq, billions of dollars in US $100 bills went ‘missing’ with some of the funds outright stolen, others going to bribes," he said.
Historian and Middle East analyst Helena Cobban told Sputnik the situation sounds like the abuses reported by special inspector generals for Iraq and Afghanistan.
Leonard Glenn Francis of Singapore, owner of contractor Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA), recently pleaded guilty to a series of federal charges. Francis provided thousands of dollars in cash, luxury items and prostitutes to many US uniformed officers who gave him classified material.
Earlier on Thursday, Pentagon spokesperson Eric Pahon told Sputnik the Defense Department denied Wednesday’s Amnesty International report claiming the US Army failed to maintain accurate records on over $1 billion in weapons transfers in Iraq and Kuwait.
