Friday, Mar 29, 2024 | Last Update : 06:32 AM IST

  US arms falling into wrong hands

US arms falling into wrong hands

AGE CORRESPONDENT
Published : Aug 30, 2016, 12:37 am IST
Updated : Aug 30, 2016, 12:37 am IST

After a single day of fighting on June 29, ISIS fighters showed off US manufactured M-16 rifles, crates of ammunition, mortars, a Toyota truck — all captured from American forces.

After a single day of fighting on June 29, ISIS fighters showed off US manufactured M-16 rifles, crates of ammunition, mortars, a Toyota truck — all captured from American forces. Now it seems instances like those are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

A meticulous one-year long study by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) of contracts on guns and ammunition issued by the US Department of Defe-nce (DoD) between Septe-mber 11, 2001 and Sept-ember 10, 2015 — has come with startling conclusions on US arms falling into wrong hands.

The total value of the contracts added up to worth over $40 billion during the 14 year long period. AOAV is a London-based NGO that carries out research and advocacy in order to reduce the incidence and impact of global armed violence.

AOAV’s recently-rele-ased report says that the Pentagon has “somehow misplaced hundreds of thousands” out of 1,452,910 guns that were shipped to Iraq and Afghanistan since the start of the ‘war on terror’.” Among them is a staggering finding that Pentagon doesn’t have any idea about where 14,33,308 weapons — including 2,85,981 AK47s — ranging from assault rifles, pistols, machine guns, shotguns, sniper rifles as well as many unspecified rifles and non-standard small arms ended up in after being sent to war-ravaged Iraq and Afghanistan in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks when war on terror was declared. This huge quantity of deadly arsenal — 949,582 for Iraq, 503,328 for Afghanistan — is more than enough to equip every single Indian soldier of its 13 lakh strong Army with a weapon. The data was readily available for anal-ysis as these contracts are announced week-daily on the DOD contract website and then archived. The findings are reflective of a huge discrepancy in gun numbers as well as of the Pentagon keeping poor records. In one instance, the AOAV recorded 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles in 2007, none of which were accounted for by the DoD. Iain Overton, AOAV’s Director of Investig-ations, said of the findings: “We know by looking at other US government records, that at least 1,452,910 small arms have been sent to Iraq and Afghanistan in the last 14 years.

The DoD contract database appears to list as little as 3 per cent of these. We also know the US government has acknowledged they don’t know where many of these weapons now are.”

Location: India, Delhi, New Delhi