The Pentagon is bolstering a badly understaffed office in Baghdad to speed the flow of combat gear to Iraqi forces and help keep the weapons from insurgents and off the black market.
The increase in staff from six to nearly 70 includes a two-star general who arrived in Iraq two weeks ago to manage the expanding team. Army Reserve Major General George Smith replaces a colonel, evidence of the greater clout for the office handling billions of dollars in arms sales.
The new push is intended to untie the bureaucratic knots blocking aircraft, armored vehicles, radios and guns from getting to Iraqi police and the military units that are taking more control over the country's security. Over the summer, Iraqi officials complained bitterly that the delays were forcing their troops to fight with inferior equipment.
As demands for more and better gear have escalated, so too have concerns over who is winding up with the supplies. Corruption within Iraq's government has been well documented and tens of thousands of US-supplied weapons have gone missing; terrorist groups allegedly have used some of the firepower.
In one case, Turkish officials complained to US authorities that guns the Turks seized from a Kurdish militant group had markings matching those on weapons intended for Iraqi forces.
The Pentagon's internal watchdog, Claude Kicklighter, led an investigation to determine how pervasive the problem is and what should be done to tighten control over arms, ammunition and explosives. Kicklighter's findings, already presented to US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, are classified.
While the Iraqis will continue to receive weapons from a variety of sources, the goal is to emphasize the more regimented and transparent foreign military sales system that the US uses with other allies, Smith said.
"Over the long haul, as security develops here in Iraq, they're going to be able to develop their economic power," said Smith, who met with Kicklighter before leaving for Iraq. "I don't know that we can afford to be supporting over a terribly long period everything that a nation needs to provide for its own national defense. So it's entirely appropriate that they go in a direction of purchasing their own equipment."
But there are risks in pushing more weapons into a country with a government striving for stability.
"For countries that are struggling with corruption, with internal violence, with threat of diversion or theft, is it the best policy to be funneling as many weapons to that country as possible?" said Rachel Stohl, a senior analyst at the Center for Defense Information in Washington.
"Or are there other things the United States could be doing first to strengthen democracy rather than just fueling the cycle?" she asked.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
SKEPTICAL: Given the challenges, which include waste disposal and potential domestic opposition, experts warn that the 2032 nuclear timeline is overambitious Indonesia is hoping going nuclear can help it meet soaring energy demand while taming emissions, but faces serious challenges to its goal of a first small modular reactor by 2032. Its first experiment with nuclear energy dates to February 1965, when then-Indonesian president Sukarno inaugurated a test reactor. Sixty years later, Southeast Asia’s largest economy has three research reactors, but no nuclear power plants for electricity. Abundant reserves of polluting coal have so far met the enormous archipelago’s energy needs, but “nuclear will be necessary to constrain the rise of and eventually reduce emissions,” said Philip Andrews-Speed, a senior research fellow at the
RSS